June 12, 2025
MONDOWEISS
The Israeli and U.S. flags fly a boat sailing from Tiberias to Kibbutz Ginnosar in the Galilee. (Photo: James Emery/Wikimedia)
This week, Quinnipiac released a poll surveying U.S. opinion on a number of issues.
One of those issues was the Middle East. U.S. voters were asked whether their sympathies lie with the Palestinians or the Israelis. 37% said the Israelis, 32% said the Palestinians, and 31% did not offer an opinion.
That’s an all-time low for Israelis and an all-time high for Palestinians, since the polling center began asking voters the question in December 2001.
Among Republicans, Israel remains popular. 64% of them sympathize with the Israelis, and just 7% sympathize with the Palestinians. 29% did not offer an opinion.
However, these results require some context. That’s an 18% drop for Republicans from last year and the largest amount to offer no opinion since the poll began.
Among Democratic voters, Israel’s reputation is in shambles. Just 12% of them sympathize more with Israelis. 60% sympathize with the Palestinians and 29% did not offer an opinion.
These statistics are staggering, but they’re not altogether surprising. Israel’s brand has shown consistent decline among Democrats over the past decade, and the genocide has inevitably sped up that drop.
A March Pew Poll found that 69% of Democrats have an unfavorable view toward Israel, up 16 points from 53% in 2022.
You see a similar dip with the Quinnipiac poll. One was carried out just weeks after October 7. In that survey 41% of Democrats said they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 34% said Israelis. In 19 months, support for Palestinians has jumped by nearly 20 points, while support for Israelis has gone down by more than 20 points.
Amid this shift comes the New York City mayoral race, where Israel has emerged as a predominant issue with the party primaries coming up on June 24.
The mainstream media, the right-wing press, pro-Israel pundits, and local lawmakers have smeared candidate Zohran Mamdani as an antisemite for the crime of supporting BDS and refusing to publicly endorse the concept of an ethnostate.
“The Orthodox Jewish community is not afraid enough,” Sam Berger, an Orthodox Queens state assemblyman and Cuomo supporter, recently told Jewish Insider. “While the public generally takes its time to pay attention, we do not have that luxury this year. After two antisemitic attacks in under two weeks echoing the same rhetoric we have persistently warned against from the No. 2 mayoral candidate, we need to vote like our lives depend on it.”
“Jewish lives will be at stake if this man is elected,” declared pro-Israel NYC Council member Inna Vernikov. “He’s going to enable antisemitism like this city has never seen. If he wins and TRUE principled conservatives don’t remain in the Council, violence will SKYROCKET. Don’t just watch it unfold. Act. VOTE!”
A Super PAC backing frontrunner Andrew Cuomo recently sent out a mailer darkening and lengthening Mamdani’s beard.
A recent poll carried out by Justin Brannan’s city comptroller campaign doesn’t just find Mamdani surging, but taking the lead. It could be an outlier, but it will undoubtedly cause panic and prompt further attacks.
Even if Mamdani comes close to beating Cuomo, the race could have reverberations.
“I think Cuomo’s attempt to Israelize the election is going to backfire,” political consultant Peter Feld told me in April. “This could actually help give Mamdani the further strength to overtake him. If that happens, I think it’s going to set the table for some of the primaries next year.”
A recent Emerson College poll found that 53% of NYC Democratic primary voters do not think it’s important for the next mayor to be pro-Israel, while fewer than one-third (31%) think it is.
No wonder AIPAC spends millions on primaries.
This week, Quinnipiac released a poll surveying U.S. opinion on a number of issues.
One of those issues was the Middle East. U.S. voters were asked whether their sympathies lie with the Palestinians or the Israelis. 37% said the Israelis, 32% said the Palestinians, and 31% did not offer an opinion.
That’s an all-time low for Israelis and an all-time high for Palestinians, since the polling center began asking voters the question in December 2001.
Among Republicans, Israel remains popular. 64% of them sympathize with the Israelis, and just 7% sympathize with the Palestinians. 29% did not offer an opinion.
However, these results require some context. That’s an 18% drop for Republicans from last year and the largest amount to offer no opinion since the poll began.
Among Democratic voters, Israel’s reputation is in shambles. Just 12% of them sympathize more with Israelis. 60% sympathize with the Palestinians and 29% did not offer an opinion.
These statistics are staggering, but they’re not altogether surprising. Israel’s brand has shown consistent decline among Democrats over the past decade, and the genocide has inevitably sped up that drop.
A March Pew Poll found that 69% of Democrats have an unfavorable view toward Israel, up 16 points from 53% in 2022.
You see a similar dip with the Quinnipiac poll. One was carried out just weeks after October 7. In that survey 41% of Democrats said they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 34% said Israelis. In 19 months, support for Palestinians has jumped by nearly 20 points, while support for Israelis has gone down by more than 20 points.
Amid this shift comes the New York City mayoral race, where Israel has emerged as a predominant issue with the party primaries coming up on June 24.
