The latest poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that American public opinion is not only moving away from Israel but that the trend is accelerating, with overall favorability dropping eight percentage points over the past year, meaning the majority of Americans — 60% — now have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Israel, and 37% hold a favorable view. A year ago, there was near-parity, with 53% holding unfavorable views and 45% having favorable ones.
The country’s unfavorability ratings get even more stark when broken down by age, with 70% of adults under the age of 50 having a negative view of Israel. Among Democrats, 84% of adults under 50 hold unfavorable opinions of Israel; among Republicans, that number is 57% — indicating that even tougher trials lie ahead in the court of public opinion, no matter which party holds office.
Within the Jewish community, favorable views for Israel are also slipping, and even more sharply. Last year’s Pew study found that 73% of American Jewish respondents held a favorable view of Israel. A year later, that has dropped by nearly 10 percentage points, with 64% holding a favorable opinion of Israel. There was a similar, though less severe, drop among white evangelical Protestants — another key source of support for Israel — whose favorability fell from 72% last year to 65% now.
Addressing this public opinion downturn first requires accepting that multiple things can be true at the same time: There was and is a well-funded, coordinated campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel and Zionism. This can be seen in higher education (and increasingly in K-12 schools), in media and in political lobbying and think tanks. Combating this will take a similarly well-coordinated effort by Israel and its allies in the United States, particularly the Jewish community — a long-called-for feat that has proved elusive.
At the same time, the drop in public opinion, particularly among the Jewish community, cannot solely be chalked up to bad hasbara, or public diplomacy. Actions, policies and statements by the State of Israel and top Israeli officials have, at the very least, made it far easier for opponents to paint the country as illiberal, expansionist and even genocidal. See: The latest controversy over the government’s decision to honor a reservist rabbinical judge who called to “flatten” all of Gaza and install Jewish settlements in the enclave, prompting official sanctions for ethical violations, as a torch-lighter during the state Independence Day ceremony later this month.
Responding to the survey, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — who is mounting a political comeback bid — called the results “extremely serious,” adding, “We have a lot of work ahead of us to fix it all.”
How Israel would go about fixing “it all” will surely be a topic of debate in the upcoming Knesset elections. As a country that is closely allied with the United States and overwhelmingly dependent upon it for diplomatic support, Israel cannot afford to ignore these developments. But better outreach to Democrats and improved hasbara will only get Israel so far. War and civilian casualties are not popular things, no matter how justified or well-explained they are.
For some Israeli candidates, the solution will be a shift away from military campaigns in favor of diplomatic solutions to the country’s myriad national security challenges.
For certain segments of Israeli society, however, this is a nonstarter. Asked about the Pew survey results and what Israel has to do to shore up support, Religious Zionism Party leader and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Israel’s Kan broadcaster that one thing the country wouldn’t do is scale back its military control — from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon or the Syrian Golan Heights. “We won’t commit suicide to make them happy,” Smotrich said, presenting it as a binary issue.
Instead, Smotrich said, the solution is to make Israel indispensable to the world, through its technology, economy and military prowess. Doing so would give the country diplomatic leverage even if public opinion turns against it. (Israel, for instance, has maintained close military and intelligence ties with Egypt and Jordan for decades, even as their populations hold exceedingly negative views of it.)
A potential wrinkle in this plan of having the so-called “start-up nation” save Israel — not addressed in the radio interview — is the growing concern of a “brain drain,” with indications that well-educated Israelis are increasingly moving abroad. Recent surveys show that this is particularly prevalent among scientists and physicians. More than a quarter of Israelis with doctorates in math and nearly a quarter of those with computer science PhDs had been living abroad for at least three years as of 2024. If Israel wants its startup scene to be its salvation, it will have to counter these emigration trends among the people who are helping make it possible.