ADVERTISEMENT

Poll: American Support for Israel Soars After Hamas Slaughter

(Getty Images)
October 16, 2023

American support for Israel has skyrocketed in the week since Hamas slaughtered nearly 1,500 Israelis in an unprecedented assault on the Jewish state, according to a poll.

Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed from Oct. 11 to 13 said they support Israel in its latest conflict with Hamas, according to a poll conducted by the Senate Opportunity Fund, a conservative nonprofit, and provided to the Washington Free Beacon. This includes 62 percent of self-described liberals and 77 percent of those who say they are conservative.

Support for Israel is considerably higher now than it was during the country’s last skirmish with Hamas, which took place over 11 days in June 2021. At that time, just 43 percent of those polled said they support Israel in the conflict, with 30 percent of self-identified liberals expressing support for the Jewish state. Seventy-eight percent of conservatives polled at that time said they backed Israel.

The findings indicate that Hamas’s widely reported war crimes—which include the rape, murder, and torture of women and children—has galvanized the American public behind Israel’s cause. While far-left Democrats in Congress, including anti-Semitic members of the Squad, have called on Israel to halt its war effort and claim the country is targeting innocent Palestinians, a vast majority of the American public is not buying this rhetoric.

Sixty-eight percent of those polled said they "support Congress voting for aid to Israel in the form of funding and military equipment," a priority that Democratic lawmakers like Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) have called to end. Liberal and conservative voters are united in backing military aid to Israel, with 70 percent of the former and 73 percent of latter saying Congress should supply Israel with military equipment.

A majority of likely voters also disagree with President Joe Biden’s decision last month to free up $6 billion in funds for the Iranian regime as part of a ransom deal. This funding has been in the spotlight given Tehran’s direct support for Hamas and its war against Israel.

Sixty-nine percent of those polled said the Biden administration should freeze the $6 billion transaction in light of Tehran’s support for Hamas. This includes 57 percent of liberal voters, and 81 percent of conservatives.

A majority of voters, 61 percent, also want increased sanctions on Iran, including its illicit oil trade, which has provided the hardline regime with around $80 billion in revenue since Biden took office.