Americans for the first time sympathise more with the Palestinians than the Israelis in their conflict, according to a Gallup poll released on Feb 27, after the devastating Gaza war.
Views on the Middle East divide sharply along partisan lines, with the shift over the past year the result of more independents souring on Israel.
Overall, 41 per cent of Americans sympathise more with the Palestinians and 36 per cent sided with Israel, the poll said, with the rest undecided or saying they favoured both or neither.
The gap is not statistically significant, but it marks the first time since Gallup asked the question more than two decades ago that Israel was not on top.
It also marks a sharp difference from just a year ago, when Israel led in sympathies 46 per cent to 33 per cent.
When asked about their sympathies, independents sided with the Palestinian people by 11 percentage points.
Members of US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party continued to back Israel strongly, with 70 per cent siding with Israel, although that figure has declined by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
The Democrats’ views of Israel have grown increasingly negative since a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly broke with then US president Barack Obama on his diplomacy with Iran.
Israel has since moved sharply to the right. Some Democratic voters faulted former president Joe Biden for not doing more to rein in Israel in its devastating offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
In the latest poll, 65 per cent of the Democrats sympathised with the Palestinians and 17 per cent with Israel.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 US adults by telephone from Feb 2 to 16.
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