Protesters take part in a demonstration against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Lafayette Square near the White House in Washington, DC, on September 29, 2025. (Photo by Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
A new survey shows just 32% of US voters view Israel positively—down from 47% in 2023.
Support for Israel has dropped across the board among US voters over the last three years, with particularly steep declines among Democrats and independents, according to a poll commissioned by NBC News.
Overall, the poll conducted by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies found that 32% of registered US voters view Israel positively, while 39% see the country in a negative light. This is a drastic shift from 2023, when the same poll found that 47% of US voters viewed Israel positively, versus just 24% who viewed it negatively.
Democratic voters have been leading the shift away from Israel, as the percentage of Democrats who view Israel positively has fallen from 34% in 2024 to 13% in 2026, while negative views of the country have spiked from 35% to 57% over the last three years.
The shift among independent voters has been almost as dramatic, as just 21% of independents said they now have a positive view of Israel, compared to 40% of independents who viewed Israel positively in 2023. This has similarly correlated with a dramatic spike in negative views of Israel, with 48% of independents rating the country negatively, versus 22% who rated it negatively in 2023.
Republicans overall remained much more supportive of Israel than Democrats and independents, but the poll still showed that GOP support for Israel fell by nine percentage points over the last three years.
Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt told NBC News that the shift in opinion against Israel was a direct result of its assault on Gaza that has killed at least 70,000 Palestinian civilians.
“Israel may have had major military success in its war against Hamas,” Horwitt said, “but its actions have badly damaged its standing among the American people.”
A poll released by Gallup in February found that, for the first time ever, US voters said they were more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis, just one year after finding that Americans expressed more sympathy toward Israelis than Palestinians by a margin of 13 percentage points.
Israel’s unpopularity among Democratic primary voters has led to candidates trying to distance themselves from groups such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is spending big in primaries to defeat Democrats who have been critical of the Israeli government.
As reported by CNN on Sunday, even Democrats running as supporters of Israel have taken pains to not be associated with AIPAC, which has become especially toxic among Democratic primary voters.
“From Minnesota to Mississippi, operatives involved in races told CNN candidates are constantly facing questions about the group on the trail,” the network noted. “Incumbents tell CNN they expect it to come up regularly at town halls. And online, detractors constantly pounce on politicians’ comments they perceive as sympathetic to Israel as evidence of being coopted by AIPAC.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Israeli army vehicles maneuver across the border inside a destroyed Lebanese village as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on March 16, 2026. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)
“There is no clear exit strategy for this war. While in theory Israel is trying to coerce Lebanon into disarming Hezbollah, it is unlikely that can happen,” said one analyst.
More than 800,000 Lebanese people who have been forced from their homes in southern Lebanon in the last two weeks have little hope of returning soon as the Israeli government on Monday announced its military had begun “limited and targeted ground operations” in and around the strategic southern town of Khiam, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
The ground attacks represent a significant expansion of the Israel Defense Forces’ ground operations. On March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the US and Israel’s killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel began sending troops into Lebanon to bolster the presence the IDF has had there in five areas since a 2024 ceasefire.
Until now, ground forces have conducted “limited incursions,” Axios reported.
Israel has also launched airstrikes in Lebanon, killing at least 850 people—including 107 children and 66 women—since it was joined by the US late last month in abruptly ending diplomatic negotiations and attacking Iran.
The Times of Israel reported that the IDF carried out “massive airstrikes and artillery shelling ‘to remove threats’” over the weekend before the 91st “Galilee” Regional Division began raiding the eastern section of southern Lebanon in attacks that the military said killed several Hezbollah operatives.
Israel conducted raids on towns including Burj Qalawiya, Sultyaniya, Chaqra, Qantara, and as-Sawana on Monday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic, with the military saying the 91st Division had “begun limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.”
A major target of the ramped up ground attacks was Khiam, a Hezbollah stronghold that lies at a strategic junction of roads leading to the eastern and western sections of southern Lebanon.
