Help bring aid trucks into Gaza: LifeFunder
(LifeSiteNews) — A poll conducted by Pew Research indicates that a majority of Americans are opposed to President Donald Trump’s plan for the U.S. to own the Gaza Strip. It also finds that more than half of Americans have a negative view of Israel, up from years past.
Published Tuesday, the report states that 62 percent of Americans oppose the U.S. taking over Gaza, with 49 percent strongly opposed to it while only 15 percent are in favor of it. Jewish Americans think along the same lines, the study argues, with 64 percent of them opposing it while 32 percent support it.
Pew also says that more than half of U.S. adults (53 percent) now have a negative opinion of Israel, up from 42 percent in March 2022. Over that time span, Republicans have increased their negative view of Israel from 27 percent to 37 percent while Democrats have gone from 53 percent to 69 percent. Democrats under age 49 have the most disdain for Israel at 71 percent while Republicans over 50 are least likely to have critical views of Israel, with mere 23 percent having an unfavorable opinion.
Pew’s study comes as President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday ahead of scheduled U.S. talks with high-ranking officials from Iran this Saturday. Speaking to the press from inside the Oval Office, Trump reiterated that he believes Gaza is “an incredible piece of important real estate and I think it’s something that we would be involved in.”
“Having a peace force like the United States there – controlling and owning the Gaza Strip – would be a good thing. Because … for years and years, all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems,” he said.
Pew’s survey also found that Americans voters across all age groups now have a higher unfavorable view of Israel since it began its war on Gaza in October 2023. The study attributed the shift in Republican views to Republican voters under 40 increasing their negative views of Israel from 35 percent to 50 percent, a sign that Millennial and Generation Z Americans are not in favor of pro-Zionist foreign policies. The study also found that “younger Americans are also more likely than older ones to say that peaceful coexistence between the two sides (Jews and Palestinians) can be found.”
Gaza is home to more than two million Palestinians, nearly half of whom are under 20 years of age. LifeSiteNews has reported on many of the war crimes being committed against them by the Israeli military. Religious leaders like Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem’s patriarch, have condemned the atrocities, which have been characterized as ethnic cleansing and even genocide. Pizzaballa has said that peace will only come to the region when Israel ends its “occupation” of Palestinian land.
During their press conference on Monday, both Netanyahu and Trump told the press that they discussed tariffs, Iran, and the hostage situation with Gaza. Trump ominously warned that “if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran,” though he added that “a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious and the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with.”
Pew’s study also claims that Catholics hold a 53 percent unfavorable view of Israel while Muslims Americans have an even higher 81 percent negative view. White Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Americans have a 72 percent and 73 percent favorability rating of Israel.
What’s more, the study also found that “a slim majority of Americans (52%) have little or no confidence in Netanyahu to ‘do the right thing regarding world affairs,’ while 32% voice confidence in him. This is largely unchanged since last year, though the share of Americans with little or no confidence in Netanyahu rose significantly between 2023 and 2024.”
Sixty-six percent of U.S. adults, the report says, believe the war is “either very or somewhat important for U.S. national interests, down nine points since last year.”
Jews living in Israel seem to share the sentiments found in Pew’s report. A letter signed by nearly 1,000 current reservists and veterans of the Israeli Defense Force called for the end to the fighting in Gaza. They may be fired for voicing their opposition. A poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 news has also found that 69 percent of Israelis support ending the war in exchange as part of a deal that releases all remaining hostages.
Help bring aid trucks into Gaza: LifeFunder
