The FINANCIAL — As fighting continues to rage in Gaza amid calls for a cease-fire, about twice as many Americans say Hamas (40%) as Israel (19%) is responsible for the current violence, according to Pew Research Center.
Just a quarter (25%) believe that Israel has gone too far in responding to the conflict; far more think Israel’s response has been about right (35%) or that it has not gone far enough (15%).
A majority of Republicans (60%) say Hamas is most responsible for the current violence. Democrats are divided: 29% say Hamas is more responsible, 26% Israel, while 18% volunteer that both sides are responsible, according to Pew Research Center.
There also are deep differences over Israel’s response to the conflict: Nearly half of Republicans (46%) say Israel’s response has been about right while another 19% say it has not gone far enough; just 16% think Israel’s response has been excessive. Among Democrats, as many say Israel has gone too far (35%) as say its response has been about right (31%); 9% say Israel has not gone far enough.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this month found that the partisan gap in Mideast sympathies is as wide as it has been at any point since the late 1970s. Nearly three quarters of Republicans (73%) said they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians, compared with 45% of independents and 44% of Democrats.
Views of Israel’s Response to the Conflict
There are broad demographic divides in views of Israel’s response to the conflict that go beyond party identification.
By about two-to-one (40% to 22%), more whites consider Israel’s response to the current conflict about right than say it has gone too far. By contrast, blacks and Hispanics are about as likely to say Israel’s response has gone too far as to say it has been appropriate (36%-27% and 35%-28%, respectively), according to Pew Research Center.
Older Americans have long offered more support for Israel than younger adults. In the current survey, a 39% plurality of those over 50 say Israel’s response to the conflict has been about right, compared with 22% who say it has gone too far. Among those under 50, about as many say Israel’s actions have been excessive (29%) as appropriate (33%).
College graduates are roughly divided between viewing the Israeli response as having gone too far (32%) and saying it has been about right (36%). Among those with less education, pluralities say the response from Israel has been appropriate, according to Pew Research Center.
Liberal Democrats are among the most likely to view Israel’s response as excessive: 44% say they have gone too far in the conflict with Hamas, compared to 33% who say the response has been about right. At the other end of the spectrum, 51% of conservative Republicans say Israel’s response has been about right; just 10% say it has gone too far.
When fighting flared between Israel and Hamas in January 2009, 50% said the Israeli response to the conflict was about right compared with 24% who thought it went too far; just 7% thought Israel did not go far enough.
And in August 2006, amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the plurality view also was that Israel’s response was appropriate (44%). About a quarter said it had gone too far (23%), compared with 15% who said it had not gone far enough, according to Pew Research Center.
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