CNN poll: Americans are strongly sympathetic to the Israelis and believe their military response to Hamas attacks is justified

CNN
—

The American public expresses deep sympathy for the Israeli people and sees it widely The Israeli government’s military response to Hamas attacks As justified, according to A new CNN poll conducted by SSRSAnd two-thirds are at least somewhat concerned that fighting between Israel and Hamas could lead to terrorism in the United States. The poll also reveals divisions by party and age in how Americans view the conflict and the U.S. response to it.

The public is mixed about how much to trust him President Joe Biden to make the right decisions about the fight between Israel and Hamas (47% have at least a moderate amount of confidence), but they express slightly more confidence in Biden than they did at the beginning War in Ukraine (42%).

Half of Americans (50%) say the Israeli government’s military response to… Hamas attacks It is fully justified, 20% say it is partly justified, only 8% say it is not justified at all, and 21% are not sure. Republicans are much more likely than independents or Democrats to say the response is completely justified (68% of Republicans say so compared to 45% of independents and 38% of Democrats), and older Americans are also much more likely than younger people to say it is. Completely justified (81% of people aged 65 or older see the response as completely justified, compared to 56% of people aged 50 to 64, 44% of people aged 35 to 49, and 27% Of people aged 18 – 34 years. However, majorities across ages and both parties say the Israeli response is at least partially justified, with very few Americans of any age or party affiliation saying the response is not justified at all.

71% of Americans say they feel a great deal of sympathy for the Israeli people because of the attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, with almost all of them, 96%, expressing at least some sympathy for them. A broad majority also feels at least some sympathy for the Palestinian people (87%), but a smaller number feels a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians (41%). Nearly all Americans (84%) express at least some sympathy for the Israeli and Palestinian people in the face of ongoing fighting.

But here, too, there are divisions by age and party, with younger Americans and Democrats tending to express more sympathy for the Palestinian people than Republicans and older Americans. Majorities across party lines express a lot of sympathy for the Israeli people (78% of Republicans, 68% of independents and 67% of Democrats), but there is a wide gap between the share of Democrats (49%) and independents (47%). ) who have a lot of sympathy for the Palestinian people and the percentage of Republicans who say the same thing (26%).

The divide by age appears to be even wider: among those 65 or older, 87% have a lot of sympathy for the Israeli people, while 36% feel the same about the Palestinians. Among those under the age of 35, 61% say that they have a lot of sympathy for the Israeli people, and almost the same percentage, 54%, say the same about the Palestinian people.

A few Americans expressed a great deal of confidence in Biden to make the right decisions about the situation in Israel (16%), with about 3 in 10 saying they had moderate confidence in him (31%), 26% saying they had little confidence and 28% They said they trusted him moderately (31%). % nothing at all. There are wide partisan gaps, with 80% of Democrats saying they have a great deal or moderate confidence in Biden, compared with 46% of independents and just 13% of Republicans. The overall partisan divide is similar to the levels of confidence placed in Biden to handle the war in Ukraine at its beginning, but independents appear to be somewhat more likely to express confidence in Biden now than they were at the start of the war in Ukraine (46% have at least a moderate amount of confidence In Biden, 37% said the same in February 2022 regarding Ukraine).

About a third of all U.S. adults, 35%, say the United States is providing the right amount of aid to Israel in response to the situation there, with 15% saying the United States is providing too much assistance, 14% too little and another 36% saying. Unsure whether the level of assistance is appropriate. Among those who say they follow news of the conflict closely, 51% say US aid is true, 21% say it is too little, 7% too much, and 21% are not sure.

Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they are at least somewhat concerned that fighting between Israel and Hamas will lead to terrorism in the United States. Older Americans (75% of those 65 or older), women (72%) and Republicans (76%) appear to be most concerned about the potential for terrorism in the United States.

About 7 in 10 Americans, or 71%, say they follow news about the fighting between Israel and Hamas at least somewhat closely, including 26% who follow it closely.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from October 12 to 13 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults who were surveyed by text message after being recruited using probability-based methods. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. It is larger for subgroups.