By Ali Karbalaei
More Americans sympathize with Palestinians
TEHRAN- Recent surveys in the United States and the United Kingdom have revealed another dip in public support for the occupation regime of Israel.
Though the U.S. and Britain are the staunchest supporters of Israel’s strategies in Gaza, there appears to be a widening split between the American/British leadership and their public over backing for the occupation regime.
With both Americans and Britons going to polls this year, it may spell trouble for President Joe Biden as well as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
In the U.S., the latest Gallup poll shows a notable shift in American public opinion towards the Israeli war on Gaza in comparison with half a year ago before Tel Aviv unleashed its air and ground assault on the enclave.
The majority of Americans no longer approve of the Israeli military’s action in Gaza, with support dropping among Democrats, Republicans and independents.
Newsweek highlighted the decline in levels of support for the Israeli occupation in comparison with December.
In December, American public support for the Israeli war on Gaza was less than in October when the Israeli military began its offensive, but the majority of Americans kept supporting Israel despite the drop.
However, now “a majority, 55%, disapprove” of the Israeli military measures while “36% approve”.
A significant percentage of individuals from both the Democratic and Republican parties who previously supported Israeli actions in Gaza no longer do so.
In what will be of significant concern for President Biden, 75 percent of Democrats now “disapprove of Israel’s conduct”, with only 18 percent approving, representing a drop of 18 percentage points in support for the Israeli war among Democrats since December.
Among Republicans, approval has dropped by 7 percentage points, with 30% disapproving and 64% approving.
A separate poll published on Sunday by POLITICO-Morning Consult also shows Democrats are far more likely to say President Joe Biden needs to be “harder on Israel”.
The figures, which were part of a comprehensive study of American voter attitudes towards “U.S.-Israel relations and the crisis in Gaza”, also paint a disturbing picture for the White House.
The survey shows that more voters are likely to say Biden should be tougher on America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East.
34 percent of all respondents, Democrats, Republicans and Independents said Biden “was not tough enough”, while only 17 percent said “he was being too tough”.
More Democratic voters said they sympathize with the Palestinians (22%) than they do with the Israelis (16%).
The POLITICO-Morning Consult poll showed that Democrats are also more likely to “support stopping all U.S. aid to Israel” in response to its war.
41% said they support doing so, 33% said they oppose doing so, and 44% said they are unsure about halting “all U.S. aid to Israel”.
Another separate survey conducted by CBS News/YouGov also shows the number of American Democrats who sympathize “a lot with the Palestinian people” has increased from the winter.
The poll shows the overwhelming majority of Americans across all party lines say they “sympathize at least somewhat” with the Israelis. But the percentage who sympathize “a lot” is far lower than it was in October.
The trend shows that with every three months more Americans are sympathizing with the Palestinians than the Israelis.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the number of Americans supporting the Palestinians increase further over the next three months, especially if the Israeli war on Gaza expands to Rafah.
Gaza has emerged as the thorniest international policy issue for Biden’s administration, with many voters also unhappy with the Israeli leadership.
Biden’s approval rating is lingering in a narrow range, the low 40 percentage points.
Biden’s overall approval among the younger American generation is down, according to polls.
There has been a drop among younger people on how the U.S. president is handling the Israeli war on Gaza.
Biden has declined to use U.S. leverage against the Israeli government by halting military aid to it to pressure Tel Aviv into ending its war crimes despite his core voter base wanting him to do so. This may take a heavy toll on his re-election bid in November.
A growing number of powerful Democrats have also urged the Biden administration to end America’s military aid to Israel. The lawmakers argue that Israel has broken international law and should be cut off from U.S. assistance.
Meanwhile, a growing number of British voters want the UK government to halt its arms sales to the Israeli occupation.
According to a new YouGov poll, which comes as the war on Gaza enters its seventh month, 62 percent said the government should stop exporting arms or arms parts to the Israeli military.
It is a 6 percent rise since the previous survey by YouGov at the end of March. Only 16 percent said arms exports should remain.
This is the second YouGov survey commissioned by the NGO Action For Humanity in ten days and shows the fast-shifting rise in British public demands for the government to end arms sales to the Israeli military.
Prime Minister Sunak is widely expected to lose this year’s election. Experts say he is aware of this expected loss and has delayed calling an election (despite promising to call one this year) to win over more right-wing voters with his evermore right-wing extremist policies.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have been flooding the British capital, London, on a weekly basis calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to British arms sales to the Israeli military.
Both demands have been rejected by Sunak.
The Israeli military has achieved none of its stated military objectives in the war on Gaza, the Israeli leadership has struggled to justify its measures against the Palestinians to the international community.
The Israeli Ynet news outlet cited senior Israeli officials saying that such significant changes to “Israel’s reputation” internationally are unlikely to go away soon.
“It will take many years, perhaps even decades, to repair the reputational damage caused to Israel in recent months,” the officials said.
“These are deep, destructive processes that take a long time to fix.”
The Israeli regime has kept up its military strikes across the Gaza Strip.
The health ministry in Gaza says 33,797 Palestinians have been killed in the indiscriminate Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7.
A further 76,465 have been injured, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, adding that 68 Palestinians have been killed and 94 others have been wounded in the past 24 hours.
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