While the Trump administration earnestly redistributes billions of dollars of American wealth to Israel, that country's immensely-destructive war in Gaza appears to be taking a growing toll on its support among Americans. According to the latest Pew Research survey, a majority of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Israel. In a finding that will cause the greatest alarm in Israeli government offices and at US-based pro-Israel organizations, there's now a huge generational divide within the GOP ranks.
53% of Americans now have an unfavorable view of Israel, thanks to the share of Americans with dim views of Israel surging by 11 points in three years. The comparison point is Pew's survey in March 2022, seven months before the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel sparked a massive military response that's killed more than 50,000 Palestinians -- about a third of them under 18 -- according to health officials in Gaza. Over the same span, the proportion of Americans with "very unfavorable" views of Israel has almost doubled from 10% to 19%.
Extending back several years, support for Israel had started to sharply polarize along major-party lines, with Democrats' affinity for Israel plummeting while GOP support held relatively steady. In the Pew survey's most striking statistic of all, disdain for the State of Israel among Republicans under age 50 has soared 15 points in three years, which could signal that support for Israel is poised for a bipartisan decline for years to come. Among Republicans and Republican leaners age 50 and older, unfavorable views of Israel crept up just four points since 2022, from 19% to 23%. Among the under-50 GOP set, it rose from 35% to 50%.
Democrats' low views of Israel also surged higher over the three-year interval: 69% have an unfavorable view in 2025, up 16 points from 2022. On that side of party divide, age is much less of a factor: 66% of age-50+ Dems have a negative view of Israel, compared to 71% for those 18 to 49.
Pew also found interesting distinctions among views held by Americans as divided by religious affiliations. One of the key pillars of Israeli political influence inside the United States is white evangelical protestants, and 72% of them accordingly view Israel favorably today. Non-evangelical protestants are net-negative on Israel by a small 50% to 47% margin, while Catholics take a dim view of Israel by a more substantial 53% to 43% spread. 73% of Jews are favorable, but a quite-substantial 27% give a thumbs-down to the self-declared "Jewish state."
Pew's survey didn't probe the factors driving rising negative views of Israel, but it's safe to say the major shift springs from Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza. Beyond the war per se, the exposure of that war's horrors on social media platforms has also been decisive in our view, with Americans having access to raw portrayals of the bloodshed and suffering, including reporting from alternative and foreign media outlets that shines a light on the high civilian death toll, destruction of hospitals, mass-displacement from homes, hunger and disease.
An IDF soldier laughs and smashes up a shop in Jabalia refugee camp. The store will have been someone’s pride and joy, and a source of livelihood.
— Philip Proudfoot (@PhilipProudfoot) December 8, 2023
Such brutal cruelty without a second thought — carried out with pride and a camera. pic.twitter.com/pQ4AG6rfwe
Ironically, many of the most damning social-media glimpses into the Israeli Defense Forces' conduct of the war have come from IDF soldiers themselves, who've shared photos and videos of themselves gleefully destroying entire neighborhoods in Gaza, maliciously smashing shops, destroying personal property, and weirdly dressing up in women's underwear left behind in the homes of fleeing Palestinians.
That's not to say mainstream media hasn't also played a role in Israel's surging unpopularity in the United States. One of the most unsettling reports of the war was aired by CBS Sunday Morning, which featured the accounts of American doctors who'd volunteered in Gaza and were stunned by the number of children with headshot and other disturbing wounds.
And of course IDF 'soldiers' wearing the underwear of (probably dead) Palestinian women doesn't look revoltingly gross at all... https://t.co/ssDDv3kKcV pic.twitter.com/c7ZAbnBGsJ
— The Prole Star (@TheProleStar) February 28, 2025
As for younger Republicans, whether or not they have empathy for Palestinian civilians, many under-50 GOP voters no doubt see America's open-checkbook support for Israel as inconsistent with the "America First" philosophy that's supposed to underpin Trumpian Republicanism. In a move last month that surely aggravated them, fresh after amusingly humiliating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky en route to ending the money-pit that is the proxy war against Russia, the Trump administration turned around and used emergency authorities to ship off another $4 billion in military aid to Israel.
As today's under-50 crowd proceeds to dominates the Republican electorate, those moves could start to become a political liability for GOP officials who've been conditioned to expect Red-Team praise for sending US wealth, weapons and soldiers to the Middle East to advance Israel's agenda. If rank-and-file Republicans increasingly embrace George Washington's advice to avoid "passionate attachments" that make the United States "a slave to its fondness," a seismic shift in the 77-year US-Israel relationship could be in the offing.
