18 months after Hamas’s attack, US support for Israel remains strong

As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its 18th month, and amid renewed fighting in Gaza, polling data reveal that Americans remain steadfast in their support for Israel's defense. 

Research conducted by our firm, Schoen Cooperman Research, in collaboration with the Israel on Campus Coalition, indicates that despite the cessation of a roughly two-month truce, Americans continue to endorse Israel's right to self-defense.

To be sure, strong support for Israel’s right to self-defense cuts across party lines, with more than 9 in 10 (92 percent) of Republicans, 81 percent of independents and 80 percent of Democrats supporting the Jewish State. 

In fact, support for Israel has risen over the last six weeks, with 85 percent of adults supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, a 4-point increase since February’s survey. 

Further, the poll, which we have regularly conducted on behalf of the Israel on Campus Coalition since the war began reveals that Americans continue to support Israel’s twin goals of rescuing the remaining 59 hostages and removing Hamas from Gaza. 

Indeed, Americans overwhelmingly agree (83 percent) that as long as Hamas is holding hostages and firing rockets into Israel, Israel has the right to take military action to rescue hostages, disarm Hamas and force the terrorist group to negotiate.  

Similarly, following the collapse of a ceasefire that had existed from late January through mid-March, we find that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans view Israel’s renewed military campaign in Gaza as justified. 

That cease-fire, which saw dozens of Israeli hostages freed in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, was supposed to lead to future negotiations that would have ended the war. The U.S. and Israel have blamed Hamas for the deal’s collapse.  

Officials from both countries have said that the group’s refusal to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages and the staged parades hostages were forced to endure, as well as its ongoing attacks against Israel, brought about the deal’s end. Indeed, on Sunday night, Hamas fired a barrage of 10 rockets into Southern Israel, targeting the city of Ashdod. 

In that same vein, as we noted last month, Americans continue to strongly believe (83 percent) that any final ceasefire in Gaza must require Hamas’s removal from power.  

However, the terrorist group has refused to disarm, pledged to repeat more Oct. 7-style attacks, and continues to target Israelis and Jews with genocidal ambitions. 

Put another way, Americans’ strong support for Israel is almost certainly due to a recognition of Hamas’s radical, violent, antisemitic ideology, and that Hamas is determined to commit more atrocities against the Jewish State, inevitably resulting in more lives lost on both sides. 

To that end, slightly more than 8 in 10 (81 percent) of Americans think that, if Hamas stayed in power, another Oct. 7-style attack would be likely.  

And nearly 9 in 10 (86 percent) Americans agree that Palestinians are suffering because Hamas started a war by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, massacring 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 civilians. 

Interestingly, although this poll was conducted immediately after the collapse of the ceasefire, it was not conducted before the news that Hamas had quietly updated its “official” casualty list. It removed thousands of names previously claimed killed by Israel — among those removed were more than 1,000 children.

Still, even before that news was released, when presented with a tradeoff scenario, nearly 7 in 10 (68 percent) Americans said Israel has the right to resume military action in Gaza due to Hamas’s intransience. Only 32 percent agreed with the assertion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Moreover, as anti-Israel sentiment continues to plague college campuses, American adults generally, and college students specifically, support the federal government’s efforts to push schools to do more to protect Jewish students.  

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults and 450 college students, found that two-thirds (66 percent) of adults and a majority (56 percent) of college students support the government cutting funding to schools that fail to combat antisemitism or protect Jewish students. 

Notably, both U.S. adults as well as college students also support tougher actions against non-U.S. citizens who participate in the anti-Israel protests.  

A majority (54 percent) of adults and a plurality (40 percent) of college students support measures including deporting non-citizens who partake in protests that promote antisemitism, violence against Jews or support Hamas, which is also a U.S.-designated terrorist group. 

Campus leaders have routinely pledged to do more to address surging antisemitism on campus.  

But, as the data makes clear, significant shares of the American population feel they are not up to the job and support the government stepping in.  

Taken together, our latest poll underscores that despite outsized attention given to anti-Israel sentiment in the U.S., Americans continue supporting Israel’s right to self-defense. 

At the same time, as crackdowns on rampant antisemitism on college campuses continue, this data should serve as a wake-up call for university administrations.  

They must do more to protect their Jewish students, and if they don’t, they will find little sympathy from an American public, including their own students, that supports tough consequences. 

Douglas E. Schoen and Carly Cooperman are pollsters and partners with the public opinion company Schoen Cooperman Research based in New York. They are co-authors of the book, “America: Unite or Die.”