YouGov/Economist Poll
January 14-16, 2024
The Details
Regarding sympathies towards Israelis or the Palestinians, we see in this poll a very small increase in support for the Palestinians – up from 12% in the last YouGov Poll to 14% in this one, with support for Israel down just 1% from the previous poll in December, to 37% in this poll.
Those who said they support both sides were down 1% to 26% in this poll, and those who said they weren’t sure, were up 2% to 24%.
In other words, all within the margin of error and not indicating any major shift in perceptions in this regard amongst Americans towards either side of the Israel-Hamas War.
Amongst Gen Z, of course, the numbers remain concerning for Israel, with only 23% supportive of Israel compared to 23% supportive of the Palestinians. Those who said they support both equally or were not sure were pretty similar amongst 18-29 year olds as the rest of the American public.
We note that attention should be paid to millennials as well, who do not appear to be particularly supportive of Israel either – with 23% more supportive of Israel, 17% more supportive of the Palestinians, 25% supportive of both equally, and 35% responding that they are unsure.
On the topic of the importance of helping Israel, a full 60% of Americans consider it is very and somewhat important for America to help Israel, while 18% think it’s not too important or not important at all, and 21% are unsure about what they think in this regard.
Another question posed to the respondents was whether they favor more, less or the same military support to be given to Israel by America. 20% of Americans favor increasing military aid from America to Israel, 26% are in favor of decreasing it, 34% feel the aid should remain about the same, and 21% aren’t sure.
Conversely, when asked about whether they favor increasing, decreasing or maintaining the same amount of humanitarian support from America to the Palestinians, 25% said it should be increased, 25% said it should be decreased, 25% said it should remain about the same, and 24% said they weren’t sure.
Key Takeaways
The general trend of sympathies amongst Americans for Israel and the Palestinians remains pretty much the same, which is a promising result considering the war is still not over, and the media is filled with dreadful imagery of the situation in Gaza. Social media as we know is very much skewed against Israel, and so the fact that overall sympathy for Israel is holding should satisfy the pro-Israel camp.
Gen Z remain a cause of concern, but we should not neglect Millennials either. They, too, are exhibiting a lack of clarity of who’s right and who’s wrong in this war, and since they are older and more likely to vote, we should pay special attention to them and ensure we do not continue to lose their support. This translates to proactive targeted messaging to this age group on the platforms they consume the most – Facebook, LinkedIn, traditional media.
Despite the rhetoric, it appears that most Americans are comfortable with the American aid afforded to Israel. While we don’t believe these results are comparable to the results of the question relating to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians (because military aid is by definition harder to support than humanitarian aid), it is perhaps somewhat surprising that as many Americans who feel the aid should be increased, feel it should be decreased, and the same amount think the aid provided is about right, as those who don’t know.
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