The mainstream media, the right-wing press, pro-Israel pundits, and local lawmakers have smeared candidate Zohran Mamdani as an antisemite for the crime of supporting BDS and refusing to publicly endorse the concept of an ethnostate.
“The Orthodox Jewish community is not afraid enough,” Sam Berger, an Orthodox Queens state assemblyman and Cuomo supporter, recently told Jewish Insider. “While the public generally takes its time to pay attention, we do not have that luxury this year. After two antisemitic attacks in under two weeks echoing the same rhetoric we have persistently warned against from the No. 2 mayoral candidate, we need to vote like our lives depend on it.”
“Jewish lives will be at stake if this man is elected,” declared pro-Israel NYC Council member Inna Vernikov. “He’s going to enable antisemitism like this city has never seen. If he wins and TRUE principled conservatives don’t remain in the Council, violence will SKYROCKET. Don’t just watch it unfold. Act. VOTE!”
A Super PAC backing frontrunner Andrew Cuomo recently sent out a mailer darkening and lengthening Mamdani’s beard.
A recent poll carried out by Justin Brannan’s city comptroller campaign doesn’t just find Mamdani surging, but taking the lead. It could be an outlier, but it will undoubtedly cause panic and prompt further attacks.
Even if Mamdani comes close to beating Cuomo, the race could have reverberations.
“I think Cuomo’s attempt to Israelize the election is going to backfire,” political consultant Peter Feld told me in April. “This could actually help give Mamdani the further strength to overtake him. If that happens, I think it’s going to set the table for some of the primaries next year.”
A recent Emerson College poll found that 53% of NYC Democratic primary voters do not think it’s important for the next mayor to be pro-Israel, while fewer than one-third (31%) think it is.
No wonder AIPAC spends millions on primaries.
Stifling dissent
This week, activists with the antiwar group CODEPINK confronted Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) over his consistent support for Israel.
Sherman told the protesters that their advocacy was “working for the genocide of the Jewish people.”
Not to be outdone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) says that she has spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson about banning CODEPINK from the Capitol Building. Luna claims that the group is “directly tied” to China. Johnson says he’s looking into it.
This effort is certainly not unique. The Trump administration was already aggressively targeting Palestine activists before the Israeli Embassy killings and the Colorado attack. Since then, we have seen further calls for investigations, arrests, and censorship. Now the Los Angeles protests have generated calls for more crackdowns.
Mondoweiss just ran an important piece by Ahmad Ibsais, connecting the fight for Gaza to the anti-ICE protests in the United States. It’s not just the struggles that are linked, but so are the efforts to destroy them.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is sometimes imagined to be a populist by certain segments of social media, just launched an investigation into organizations that are allegedly “bankrolling the LA riots.”
Hawley sent letters to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Union del Barrio demanding that the groups hand over all internal communications, financial documents, travel records, and donor lists.
“Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions. Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech,” claims Hawley’s letter. “It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding, or promotion of these unlawful activities.”
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) just introduced the No Visas for Violent Criminals Act and the Mitigating Extreme Lawlessness and Threats Act. These bills would establish mandatory minimums for “violent rioters” and require deportation for non-citizens convicted of a criminal offense during a protest.
“My bills make clear that Americans will not tolerate lawless rioting in support of illegal immigration,” declared Cotton.
Expect more of this stuff in the coming weeks.
This week, activists with the antiwar group CODEPINK confronted Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) over his consistent support for Israel.
Sherman told the protesters that their advocacy was “working for the genocide of the Jewish people.”
Not to be outdone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) says that she has spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson about banning CODEPINK from the Capitol Building. Luna claims that the group is “directly tied” to China. Johnson says he’s looking into it.
This effort is certainly not unique. The Trump administration was already aggressively targeting Palestine activists before the Israeli Embassy killings and the Colorado attack. Since then, we have seen further calls for investigations, arrests, and censorship. Now the Los Angeles protests have generated calls for more crackdowns.
Mondoweiss just ran an important piece by Ahmad Ibsais, connecting the fight for Gaza to the anti-ICE protests in the United States. It’s not just the struggles that are linked, but so are the efforts to destroy them.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is sometimes imagined to be a populist by certain segments of social media, just launched an investigation into organizations that are allegedly “bankrolling the LA riots.”
Hawley sent letters to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Union del Barrio demanding that the groups hand over all internal communications, financial documents, travel records, and donor lists.
“Credible reporting now suggests that your organization has provided logistical support and financial resources to individuals engaged in these disruptive actions. Let me be clear: bankrolling civil unrest is not protected speech,” claims Hawley’s letter. “It is aiding and abetting criminal conduct. Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist any further involvement in the organization, funding, or promotion of these unlawful activities.”
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) just introduced the No Visas for Violent Criminals Act and the Mitigating Extreme Lawlessness and Threats Act. These bills would establish mandatory minimums for “violent rioters” and require deportation for non-citizens convicted of a criminal offense during a protest.
“My bills make clear that Americans will not tolerate lawless rioting in support of illegal immigration,” declared Cotton.
Expect more of this stuff in the coming weeks.
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