A new test for Democrats – where they stand on Israel

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

At least 73,058 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,280 children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

Israel has strongly denied the accusations of genocide which have been made by a number of international and Israeli human rights organisations, independent UN experts and scholars.

Last week a report by a United Nations commission of inquiry said Israeli authorities and security forces had deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The three-member expert panel does not officially speak for the UN.

In response, Israel’s foreign ministry said it “utterly rejects” the commission’s report, calling it libellous propaganda.

A Pew Research Center survey in April suggested that 60% of US adults had an unfavourable view of Israel, external, up from 53% last year.

Eighty percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters shared that view, an 11 point increase from last year.

This shift in American sentiment has also hit the Republican Party, with more than half of Republicans under 50 now viewing Israel unfavourably, according to Pew. Trump himself has expressed exasperation with Netanyahu and the “America First” isolationist wing of the party has been vocal in its displeasure at the alliance.

“At first, American opinion was very sympathetic toward Israel,” said Dina Smeltz, managing director at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy.

“But then as it retaliated against those attacks and carried out a lot of military action in Gaza that resulted in a big humanitarian crisis, attitudes toward Israel have fallen quite a bit.”