“What Israel has been trying to do is really cut the supply lines and the difficult capabilities of Hezbollah, so it’s unable to bring in more weapons and fighters to areas south of the Litani River,” reported Zeina Khodr of Al Jazeera.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that due to what the IDF claimed will be “limited and targeted ground operations,” close to a million people who have fled their homes in southern Lebanon “will not return to their homes south of the Litani River until the security of the residents of [northern Israel] is guaranteed.”
While claiming the operation in southern Lebanon will be “limited,” Katz also said the operation is intended to resemble Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has continued despite a ceasefire that was reached last October, has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, and has been called a genocide by leading human rights groups and scholars.
Dozens of healthcareworkers have been killed in Israeli strikes since the IDF began attacking Lebanon earlier this month; in Gaza, more than 1,500 doctors, nurses, and medics have been killed in October 2023. One attack that killed two paramedics this week in the southern village of Kfarsir was reportedly a “double-tap” strike in which first responders were killed when they arrived to help victims of an initial strike on a building.
The charity group Save the Children on Monday described children “clutching beloved pets and toys as they flee their homes in Lebanon due to the escalating conflict,” and said nearly 300,000 children are among those who have been forcibly displaced.
More than 130,000 people are sheltering in overcrowded schools that have been repurposed as refugee shelters, said the group, and families have had to leave their homes without time to gather crucial documents, clothes, or medications.
“Many families were forced to flee in the middle of the night with nothing, and children miss their homes, their villages, their friends, and their schools,” said Nora Ingdal, country director for Save the Children Lebanon. “I met a child who told me, ‘I’m not able to play here and I just want to go back to my village as soon as possible.’ One child I met clutched his blue toy car, as it was the only thing he had managed to bring from home.”
“Hostilities must end and children must be protected at all costs,” said Ingdal. “We know children are always the most impacted in any conflict, and the psychological impacts last long after any conflict ends.”
The IDF is reportedly calling up 450,000 reservists to carry out the ground invasion, and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that a senior Northern Command official told reservists in a briefing that the operation could continue “until Shavuot,” a Jewish holiday falling between May 21-23.
“We will stay as long as necessary,” the official said.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters Monday that the IDF had effectively taken control of Khiam and were advancing west toward the Litani River, which could cut off parts of southern Lebanon from the rest of the country.
Katz has also threatened to seize territory in the southern area in an effort to uproot Hezbollah.
Geopolitical analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim said Israel appears to be using “coercive diplomacy” and expressing a willingness to hold direct talks with Lebanon in the coming days.
“Israel is applying the Daheyia Doctrine, which uses overwhelming, disproportionate force against civilian infrastructure in areas controlled by Hezbollah to deter future attacks,” said Ben-Ephraim. “However, they plan to use this increasingly against Lebanese infrastructure to coerce Lebanon into a deal.”
The large scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon has begun. , This invasion is significantly larger in terms of manpower and organization than the 2006 Lebanon War. It is the largest since 1982. Here is what we know so far:
1) Divisions 162 and 98 are expected to join the fighting,…
“There is no clear exit strategy for this war. While in theory Israel is trying to coerce Lebanon into disarming Hezbollah, it is unlikely that can happen,” he said.
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) emphasized that the expanded ground operation in Lebanon is one of several crises unfolding as a result of President Donald Trump’s decision to launch attacks against Iran with Israel.
“A broader, regional war is breaking out,” said Murphy. “Trump has no endgame. Iran and its proxies can create chaos indefinitely.”
“All of this was totally foreseeable,” he added. “Frankly, it’s why previous presidents weren’t so stupid to start a war like this. Trump has lost control of the war. His best course now is to cut his losses and end it. That’s the only way to prevent an even bigger disaster.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Palestinians gather in the market following the targeting of Iran by the US and Israel and the subsequent retaliatory strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“All the NGOs in Gaza need more food, medicine, medical equipment, fuel, tents, personal care every day. We cannot wait,” said chef José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen.
