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Israeli officials cancel DC visit after UN cease-fire vote
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer joined ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss why Israeli officials aren’t happy with the vote and their response to U.S. officials as war rages in Gaza.
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Approval of Israel’s actions in Gaza has fallen among Americans for the first time since the conflict began, according to the newest Gallup poll published Wednesday.
“While there have been other recent surveys showing continued support for Israel, you have to expect there will be a negative impact on Democratic voters when the leader of the party engages in non-stop political warfare against Israel on a daily basis,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and former National Security Council official, told Fox News Digital. “President Biden is doing permanent damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Gallup’s poll on Israel in Gaza, taken in November when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first pushed his forces into the Palestinian enclave, found that at least half of all Americans approved of the operation – with 45% disapproving and 4% having no opinion.
The poll was taken before the United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire during Ramadan, Gallup noted.
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“The U.S. action at the U.N. has driven U.S.-Israel relations to a low point in their history and left America’s reputation as a credible ally in ruins,” Caroline Glick, one of Israel’s leading experts on American-Israeli relations, told Fox News Digital. She continued, “Israel is engaged in a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies for its survival. In Tehran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Israel’s enemies saw on Monday that the U.S. has abandoned Israel at the height of the war, effectively adopting Hamas’ positions as its own.”
President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AP Photo)
The latest survey, taken between March 1 and 20, found that 55% of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s actions, with 36% approving, and 9% having no opinion. Of those polled, 74% said they are actively following news of the crisis (a minor uptick from the 72% who said the same in November).
Political division over approval remains clear and consistent: Republicans still overwhelmingly approve, even if that approval dropped from 71% in November to 64% in March. Democrats, who mostly disapproved of the action even in November, saw support plummet to 18%, with 75% disapproval.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Israeli Defense Force soldiers on the front lines ahead of the initial ground invasion. (Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו @netanyahu)
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Gallup highlighted the difficulty President Biden faces among his “most loyal supporters,” with some critics arguing the president “has been too closely aligned with Israel by not taking stronger actions to promote a cease-fire and to assist Palestinian civilians caught in the war zone.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield votes during a Security Council meeting on a cease-fire in Gaza at U.N. headquarters on March 25, 2024, in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Jon Alterman, director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Middle East Program, told Fox News Digital that Americans have absorbed the conflict through multiple channels – traditional media, social media and even conversation with friends and colleagues – but the coverage has differed in some areas.
“Some Israeli leaders have been critical of their country’s own outreach, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who complained last week that he’s surrounded by people who ‘can’t put two words together in English,’” Alterman explained.
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“I’m also struck that the narrative in Israel is profoundly different from the narrative in the rest of the world,” Alterman said. “Israelis are preoccupied by stories of their own suffering and heroism, as well as persistent threats from Palestinians. There is virtually nothing in the Hebrew press about either civilian casualties in Gaza or humanitarian conditions there.”
Palestinians scatter as violence erupts during a humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza City on Feb. 29. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Essa, File)
“The international press carries both sets of stories, but it seems to me that many Israelis are embedded in their own narratives, and that makes it harder for them to shape other ones,” he added. “They end up rejecting those narratives as biased or illegitimate, rather than reshape them.”
While Republicans approve of what Israel has done, Biden himself only has 16% approval for his handling of the situation, according to a Gallup poll released last week, while Democrats had 47% approval – still a significant drop from the 60% approval in November.
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Biden’s overall approval rating has hit around 40%, according to the pollster – up from 37% in the November survey, but Gallup ascribed the shift to greater confidence in the economy than anything he’s done with Israel.
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news.