More than half of adults in the United States now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, and this shift is especially pronounced among younger generations across both political parties. These findings come from a new Pew Research Center survey released on April 8, highlighting a growing change in how Americans perceive the U.S. ally.
According to the survey, 53% of Americans now say they have a “somewhat” or “very unfavorable” opinion of Israel. This marks a significant 11-point rise in negative views since Pew last asked the same question in March 2022.
The increasing dissatisfaction comes after a period of intense conflict in the Middle East. In response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, Israel launched a powerful military operation in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 50,000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children.
The poll also shows a stark rise in those expressing “very unfavorable” views of Israel, with that number nearly doubling from 10% in 2022 to 19% in 2025. The political divide remains clear: 69% of Democrats now express unfavorable opinions of Israel compared to 37% of Republicans.
“In some sense this marks the culmination of a process by which Israel is no longer perceived as David, but as Goliath,” said David Myers, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There’s been a shift in the perception of who’s the powerful and who’s the powerless, who’s the oppressor and who’s the oppressed.”
The survey, conducted between March 24 and March 30 and based on interviews with 3,605 adults, could represent a turning point in U.S. public opinion regarding Israel.
Ian Lustick, a retired political scientist from the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the Middle East, emphasized how this data signals that the U.S. may be shifting closer to international perspectives on Israel. “Now we’re seeing that the United States is more in alignment with the rest of the world on this issue,” he said.
The generational divide is particularly striking. Among Republicans aged 18 to 49, 50% now hold negative views of Israel—up from 35% in 2022. Just three years ago, younger Republicans viewed Israel much more positively, with a 63% to 35% margin in favor. That has now reversed.
Young Democrats are even more critical. In 2022, 62% of Democrats under 50 expressed unfavorable views of Israel. By 2025, that number had risen to 71%.
“What is most interesting about these numbers is that it’s no longer a shift that’s happening on only one side of the political spectrum,” said Yousef Munayyer, director of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center, a Washington-based think tank focused on U.S. policy in the Arab world.
“What younger voters are seeing happening in Gaza — and they have been seeing it for some time now — they don’t want to be associated with that,” Munayyer added. “It’s not just something that they don’t want to be associated with as Republicans, but something that they don’t want to be associated with as Americans.”
Views also vary sharply along religious lines. Jewish Americans and white evangelical Christians show the most favorable opinions of Israel, at 73% and 72% respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, Muslim Americans hold the most negative views, with 81% expressing disapproval. Other groups showing strong disapproval include the religiously unaffiliated (69%) and Catholics (53%). White mainline Protestants are almost evenly split in their views of Israel.
On the topic of Israeli leadership, 52% of Americans say they have little or no confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to “do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
When it comes to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, Americans are divided along political and religious lines. Democrats are more optimistic than Republicans about the feasibility of a two-state solution, with 56% of Democrats saying it is possible compared to only 36% of Republicans. Just under half (47%) of American Jews believe in the viability of a two-state solution. Interestingly, Muslim Americans are slightly more hopeful, with 56% expressing belief that such a solution could be achieved.
The war in Gaza is of significant personal importance to 93% of Jewish Americans and 68% of Muslim Americans, according to the poll.
However, American Jews remain divided on the question of President Donald Trump’s stance toward Israel. Among them, 36% believe Trump favors Israelis too much, while 43% say he is maintaining the right balance. Unsurprisingly, a vast majority—70%—of Muslim Americans think Trump favors Israelis excessively.
Two months ago, Trump floated a controversial idea that the U.S. could take over Gaza, relocate about 2 million Palestinians, and transform the war-torn territory into a resort area. However, public reception to this proposal has been largely skeptical: 38% of Americans say they do not believe the president will seriously pursue such a plan. Trump appeared to backtrack on the idea during a recent White House meeting with Netanyahu, referring to it as “a concept that I had.”
Ian Lustick emphasized that the growing divergence between public opinion and U.S. foreign policy on Israel is evident. “Policies toward Israel by the government have actually gone in the other direction, of almost obsequious support for an extreme far-right government in Israel,” Lustick noted. He added that this trend is unlikely to shift anytime soon. “American foreign policy on this issue is not driven by public opinion. It’s driven by domestic political calculations, meaning money, not votes.”
The margin of error for the Pew poll is plus or minus two percentage points.
This recent survey paints a picture of a changing America, where public sentiment about Israel is evolving rapidly and becoming more polarized. The widening generational and political divides suggest that future U.S. policy decisions regarding Israel may face increasing scrutiny, especially from younger and more diverse segments of the population.