The views of Americans on Israel have fallen close to their lowest levels on record, while support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state has risen to one of its highest levels in more than two decades, according to the latest research from Gallup.

 

The company’s annual update on US attitudes toward the Middle East reveals a significant shift in public opinion over the past year.

 

For the first time in the poll’s 25-year history, it found, that Israel which has held large, double-digit leads in terms of US sympathy, this year it did not and more Americans said they sympathized with the Palestinians.

 

In the Gallup poll of 1,001 adults, carried out between February 2 and 16, 2026, 41 per cent said they sympathized more with the Palestinians, compared with 36 per cent who sympathized more with the Israelis.

 

Though the five- per centage-point difference is not statistically significant, it contrasts sharply with the results of a Gallup poll a year ago, in which more people (46 per cent) were sympathetic to the Israelis than the Palestinians (33 per cent).

 

The latest shift wasn’t just among Democrats, whose opinion of Israel has been in free fall in recent years,

 

the shift has largely been driven by political independents, whose sympathies now favor Palestinians over Israelis by a margin of 41 per cent to 30 per cent.

 

Previously, independents consistently leaned toward Israelis, including 42 per cent last year compared with 34 for Palestinians.

 

Democrats’ sympathies haven’t changed significantly over the past year, having already flipped strongly toward the Palestinians in 2025 after first tilting that way in 2023.

 

Currently, 65 per cent of Democrats say their sympathies lie more with the Palestinians, while 17 per cent say they sympathize more with the Israelis.

 

Republicans continue to express greater sympathy for the Israelis than the Palestinians.

 

Seven in 10 Republicans (70 per cent) say they sympathize more with the Israelis, compared with 13 per cent who sympathize more with the Palestinians. Although this remains a substantial gap, sympathy for the Israelis among Republicans has declined by 10 points since 2024 to its lowest level since 2004.

 

However, the gap started to shrink in 2019, long before the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. This gradual shift in attitudes over the past seven years has now reached the point where Israel no longer holds a clear advantage in terms of American sympathy.

 

Generational differences in attitudes are also pronounced. Among Americans between the ages of 18 and 34, 53 per cent said they sympathize more with Palestinians. It was the first time a majority in this age group had taken that position. Only 23 per cent sympathized more with Israelis, a record low.

 

Americans age 55 and older remain more sympathetic to Israelis: 49 per cent compared with 31 per cent for Palestinians. However, this year was the first since 2005 in which less than half of older Americans sympathized more with Israelis.

 

Beyond the question of sympathies, the poll also found that overall favorability ratings of Israel and the Palestinian territories had also shifted.

 

Americans rated Israel much more favorably than the Occupied Palestinian Territories in Gallup surveys between 2000 to 2024.

 

The latest poll found that views on Israel were among the least positive Gallup has measured. Meanwhile, views on the Palestinian territories, though still net negative overall, were the most positive on record.

 

Support among Americans for a two-state solution also reached one of the highest levels in the history of tracking by Gallup as 57 per cent of respondents said they favored the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, 28 per cent opposed it and 15 per cent had no opinion.

 

The support was strongest among Democrats, at 77 per cent, and 57 per cent of independents also backed a two-state solution, levels that have been generally consistent since 2023.

 

Republican support has fluctuated sharply in recent years. It fell from 43 per cent before the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023 to 26 per cent in the immediate aftermath, the largest single-year drop recorded among any party group. Support rebounded to 41 per cent last year, before declining again to 33 per cent in the latest survey.

 

With the exception of 2024, the current 44 percentage point gap between Democrats and Republicans is the widest Gallup has recorded on the issue.

 

“It is difficult to overstate the significance of this,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in response to the Gallup survey. “This is a key reason why Israel—and its supporters in the US—have a sense of desperate urgency when it comes to war with Iran and annexation of Palestine.”

 

“The window for these aggressions with US support is closing,” Parsi added.

 

Although the new poll found that Americans’ support for a Palestinian state is at its highest level in more than two decades, current Israeli leaders vow to prevent Palestinian statehood and ramp up their illegal annexation of territory—an effort effectively endorsed by the Trump administration.

 

The US remains Israel’s main ally in the international community, providing both military and diplomatic backing to the Israeli state.