Democrats and Republican voters agree on Israel!

In the latest monthly Harvard Harris Poll released today it is clear that US public opinions remains high across the age and political divide

I continue to be grateful to and proud of the US public for its overwhelming support of Israel and for seeing through the fog of social media and fake news. Although it dropped a little in March versus February support of Israel as opposed to Hamas remains at 79% compared to 84% at the start of the war.

What is perhaps especially interesting is the extra detail provided this month on the breakdown of the support. In all groups (Republican/Democrat, all age groups and amongst those who do and don’t follow Israel closely) support is strong.

74% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans (79% of Independants) support Israel more than Hamas and on the question of whether Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties in fighting the war the numbers are 62% and 75% respectively.

On the question of whether a ceasefire should happen only after the release of all hostages and Hamas being removed from power, 56% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans think this should be the case.

People are very quick to point out the fact that the Israeli/Gaza issue is a potential issue for the elections and that Biden should shift support to avoid losing ground to the Republicans. As far as I can see from the data, Israel remains a strong area of consensus – there are not many complex political issues where the average level of support across all groups is +60% and in fact much higher in most groups.

I don’t doubt the level of feelings around this topic – but in the US, Israel enjoys the support of the general population.