Half of American Muslims back Hamas’ war on Israel, new poll shows

Most Republicans oppose humanitarian aid to Gaza and support Israel in its war against Hamas, while most Democrats say Israel’s handling of the war has been ‘unacceptable.’

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Roughly half of American Muslims believe that the Hamas terror organization is  justified in its war against Israel, according to a newly published poll.

The survey, conducted by Pew Research Center among 12,693 respondents between February 13th through the 25th and released on Wednesday, found that 49% of American Muslims say Hamas’ reasons for fighting against the Jewish state are valid.

Just 18% of American Muslims, by contrast, believe Israel is justified in its fight against Hamas.

Among American Jewish respondents, 89% said Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid, while 16% said Hamas is justified in its war against Israel.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of American Jews also support the way Israel has conducted its war against Hamas thus far, compared to just 5% of American Muslims.

Twenty-one percent of American Muslims said the October 7th invasion of Israel and massacre of Jews were acceptable, compared to 5% or less for all other religious groups surveyed.

Americans as a whole were far more likely to say Israel’s reasons for fighting were legitimate as opposed to Hamas, with 58% of all respondents saying the Jewish state’s war on Hamas is valid, compared to 15% who said they are not.

Just 22% of American believe that Hamas’ reasons for fighting are valid, compared to 49% who do not believe they are valid.

White Evangelical Protestants were the most likely among non-Jewish groups to say Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid (74%) and Hamas’ are not (71%).

Black Protestants were the least likely among non-Muslims to say Israel has a legitimate reason for fighting Hamas, with 39% saying the Jewish state has a valid reason, compared to 18% who said it does not, and 19% who believe Hamas has a valid reason for fighting Israel.

Religiously unaffiliated Americans were the most likely of all non-Muslim groups to back Hamas’ war on Israel, with 33% saying the terror group has valid reasons for fighting  the Jewish state, though a plurality (48%) said Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid.

When broken down along partisan lines, Republicans were far more likely to support Israel’s military efforts against Hamas than Democrats, and were less likely to back humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

While Americans as a whole back aid to Gaza by a margin of 50% to 19%, just over one-third (35%) of Republicans back sending aid to the Gaza Strip. By contrast, half of Republicans support military aid to Israel.

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of Democrats, on the other hand, support Gaza aid, while only 25% back military aid to the Jewish state.

Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents are also more likely to say Israel’s handling of the current war is unacceptable.

Young Democrats gave both Hamas and the Israeli government low marks, but were slightly more likely to express esteem towards Hamas than Israel’s leadership, with 18% saying they have a positive impression of the Gaza-based terror group and just 16% saying the same of Israel’s government.

American MuslimsDemocratsHamasIDFPew PollPew Research CenterRepublicans