Majority of US voters disapprove of Biden’s Gaza policy – WSJ poll

Some 60% of US voters are unhappy with President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, a new survey by the Wall Street Journal has found. A growing number also believe the US is not doing enough to help the Palestinian people, the outlet wrote on Sunday.

The Gaza conflict escalated on October 7 after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise cross-border attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250. In response, Israel launched massive airstrikes and a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the onslaught, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and the UN has warned of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with dire shortages of food and medicine.

The WSJ poll found that disapproval of Biden’s handling of the conflict is at 60%, eight points higher than it was in a December poll. Just over 30% of respondents said they backed the president on the issue.

The newspaper noted that the high level of disapproval has made its way to the ballot box, with more than 100,000 people voting “uncommitted” in Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary last week, many in protest at the president’s policies on Israel.

“The war has created significant challenges for President Biden both in domestic politics and in diplomacy,” the outlet wrote, adding that some senior aides to the president have been sounding the alarm that his support for Israel’s war effort will cost him votes in his November reelection bid.

The survey also found that 33% of voters believe the US is doing “too little” to help Palestinians, a number that was up from 26% in December. About one-quarter of voters said Washington was doing too much for Palestinians, with the same number saying the US government was doing the right amount.

At the same time, some 30% said the US was doing too much to help the Israeli people, compared with 22% who said the same in December.

Overall, the poll showed that 42% of Americans believe Israel has gone too far in Gaza. A smaller proportion, 19%, said Israel hasn’t gone far enough, and 24% said Israel’s response to Hamas has been about right.

“The longer this goes on, there is a shift toward more sympathy toward the Palestinians and less toward Israel,” Democratic pollster Michael Bocian said.

The WSJ said it had interviewed 1,500 registered voters by cellphone and landline, with some respondents reached by text and invited to take the survey online.