YouGov USA
July 21-23, 2024
4 Key Takeaways
2-Minute Video Summary
Sympathies for Israel hold steady for the third month in a row, but sympathy for Palestinians still growing incrementally. 33% of Americans sympathize with Israel, same as last month, while 19% (compared to last month’s 16%) now sympathize more with the Palestinians. 24% sympathize with both (last month it was 26%) and a quarter of Americans – like last month – are unsure who they sympathize with.
From a birds-eye view, looking across all demographics in America, we see more sympathy for Israelis than for Palestinians still. It is, however, only a matter of time before that changes, as clearly we’re seeing the millennials and Gen Z feeling very differently about the Middle East than their parents and grandparents. Young Americans are twice or three times more favorable to the Palestinians than they are to the Israelis. In June, 29% of 18-24 year olds were more sympathetic to the Palestinians, with just 13% being more sympathetic to Israelis. A month later, sympathy for Israel amongst this demographic is down to 10%, whereas sympathy for the Palestinians is up to a whopping 37% in just one month. This is a bit sporadic and requires patience to see in August what the survey says to understand whether this is a trend or not. By contrast to the young demographic, sympathy for the Israelis is growing amongst the 45+ demographic.
Americans’ desire to send more military aid to Israel is decreasing, with 33% in June favoring decreasing military aid to Israel compared to 38% in July. In June, only 18% favored increasing the aid which held steady in July (19%). But the 25% who favored maintaining the same amount in June dropped to 21% by July.
Americans are split fairly equally between favoring increasing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, decreasing it, maintaining the same amount, and not sure about where they stand on it. In June these numbers were almost exactly one quarter each, in July there’s a slight increase to 27% of favoring to increase aid, and a slight decrease to 22% of favoring maintaining the same amount. No serious shift there overall.