Americans sour on both Israel and Palestinian Authority in poll

WASHINGTON — Americans across the political spectrum have less favorable opinions of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority after the onset of the Israeli-Hamas war last year, a Gallup survey found.

Overall, 58 percent of Americans have a positive view of Israel, down 10 percentage points since last year and the lowest favorable rating in more than two decades. Views of the Palestinian Authority declined 8 points to 18 percent, the lowest in nearly a decade.

Still, U.S. sympathies in the Middle East are largely unchanged, with Americans largely taking the side of Israel by a ratio of almost 2-to-1.

At least one demographic bucks that trend. For the first time, Americans under 35 were more likely to say they sympathized with Palestinian Arabs rather than Israelis.

That shift follows the outbreak of war last October, when Hamas — designated a terrorist group by U.S. and European Union — launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel has retaliated with a five-month air and ground war in Gaza, with a one-week truce in November for a hostage-for-prisoner exchange.

The war has reverberated across western politics, fracturing key constituencies — including young voters and Muslims — in center-left parties.

It’s been a particular problem for President Joe Biden, as 13 percent of Democrats in the crucial swing state of Michigan — home to a significant number of Arab-American voters — registered a protest vote for “uncommitted” in a primary election last week. Biden is also facing increasing pressure from within his party to broker a cease-fire in the war.

The poll showed 53 percent of Americans support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, though Republicans were more likely to oppose it.

The Gallup poll of 1,016 U.S. adults was conducted Feb. 1-20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.