After Israeli and US forces launched an illegal war aimed at forcing regime change in Iran this past weekend, Israel also announced “the closure of the crossings into the Gaza Strip,” which it has bombed and starved for nearly 29 months, killing at least tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT)—which oversees civilian policy in Gaza and the West Bank—announced on social media Saturday that “several necessary security adjustments have been implemented” because of the operation against Iran, including the closure of Gaza crossings “until further notice.”
COGAT also claimed that “the closure of the crossings will have no impact on the humanitarian situation” in Gaza, adding that “the substantial quantities of food that have entered since the beginning of the ceasefire amount to four times the nutritional needs of the population,” so “the existing stock is expected to suffice for an extended period.”
However, reports from human rights groups, journalists, and the United Nations have highlighted how Israel’s restrictions have continued to impede evacuations of the sick and severely wounded, and nongovernmental groups’ deliveries of humanitarian aid, despite the October ceasefire deal. Palestinians in Gaza also remain at risk of Israeli forces’ airstrikes, gunfire, and shelling.
“A new chokehold on Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for PalestineRefugees in the Near East, said Monday. “Once again, Israel is renewing its ban on supplies entering Gaza. After more than two years of unspeakable suffering and a spreading man-made famine, people still lack the most basic supplies, despite increases in aid since the ceasefire. UNRWA personnel in Gaza keep providing healthcare, learning, and clean water—but we must be allowed to do much more and certainly not less.”
Even before Israel closed the borders on Saturday, the US-Israel attack on Iran led to Palestinians in Gaza “buying whatever food supplies and goods they could manage,” Al Jazeerareported Monday. “People everywhere rushed to the market to buy sugar, flour, cooking oil, and yeast. Shelves began to empty, and the price of essential goods increased.”
Things got even worse after COGAT’s announcement. Asmaa Abu Al-Khair, a 38-year-old mother of eight, told Al Jazeera at a Gaza City market on Sunday that “I feel great anxiety. Everyone is talking about it—about Iran’s strike and the closure of the crossings—and I cannot afford to buy what I need, while at the same time, I am afraid of famine returning. I have young children.”
Many displaced families living in nearby tents also “do not have the money to buy supplies, nor the space to store them inside the tents,” she said. “We endured so much hardship during the war, and it barely ended with the announcement of a ceasefire. So why close the crossing now? What do we have to do with what is happening? Is what we witnessed not enough? Why play with people’s nerves?”
Since Saturday, critics around the world have also warned about the impacts of Israel shutting off the Palestinian exclave indefinitely, again. Arab Center Washington DC fellow Assal Rad declared on social media that “under the cover of its illegal war on Iran, Israel is continuing genocide in Gaza.”
Mass shooting survivor and former congressional candidate Cameron Kasky similarly said that “the siege on Gaza returns in its fullest force. Illegal wars to advance Israel’s goals are being used for expanding the genocide plans.”
Israel is reinstating its starvation policy. The Gaza genocide never ended. https://t.co/8Oz7xYqPRI
Chef José Andrés said on social media Sunday that World Central Kitchen—which he founded—is cooking 1 million hot meals every day, and if Gaza’s borders stay closed, the group “will run out of food this week.”
“We need food deliveries every single day to feed hungry families who are not part of this war,” he said. “All the NGOs in Gaza need more food, medicine, medical equipment, fuel, tents, personal care every day. We cannot wait… let the humanitarian trucks go through today!”
Responding to Andrés, US Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said that “Israel must reopen access to aid groups. If not, Netanyahu must be arrested immediately. He continues war crimes.”
