More than one in three Americans believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a poll published on Wednesday has found.
According to the Economist/YouGov poll, roughly equal numbers of adults believe Israel’s military campaign against Palestinians, which is estimated to have killed more than 25,000 people since 7 October, amounts to genocide: 35% say it is, 36% say it isn’t, with 29% undecided.
Let me be clear, the undecided respondents weren’t sure if they should call what Israel is doing genocide not that they agree with it (which means if they are undecided about using such a strong word, they definitely don’t agree with it). This was from a poll more than a month old, the amount of evidence of Israel committing genocide on Palestinians has only been tragically mounting everyday, that poll taken in the US today in all likelihood would show even less support for children being slaughtered on mass.
Biden is making a massive failure by standing behind Israel because while the mainstream media in the US is in lockstep behind Israel, in general USians aren’t fooled about what is happening here. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for voters in Israel, while Netanyahu isn’t necessarily well loved his policies are popular in the polling within Israel (which is something Israeli Jews are going to have to grapple with for decades to come, how could they have done something so awful in the name of swearing the holocaust would never happen again?).
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/24/americans-believe-israel-committing-genocide-poll
If Democrats pivot hard against Netanyahu, they run the risk of Republican ads appealing to low-education voters that, “Biden is sympathetic to Hamas and has no sympathy for October 7th, undermining the defense of Israel and risking another terrorist attack! iS BiDen an aNtiSeMiTe!?”
No, Biden is convinced he lives in this reality but the polling in the US establishes quite firmly that this is a fantasy, Israel is speedrunning becoming a pariah state internationally and in the US and Biden refusing to reign in the genocide happening in Israel could very well cost him the election (and if it does, well maybe it should have).
I feel that’s pretty concerning that the plurality says it’s not committing genocide and another 1/3 is unsure. It doesn’t seem that article identified independents or swing-voters. One calculus Biden admin must make is: since the majority of those who claim Israel is committing genocide are Democrats, are said voters really going to stand by and not vote for Biden and let the guy who is objectively worse and will most certainly not just indirectly but directly engage in genocide? Considering these are the better educated voters, I’d hope not and Biden strategists may call their bluff. At least that’s what I’d be discussing on the oval office meeting for reelection.
Ultimately the public needs informed of the atrocities of Israel and Biden should probably try to distinguish Netanyahu’s far-right administration and overstep in response to October 7th from support of Israeli citizens themselves. That’s the needle that needs threaded.
I feel that’s pretty concerning that the plurality says it’s not committing genocide and another 1/3 is unsure.
2/3rds of people in the US think Israel is either committing genocide or they are unwilling to say Israel is definitively NOT committing genocide (which, if you didn’t care or thought what they were doing was fine you wouldn’t say you were undecided on whether Israel is committing genocide, people don’t just throw that word around lightly).
There are very few issues in the US that are a safer bet and besides Netanyahu is quite openly signaling that he hopes Trump wins the election, and yet Biden keeps trying to sidle up to this guy like he is his ally. It isn’t just ethically wrong, it is an incredible unforced political blunder.
edit y’all wanna still argue that Biden is making a good choice here? Biden is stuck in the past and the US populous is screaming for Biden to stop directly enabling genocide. Biden is heading for disaster by being so incredibly out of touch on this issue, and I am really fucking tired of people saying “oh well, when we examine this much later then we will have a serious discussion about it” which is conveniently having the discussion after every single damn Palestinian is either killed or displaced from their homes in Gaza.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx
I’m not sure those numbers are as rosy for your argument as you’d think. You’re not considering the possibility of someone that does think it’s genocide and wholy approves of it. Which does exist, the “glass em all” types like my father.
I’m pretty sure it all balances out, because other polls are showing it’s still Israel with the popularity advantage even with the downturn.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/611375/americans-views-israel-palestinian-authority-down.aspx
It’s especially telling that desire to pressure the Palestinians to compromise is dropping faster than the increase to pressure Israel: it’s either people just becoming wishy washy or intentionally wanting the conflict to continue until Israel wipes them out. (Kinda wish Gallup didn’t nix the differentiation between those options tbh).
How is it not 2 sides of the same coin:
2/3rds of people in the US think Israel is either NOT committing genocide or they are unwilling to say Israel definitely IS committing genocide (which, if you didn’t care or thought what they were doing wasn’t fine you wouldn’t say you were undecided on whether Israel isn’t committing genocide, people don’t just throw that word around lightly).
For instance, perhaps there are those waiting for the ICC’s verdict.
The only thing that really matters —for aforementioned unaddressed reasons pertaining to the predominantly Democratic voters believing it is genocide — is what swing-voters believe; and if they are undecided or believe Israel is not committing genocide, then they will be the most susceptible to the right-wing propaganda machine that is going to ramp up in the coming months. Biden advisors will clearly wait to see where they fall before fully committing to either side.
And ultimately: Does anyone here actually believe Biden wants to be associated with Genocide? Is he a homicidal maniac happy to see Palestinians suffer? I don’t get that impression.
And If it were that cut-and-dry, why wouldn’t he just abandon Netanyahu entirely?
So it begs the question: what do we as armchair lemmy geniuses believe we know better than the consensus of his advisors and strategists with far more experience and precision survey data than we have?
