Support for Palestinian cause had risen earlier this year, but polls show decrease particularly among Democrats since Hamas attacks

 Public opinion polls surveying Americans’ views on the Israel-Hamas conflict suggest support for the Palestinian cause has taken a hit as a result of the carnage unfolding in the Middle East.

The recent wave of violence followed a period of significant improvement in US public opinion toward Palestinians, with Gallup polling earlier this year showing for the first time that Democrats expressed more sympathy for the Palestinians (49%) than the Israelis (38%).

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Advocates for Palestinian rights say any regression is probably short-lived. “By the time this is over, we’ll be right back where we started and maybe even then some. Israel is committing horrific crimes. Media will catch up. The administration will catch up,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.

Israel has killed nearly 4,000 Palestinians in its bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s killing of more than 1,400 Israelis and the abduction of hundreds of hostages on 7 October. In both cases, the majority of casualties have been civilians.

Many point to an earlier war on Gaza, in 2014, as an inflection point for US public opinion, with the shift toward greater sympathy for Palestinians aided by Israel’s rightward march under multiple Netanyahu governments and a succession of other bloody military campaigns in the Palestinian territories that have made the conflict’s asymmetry plain.