Almost half want Biden to pressure Israel on Gaza humanitarian conditions: Survey
Almost half of the respondents in a new survey want President Biden to put more pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 45 percent of respondents said Biden should do more to pressure Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis.
About 33 percent argued that Biden should do more to support Israel’s security. Nearly 17 percent were undecided and 4.5 percent refused to answer, the survey found.
Younger voters have consistently called on Biden to condemn Israel’s counteroffensive and call for a cease-fire to allow for more humanitarian aid to be sent to civilians in Gaza. The new survey shows support for Palestinians may now be growing among older voters.
Among respondents aged 18 to 34, 49 percent said they support Biden putting more pressure on Israel while 48 percent of respondents aged 35 to 49 said the same. Among respondents aged 50 to 64, 41 percent said they support Biden doing more and 43 percent of respondents 65 years and older did, as well.
Democratic respondents were more likely to say they support Biden increasing his pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; 69 percent wanted to see the president do more, while 49 percent of independent voters said the same. Just 18 percent of Republican respondents said Biden should put more pressure on the U.S. ally.
Public attention has become much more focused in recent days on the starvation of civilians in Gaza, like Yazan Kafarneh, a 10-year-old boy whose skeletal image was featured on the front page of The New York Times last week after circulating widely on social media.
Following his State of the Union address, Biden announced the U.S. military would airdrop aid into Gaza and build a temporary port off the coast of Gaza to deliver supplies to civilians.
Biden, who clinched the delegates needed for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this week, has walked a fine line since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, marking the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
He has continued negotiations with Netanyahu and the Israeli government, but Democratic lawmakers are ramping up their demands for the U.S. to halt its funding to Israel.
The survey was conducted March 8-11 among 1,000 people. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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