Overall Support for Israel

are not only more aware of BDS, but also more sympathetic, with a quarter (24%) supporting it.

The majority of U.S. Jews are pro-Israel but critical of some Israeli policies

An overwhelming 84% majority of American Jews identify as pro-Israel. This includes those who identify themselves as pro-Israel, but are critical of certain policies. Still, the near unanimity around being pro-Israel – even allowing for criticism – is worth noting. Across age, denomination, engagement, and political party over two-thirds identify as pro-Israel.

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Even among those unengaged in the community, 67% consider themselves pro-Israel. Similar majorities of engaged (56%) and unengaged (57%) Jews consider themselves pro-Israel but still critical of some Israeli policies. The difference is the level of uncritical support. Among the engaged, nearly a third (30%) are pro-Israel and not critical of Israeli policies, compared to 18% among the unengaged.

There is very little opposition or anti-Israel sentiment. Of those who are not pro-Israel, 8% are saying they are not sure or do not know, leaving only 8% identifying as “generally not pro-Israel”. This is slightly higher at 12% among both independents and non-denominational Jews.

This large pro-Israel majority is similar to 2019, but there have been changes beneath the surface

Those identifying as pro-Israel increased slightly, going up 4 points from 80% in 2019 to 84% in 2021. There was also a slight shift from “pro-Israel and generally supportive of Israeli policies” which went from 23% to 19%. This was offset by a larger 8 point increase in “pro-Israel but critical” going from 57% to 65%.

The bigger movement is the shift by demographics and individual level changes. This is most likely in response to the Israeli elections and change of government which occurred months before the 2021 survey was conducted.

In the 2019 poll, taken when Prime Minister Netanyahu was leading the government, a 61% majority of Republican Jews were pro-Israel and generally supportive of Israeli policies. This is more than double the 27% who were pro-Israel but critical. After the election, Republicans were almost evenly split between pro-Israel and generally supportive (49%) and pro-Israel but critical of some, or most, policies (45%). The same sort of shift occurred among the Orthodox.

The shift among Democrats was not as large. But there was a decrease in those who were not sure and a 5 point increase in Pro-Israel but critical.

Looking at the individual level response shows more change than on any other indicator. Over half the respondents (51%) had some change in their intensity on the pro-Israel scale -- which includes moving from ”strongly” pro-Israel and generally supportive to “not so strongly”. The majority of that shift (29%) was becoming less strongly pro-Israel. The biggest shifters in that direction included include Republicans (34%), Orthodox (36%) and the engaged (33%). Among independent respondents 41% shifted towards less intense supportive positions, but this is a relatively smaller sample size.

Among Democrats there was shift in the opposite direction, actually changing categories – such as moving from pro-Israel, but critical of most policies to critical of some policies. One in five (20%) of Democrats moved category towards less critical support.