Summary
A new Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) survey, led by Dr. Irwin J. Mansdorf and Dr. Charles Jacobs, found that American attitudes toward Israel remain largely unchanged even when presented with evidence that most Palestinians support Hamas and its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Conducted among 322 American adults, the study revealed that factual information has little impact on entrenched public perceptions.
While 53% of Palestinians reportedly viewed Hamas’s attack as justified, and 44% said they would vote for Hamas, Americans largely maintained pre-existing opinions—only 19% expressed support for Israel, while 27% sympathized with Palestinians.
The researchers concluded that U.S. views are emotionally driven and resistant to facts, particularly among younger Americans. They suggest that Israeli public diplomacy should focus on personal narratives and human stories to overcome emotional barriers in Western opinion.
Despite being presented with data showing that more than half of Palestinians support Hamas and its October 7, 2023, attack, American attitudes toward Israel remain largely unchanged. “Public perceptions are already entrenched, and therefore the impact of new information is very limited”
A new survey by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA), examining the impact of information exposure on American attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, found that even when respondents were presented with unequivocal evidence of widespread Palestinian support for Hamas and terrorism, many Americans continued to hold critical and unsympathetic views of Israel. The findings suggest that American perceptions of Israel are highly resistant to change, even when confronted with factual data that contradicts the prevailing pro-Palestinian narrative.
The survey, led by JCFA senior researcher, Dr. Irwin J. Mansdorf, in collaboration with Dr. Charles Jacobs, head of the Jewish Leadership Project, was conducted among 322 American adults, representing a national sample of the U.S. population. Participants were shown data from a recent Palestinian poll conducted after the end of the Gaza war, indicating that 53% of Palestinians believe Hamas’s October 7 attack was justified, and 60% expressed satisfaction with Hamas’s wartime performance. In addition, 44% of Palestinians said they would vote for Hamas if elections were held today, while only 27% expressed support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Following the publication of the Palestinian poll, criticism also emerged, including from American journalist and author Ahmad Fouad Alkhatib, a former fellow at the Atlantic Council, who argued that the poll’s findings were unreliable and may reflect manipulation by Hamas and media outlets aligned with it. However, the findings of the current JCFA study are not contingent upon whether the Palestinian data accurately reflect reality, as the American respondents were asked to react to the perception of the information as presented to them, rather than to its factual accuracy. Therefore, even if questions remain about the credibility of polling conducted in Gaza, the conclusions of the present study, concerning how information is processed by the American public, remain fully valid.
The new findings reveal that these data, potentially damning to the Palestinian narrative, had almost no effect on Americans’ views of the conflict. “We observed only a marginal change in responses,” said Dr. Mansdorf. “Most Americans continued to express attitudes consistent with their prior beliefs: about 27% sympathized with Palestinians but not Hamas, 19% supported Israel, and roughly 20% said neither side deserves sympathy.”
On the question of a political resolution, 42% of respondents supported the creation of an independent Palestinian state. However, when presented with information that Palestinians reject recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and continue to promote anti-Israel education and terrorism, support dropped sharply, with many respondents shifting toward favoring Israeli security control over Palestinian areas.
According to Dr. Mansdorf, “The key finding is not merely the lack of impact, but the extent to which public attitudes in the U.S. are already fixed, especially among younger Americans. Even when presented with clear evidence of widespread support for terrorism, their opinions barely move. This points to a deep erosion in the power of factual information to shape perceptions of Israel.”
Dr. Jacobs added that Western perceptions of the Palestinians are guided more by emotion and imagery than by reason. “Decades of pro-Palestinian advocacy have shaped a mindset in which Palestinians are seen as the ultimate victims of Western oppression, granting them a kind of moral immunity even when their actions involve violence or the denial of another people’s rights.” Changing this perception, he argues, would require a long-term, deliberate campaign highlighting the problematic aspects of Palestinian society and culture, a step that most mainstream Jewish organizations in the West are unlikely to pursue.
The survey highlights a broader trend in American public consciousness: “The challenge is no longer about changing opinions, but about understanding why they don’t change,” the researchers conclude. “This offers an important signal for Israeli public diplomacy: to influence Western opinion, Israel must shift from broad moral arguments to focused facts and human stories that can penetrate emotional resistance.”
