Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds

 

Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds

 

A majority of American voters now oppose sending additional economic and military aid to Israel, a stunning reversal in public opinion since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

 

By Lisa Lerer and Ruth Igielnik

Sept. 29, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/polls/israel-gaza-war-us-poll.html

 

Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, American support for Israel has undergone a seismic reversal, with large shares of voters expressing starkly negative views about the Israeli government’s management of the conflict, a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University found.

 

Disapproval of the war appears to have prompted a striking reassessment by American voters of their broader sympathies in the decades-old conflict in the region, with slightly more voters siding with Palestinians over Israelis for the first time since The Times began asking voters about their sympathies in 1998.

 

In the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, American voters broadly sympathized with Israelis over Palestinians, with 47 percent siding with Israel and 20 percent with Palestinians. In the new poll, 34 percent said they sided with Israel and 35 percent with Palestinians. Thirty-one percent said they were unsure or backed both equally.

 

A majority of American voters now oppose sending additional economic and military aid to Israel, a stunning reversal in public opinion since the Oct. 7 attacks. About six out of 10 voters said that Israel should end its military campaign, even if the remaining Israeli hostages were not released or Hamas was not eliminated. And 40 percent of voters said Israel was intentionally killing civilians in Gaza, nearly double the number of voters who agreed with that statement in the 2023 poll.

 

Taken together, the findings in the Times/Siena survey show a major deterioration in support for a staunch American ally that has enjoyed decades of bipartisan backing. The drop is an unusually large shift in public opinion in this hyper-polarized era, when public opinion has tended to move incrementally over long periods unless affected by cataclysmic events such as war.

 

Austin Mugleston, a Democrat from Blackfoot, Idaho, said his views on U.S. support for Israel had weakened as the conflict dragged on.

 

“I actually was pretty pro-Israel the last few years, especially hearing about the devastating terrorist night of Oct. 7,” said Mr. Mugleston, 33, who works in communications. “Nobody should go through that. But for how long it’s taking and from how much worse Israel is doing to Palestinians, it just doesn’t feel like a level playing field anymore.”

 

The survey also hints at challenges for the U.S.-Israel alliance in the future. Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding in 1948, receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in support.

 

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Younger voters, regardless of party, were less likely to back continuing that support. Nearly seven in 10 voters under 30 said they opposed additional economic or military aid.

 

Much of the shift in views on Israel has been driven by a sharp decline in support by Democratic voters. Republicans largely continue to support Israel, though there has been a modest decline.

 

Nearly two years ago, Democrats were evenly divided, with 34 percent sympathizing with Israel and 31 percent with Palestinians. Now, rank-and-file Democrats across the country overwhelmingly side with Palestinians — 54 percent said they sympathized more with Palestinians, while only 13 percent expressed greater empathy for Israel.

 

More than eight in 10 Democrats said Israel should stop the war even if the country had not achieved its goals, a notable increase from the roughly 60 percent who said the same two years ago.

 

Nearly six in 10 Democrats believe Israel is intentionally killing civilians, double the share who said the same in 2023.

 

Shannon Carey, 39, a Democrat from a suburb of Hartford, Conn., said the Israeli government’s response to the initial Oct. 7 attacks had become “unreasonable.” She said she would like the United States to stop supplying Israel with military and financial support because it was funding a “humanitarian crisis.”

 

“As a mother, seeing those children is horrifying,” Ms. Carey, a physician assistant, said. “This isn’t a war. It’s a genocide.”

 

The biggest movement within the Democratic Party has come from an unexpected place: White, college-educated, older Democrats who have become the backbone of the party in recent elections. Younger Democrats and Democrats without a college education were already much more sympathetic to Palestinians when the conflict began nearly two years ago.

 

In 2023, Democratic voters ages 45 and up sympathized with Israel over Palestinians 2-to-1. That is now reversed, with 42 percent saying they sympathize more with Palestinians, compared with 17 percent who feel more sympathetic toward Israel.

 

Patti West, 67, a retiree from Central Florida, said she had long considered herself a strong supporter of U.S. involvement in the region. She struggled with the idea of stopping aid, but came to believe it wasn’t helping end the conflict.

 

“Why do we keep funding this?” Ms. West, a Democrat, said. “This has been going since I was kid, and it’s still going on.” She added, “They are going to hate each other forever.”

 

Diminished backing for Israel among white Democrats was also more pronounced than shifts among nonwhite Democrats. Nonwhite Democrats were already more sympathetic to Palestinians when the conflict began.

 

Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. faced fierce criticism of his support for Israel during his term, including disruptive protests that continued even as he increasingly took a harder stance with Israel’s government.

 

Republican voters, by contrast, largely back President Trump.

 

As multiple Western countries have moved to recognize a Palestinian state, Mr. Trump has placed little separation between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Seven in 10 Republicans said they supported providing additional aid to Israel. A majority of Republicans said Israel should continue the military campaign until all hostages were released, even if it meant civilian casualties. And 47 percent said that the Israeli military was taking enough precautions to prevent civilian deaths.

 

“The Israelis can pretty much fend for themselves and take care of it, but we have to make sure no one comes up on them,” said Edward Johnson, 51, a self-described conservative from Minneapolis who voted for Mr. Trump.

 

Yet even Republican support has fallen, albeit by significantly less.

 

Republicans still sympathize with Israel more than Palestinians, 64 percent to 9 percent. But those numbers indicate a drop in support of 12 percentage points since 2023, when 76 percent sided with Israel.

 

About a third of Republicans said Israel’s military was not taking enough action to prevent civilian deaths.

 

Mason Northrup, 29, a Trump supporter from St. Louis, said he supported the Israeli military but would like to see the president decrease American involvement in the conflict.

 

“He needs to back off a little bit because the Israelis are capable of pulling off some pretty crazy stuff,” Mr. Northrup said of Mr. Trump. “We should let them fight their own war.”

 

 

This poll was conducted in English and Spanish, by telephone using live interviewers and by text message. Overall, 99 percent of respondents were contacted on their cellphone. You can see the exact questions that were asked and the order in which they were asked here.

 

Voters are selected for the survey from a list of registered voters. The list contains information on the demographic characteristics of every registered voter, allowing us to make sure we reach the right number of voters of each party, race and region. For this poll, interviewers placed more than 152,000 calls or texts to more than 56,000 voters.

 

To further ensure that the results reflect the entire voting population, not just those willing to take a poll, we give more weight to respondents from demographic groups that are underrepresented among survey respondents, like people without a college degree. You can see more information about the characteristics of respondents and the weighted sample at the bottom of the results and methodology page, under “Composition of the Sample.”

 

The margin of sampling error among the electorate that is likely to vote in November is about plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. In theory, this means that the results should reflect the views of the overall population most of the time, though many other challenges create additional sources of error.

 

You can see full results and a detailed methodology here. If you want to read more about how and why the Times/Siena Poll is conducted, you can see answers to frequently asked questions and submit your own questions here.

 

Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.

 

Ruth Igielnik is a Times polling editor who conducts polls and analyzes and reports on the results.