Six months of war between Israel and Hamas: what US residents think about the conflict

According to the survey Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), six months after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Americans still support the efforts of the Jewish State to destroy this terrorist organization.

Photo: iStock.com/Diy13

Only 28% of Americans support an unconditional ceasefire that would leave Hamas in power and hostages in the hands of terrorists. This is only slightly more than 20% of the US population that supported an immediate ceasefire in the first weeks of the war. Among American Jews, only 11% were in favor of an immediate ceasefire.

Americans list the release of hostages (51%), removal of Hamas from power (44%) and disarmament of the group (43%) as their top priorities when concluding a ceasefire agreement. American Jews chose the same priorities, but the percentage of support was much higher (80%, 73% and 67%, respectively).

“Despite the length of the war and the ongoing biased media coverage, Americans understand that Israel's fight against terrorism is our fight. "They know that a ceasefire without the return of the hostages and the final defeat of Hamas is wrong for Israel, wrong for Americans and wrong for the free world," the president and CEO said. Jewish Federations of North America Eric Fingerhut. “The deep bond between the American and Israeli people remains as strong as ever, despite the difficult political challenges of the past six months.”

92% of respondents said news about the war in Israel had a strong or tangible emotional impact on them. The increased emotional stress is likely due to the sharp rise in anti-Semitism, which has affected the sense of security of many American Jews. Among the U.S. population as a whole, the rate dropped 11 points from October 2023 to 48%.

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American Jews are nearly twice as likely as the general U.S. population (32%) to say they feel at least somewhat concerned about their personal safety (58%). 31% of Jews and 13% of the general US population feel very concerned about their safety.

These numbers are down slightly from last October, when Jews said 71% of them felt somewhat worried and 42% felt very worried. However, those Jews who were visually identifiable were almost 3 times more likely to say they worried about their safety “all the time.”

In October, these concerns were likely responsible for 25% of US Jews hiding distinctive Jewish paraphernalia such as yarmulkes and Stars of David. Over the past months, a large majority of those who previously reported hiding these items (66%) have made the decision to display their Jewishness visually, no matter what.

The survey was conducted via text message between February 23 and March 11, 2024, and included a sample of 1 Jewish Americans and 901 non-Jewish Americans.

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