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For the first time in a quarter century of polling, Americans' sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict no longer tilt toward Israel, according to a new Gallup survey that underscores a broad and accelerating realignment of US public opinion on the Middle East.
Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians, while 36 percent side more with the Israelis, a gap that falls within the margin of error but represents a dramatic departure from decades of firmly pro-Israel sentiment. Just a year ago, Israelis held a clear 13-point advantage, and between 2001 and 2018, the gap averaged 43 points.
The findings, published by Gallup analyst Benedict Vigers, arrive as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains a defining fault line in American politics, with a US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza now in its second phase focused on reconstruction and demilitarization, though both sides have accused the other of repeated breaches.
The most consequential movement has occurred among political independents, who for the first time express greater sympathy for the Palestinians than the Israelis, by a margin of 41 percent to 30 percent. In every prior year of Gallup's tracking, independents had sided with the Israelis, including by an eight-point margin as recently as 2025.
Democrats completed their shift earlier. Roughly two-thirds of Democrats, 65 percent, now say their sympathies lie with the Palestinians, a realignment that began in 2023 and solidified last year. Republicans remain firmly in Israel's corner, with 70 percent expressing greater sympathy for the Israelis, though that figure has fallen 10 points since 2024 to its lowest level in more than two decades.
The generational picture is equally striking. Among Americans aged 18 to 34, a majority now sympathizes more with the Palestinians for the first time, at 53 percent, while only 23 percent side with the Israelis, a record low for the age group. The 35-to-54 cohort has undergone what amounts to a near-complete reversal in a single year, swinging from a 12-point pro-Israel advantage in 2025 to an 18-point pro-Palestinian lean in 2026. Even among Americans 55 and older, traditionally the most pro-Israel demographic, the Israeli advantage has narrowed to 18 points, the slimmest ever recorded.
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While Americans still view Israel more favorably than the Palestinian Territories as a country, the margin has compressed to single digits. Forty-six percent hold a favorable view of Israel, near its all-time low of 45 percent recorded in 1989, while 37 percent view the Palestinian Territories favorably, a new high in Gallup's tracking.
The convergence is sharpest among independents, who now rate both Israel and the Palestinian Territories at 41 percent favorable, an identical figure. Since February 2023, the last measurement before the October 7 Hamas attack, independents' favorability toward Israel has plunged 26 points while their view of the Palestinian Territories has risen 12 points.
Republicans' favorable view of Israel, while still dominant at 69 percent, has dropped 15 points from 2025 to its lowest mark in over two decades. Democratic favorability toward the Palestinian Territories stands at 48 percent, outpacing Israel's 34 percent in that group for a second consecutive year.
The poll also found that 57 percent of Americans now support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, nearly matching the record high of 58 percent recorded in 2003. Opposition stands at 28 percent, with 15 percent undecided.
Support runs highest among Democrats at 77 percent, while a majority of independents, 57 percent, share that view. Republican backing has been more volatile, dropping from 43 percent before the October 7 attack to 26 percent immediately afterward, rebounding to 41 percent in 2025, and declining again to 33 percent this year.
The resulting 44-point partisan gap between Democrats and Republicans is the widest Gallup has recorded on the question, with the exception of 2024.
Notably, Americans are far more supportive of a two-state framework than the people who would live under it. Gallup's 2025 World Poll found that just 27 percent of Israelis and 33 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem supported such a proposal.
A significant share of Americans continues to express no clear leaning in the conflict. Four percent say they sympathize with both sides equally, nine percent with neither, and 10 percent offered no opinion.
The gradual erosion of pro-Israel sentiment in the United States predates the current war. Gallup's data shows the narrowing trend began around 2019, years before the Hamas attack and the subsequent military campaign in Gaza that has drawn sustained international scrutiny. The cumulative effect of those shifts has now, for the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 2001, left Americans without a clear preference for either side.
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