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Two in three adults across 36 countries hold an unfavorable view of Israel, and majorities in most of those nations express little or no confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a sweeping new survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
The poll, conducted Feb. 8 through May 13, 2026, found a global median of 67% of respondents view Israel unfavorably, compared with just 25% who hold a positive view. The findings mark a deepening of a trend the Washington-based research organization has tracked across multiple survey cycles, with unfavorable views increasing in 13 of the 24 countries where year-over-year comparisons were available.
Opposition to Israel was most pronounced in Muslim-majority countries included in the survey: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Türkiye, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Researchers noted they were unable to conduct fieldwork in Gaza.
European publics also registered strongly negative assessments. In Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, roughly half or more of adults said they hold a "very unfavorable" view of Israel, the starkest category in the survey's scale. Sub-Saharan African countries surveyed returned some of the most favorable results globally, though still modest in absolute terms.
The sharpest year-on-year shift came in Argentina, where those holding an unfavorable view of Israel moved from a 46% minority in 2025 to a 55% majority in 2026.
In Australia, Italy, Nigeria, Poland and the United Kingdom, the share expressing "very unfavorable" views climbed by double digits over the same period. Greece was the sole country where sentiment toward Israel improved, though even there only 30% of Greeks expressed a positive opinion.
Skepticism toward Netanyahu personally tracks closely with broader views of Israel. Majorities in most surveyed countries said they have little or no confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs.
More than half of adults in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem said they have no confidence in the Israeli leader whatsoever.
Kenya and the Philippines stood as outliers: they were the only two countries in the survey where a majority expressed confidence in Netanyahu.
Confidence in the prime minister fell in 13 of 24 countries with comparable 2025 data. South Korea recorded the largest single-year drop, rising from 64% to 76% of adults saying they lack confidence in him. In Italy, the share expressing zero confidence jumped from 45% to 62% over the same period.
The survey found consistent generational and ideological divides, particularly in wealthier nations. In several North American and European countries, younger adults were significantly more likely to hold negative views of Israel than their older counterparts.
In Hungary, 72% of those aged 18 to 34 viewed Israel unfavorably, against 45% of those 50 and older. On the Netanyahu question in Hungary, adults under 35 were 23 percentage points more likely than those 50 and older to express little or no confidence in him.
Political ideology produced even wider gaps. In the United States, 83% of self-identified liberals held an unfavorable view of Israel, compared with 37% of conservatives, a 46-point divide that was the largest recorded in the survey.
In Australia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, nine-in-ten or more on the left viewed Israel negatively, each at least 23 points higher than those on the right in the same country.
On the Netanyahu question, those on the left in Australia, Canada, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States were at least 25 points more likely than those on the right to say they have no confidence in him at all.
Ideological gaps were smaller and less consistent in middle-income countries surveyed.
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