Israel is back to imposing hunger of the Palestinian civilians of Gaza https://t.co/6Q3XMTsSlu
The Hague Group—a coalition of countries that came together last year, led by Colombia and South Africa, with the goal of upholding the ICC and ICJ rulings on Israel and Palestine—responded to COGAT by scheduling an emergency meeting that at least 30 nations are set to attend in the Dutch city for which the organization is named.
The focus of Wednesday’s meeting “is simple,” Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the group’s executive secretary, said in a Monday statement. “How do we give international law teeth? Several states have begun enforcing their legal obligations, turning rhetoric into concrete action through The Hague Group’s measures: cutting arms flows, closing ports, and pursuing accountability.”
Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation, said that “the application of international law can no longer be selective: punitive for some and totally disregarded by others. The Hague Group exists to translate obligations that arise out of international law into coordinated state action. We invite governments of conscience—those prepared to uphold law in deed as well as word—to join us.”
This is important. On 4 March, The Hague Group is convening over 30 States from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe to deliberate Israel’s escalating annexation in the West Bank, the renewed restrictions on aid to Gaza, and the absence of enforcement of international law. https://t.co/w4ZW5DUcdY
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur focused on the occupied Palestinian territories and a target of Trump administrationsanctions, said that “I am honored to attend the upcoming emergency meeting of the The Hague Group.”
“Time has come for decolonized multilateralism, grounded in universal rights and obligations, applied with integrity and free from double standards,” Albanese added. “May European and Arab states join this necessary effort.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli authorities prevent Palestinians from entering Jerusalem from the West Bank to perform the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, on February 20, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces on Sunday evening forced worshippers out of a mosque in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem and prevented them from performing the Isha and Taraweeh prayers.
Local sources said troops entered Sheikh Lulu Mosque shortly before the call to the Isha prayer and forced worshipers to leave the place, and prevented prayers, including Tarawih prayers, in what was described as part of ongoing restrictions on places of worship.
The incident came as Al-Aqsa Mosque remained closed for a second consecutive day under what authorities described as a state of emergency. Strict closures were also imposed on the Old City and its entrances.
Since Saturday evening, Israeli authorities have completely shut Al-Aqsa Mosque and forced worshippers to leave immediately, citing the declaration of a state of emergency following Israel’s attack on Iran. The measures have further tightened restrictions on freedom of worship and movement in the city.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Israeli tanks are seen by the border in Rafah, Gaza on May 6, 2024. (Photo by IDF – Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The number of journalists killed by Israel is remarkably high even when compared to the number of journalists killed in other conflict zones.
A new report from a major press freedom group has found that a record 129 journalists were killed in 2025, and that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of the worldwide total.
The Tuesday report from the Committee to Protect Journalists says that the Israeli military has cumulatively killed more journalists than any other government since CPJ started tracking reporter deaths in 1992, with the vast majority being Palestinian media workers in Gaza.
The report also finds an increase in the use of drones to attack journalists, with Israel accounting for more than 70% of the 39 documented instances of reporters killed by drone strikes.
The number of journalists killed by Israel is remarkably high even when compared to the number of journalists killed in other conflict zones.
Only nine journalists were killed in Sudan, for example, while just four journalists were killed in Ukraine, despite both countries being in the midst of brutal conflicts that have collectively killed hundreds of thousands of people.
A report issued in December by Reporters Without Borders similarly found that Israel was responsible for the most journalists deaths in 2025, the third consecutive year that the country had held that distinction.
The CPJ report also points the finger at governments for not taking their responsibilities to protect journalists seriously.
“The rising number of journalist deaths globally is fueled by a persistent culture of impunity,” the report states. “Very few transparent investigations have been conducted into the 47 cases of targeted killings (classified as ‘murder’ in CPJ’s longstanding methodology) documented by CPJ in 2025—the highest number of journalists deliberately killed for their work in the past decade—and no one has been held accountable in any of the cases.”
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said that attacks on the media are “a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms, and much more needs to be done to prevent these killings and punish the perpetrators,” adding that “we are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
