YouGov USA
August 17-20, 2024
6 Key Takeaways
3-Minute Video Summary
Overall, 71% of Americans believe Hamas is a threat to America (ranging between an immediate and serious threat and a minor threat), and 60% feel that way about Hezbollah. But if you ask Americans Gen Z’ers (up to age 24) only 50% think of Hamas and 39% think of Hezbollah as a threat to America.
35% of Americans sympathize more with the Israelis compared to 17% who sympathize more with the Palestinians, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s a 2% incresae in sympathy for Israelis and an identical decrease in sympathy for the Palestinians from last month’s survey. 25% sympathize with both equally, and 23% are unsure who they have more sympathy for. With American Gen Z’ers, 14% (+4% from last month) sympathize more with the Israelis, 33% (-4% from last month) sympathize more with the Palestinians, and 24% sympathize with both about equally. This data continues to show a rather erratic response of youngsters, who seem to be shifting their sympathies inconsistently, if one compares from month to month.
More Americans want to decrease military aid to Israel than to increase it (35% vs. 20%), while 25% would keep it at the current level. This is not very dissimilar to what we saw last month, and seems to indicate that while Americans tend to have more sympathy for the Israelis in the conflict overall, they appear to ultimately want to see an end to the war already (even if that means the Israelis will continue to be threatened by its neigboring regimes).
More Americans think the Israeli government’s response to the attaack by Hamas has been too harsh (32%) than not harsh enough (17%). 22% think the response has been about right, and 29% are unsure. Not surprisingly, almost half (46%) of the Gen Z’ers think the response has been too harsh, only 6% think it hasn’t been harsh enough, 14% think it’s been about right and a third of them (34%) are unsure where they stand on this question.
Just over a third of Americans (35%) believe Israel violated international laws in Gaza, 28% don’t think they did, and 37% are unsure. Gen Z’ers are far less trusting of Israel’s conformity with international laws: half of them believe Israel violated international laws in Gaza, only 11% think it hasn’t and 40% are unsure.
If Iran attacks Israel, 33% of Americans think the U.S. military should get involved, whereas 39% think it shouldn’t, and 28% are unsure. Amongst Gen Z’ers, 27% think the U.S. military should get involved, 40% think it shouldn’t, and 33% aren’t sure.