Pew poll of 36 countries finds declining support for Israel, Netanyahu

Pew found that respondents’ views of Israel often tracked the left-right ideological divide, with those on the left having more negative views of Israel and those on the right a more positive view.

By Andrew Bernard, JNS

A Pew Research Center poll released on Thursday found that most people in 36 countries around the world have a negative view of Israel and that in many of those countries, the Jewish state’s favorability rating is declining rapidly.

Across the countries Pew examined, which include both close partners of Israel like the United States and Hungary and hostile states like Pakistan, a median of 67% of adults hold an unfavorable view of Israel while just 25% have a favorable one.

Of the 24 countries where Pew asked the same question in 2025, only Greece saw a marginal improvement in its favorability of Israel.

In 13 of those countries, unfavorable opinions of Israel have become more common.

The number of adults saying that they now hold an unfavorable view of Israel compared to a year ago jumped by 10 percentage points in South Korea; nine percentage points in Argentina, Germany, Italy and Nigeria; eight percentage points in Poland and the United Kingdom; seven in the United States; six in Indonesia and South Africa; five in Australia and Canada; and four in Turkey.

“People in all European countries surveyed also give relatively negative assessments of Israel,” Pew stated. “In Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, around half of adults or more say they have a very unfavorable view of the country.”

Pew found that respondents’ views of Israel often tracked the left-right ideological divide, with those on the left having more negative views of Israel and those on the right a more positive view.

“This gap is widest in the U.S.: 83% of liberals and 37% of conservatives have an unfavorable view of the country,” the researchers wrote. “In Australia, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, around nine-in-10 or more among the left have a negative view of Israel.”

“In each of these nations, that share is at least 23 percentage points higher than it is among those on the right,” they wrote.

Pew surveyed 44,657 people across 36 countries from Feb. 8 to May 13 as part of its global attitudes survey. The margin of error for its findings varies by country.

Asked about the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, majorities in most countries said that they were not confident that he would “do the right thing regarding world affairs.”

More than half of adults in countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom report having “no confidence at all” in Netanyahu’s judgment.

As with Israel’s overall favorability, the decline in opinion regarding Netanyahu has been sharpest in South Korea.