Voters broadly disapprove of the way President Joe Biden is handling the bloody strife between Israelis and Hamas, a New York Times/Siena College poll has found, with younger Americans far more critical than older voters of both Israel’s conduct and of the administration’s response to the war in the Gaza Strip.
Voters are also sending mixed signals about the direction US policymaking should take as the Israel-Hamas war grinds into its third month, with Israelis still reeling from the October 7 terrorist attack, thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the Biden administration trying to pressure Israel to scale back its military campaign. Nearly as many Americans want Israel to continue its military campaign as want it to stop now to avoid further civilian casualties.
That split appears to leave the President with few politically palatable options.
The findings of the Times/Siena poll hold portents not only for Biden as he enters the 2024 reelection year but also for long-term relations between the Jewish state and its most powerful benefactor, the US.
The fractured views on the conflict among traditionally Democratic voter groups show the continued difficulty Biden faces in holding together the coalition he built in 2020 — a challenge that is likely to persist even as economic indicators grow more positive and legal troubles swirl around his expected opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Overall, registered voters say they favour Trump over Biden in next year’s presidential election by 2 percentage points, 46 per cent to 44 per cent. The President’s job approval rating has slid to 37 per cent, down 2 points from July.
However, there is considerable uncertainty over whether disaffected voters will even vote. While it is still early, the race is flipped among the likely electorate, with Biden leading by 2 percentage points.
Economic concerns remain paramount, with 34 per cent of registered voters listing economic- or inflation-related concerns as the top issue facing the country. That’s down from 45 per cent in October 2022, but still high.
Voters between 18 and 29 years old, traditionally a heavily Democratic demographic, jump out. Nearly three-quarters of them disapprove of the way Biden is handling the conflict in Gaza. And among registered voters, they say they would vote for Trump by 49 per cent to 43 per cent; in July, those young voters backed Biden by 10 percentage points.
New York Times News Service
