A majority of Americans back Israel’s war on Hamas, according to a Wall Street Journal poll conducted earlier this month.
Fifty-five percent of 1,500 respondents said that Israel was taking necessary military action against Hamas, while 25 percent said the Jewish state’s response “is disproportionate and going too far” in response to the terror group’s Oct. 7 attacks, the poll found. The margin of error was 2.5 percent.
A plurality of respondents, 42 percent, reported sympathizing more with the Israeli people than the Palestinian people, while 33 percent sympathized equally with both groups, and 12 percent sympathized more with Palestinians.
Republicans were far more likely to sympathize more with the Israeli people than Democrats were.
Sixty-nine percent of Republicans said they sympathized more with the Israeli people, with only 2 percent sympathizing more with the Palestinians. Democrats were the least likely to sympathize more with the Israeli people, with just 17 percent sympathizing more with the Israelis and 24 percent sympathizing more with the Palestinians. Forty-eight percent of Democrats said they sympathized with both equally.
Although Americans generally reported that they support the war, they did not show support for the way in which President Joe Biden has handled it. Thirty-seven percent of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of the war, and 52 percent disapproved. As for Biden’s overall approval rating, 37 percent of respondents approved, while 61 percent disapproved, the worst marks he has scored in a Journal poll.
That poll’s findings are similar to those of a Gallup poll released late last month, in which 50 percent of respondents approved of Israel’s military action in Gaza, while 45 percent disapproved. Biden’s approval rating for his handling of the war sat at 32 percent in that poll, while his overall approval hit 37 percent.
A Pew Research poll published last week found that 27 percent of respondents thought Israel’s response was going too far, while 25 percent said it was taking the right approach, and 16 percent said it did not go far enough. Thirty-two percent were unsure. Thirty-five percent of that poll’s respondents approved of the Biden administration’s handling of the war, while 41 percent disapproved.
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