The attitudes of Americans to the Middle East in general and Israel in particular has for decades been totally predicable.

The overwhelming consensus – demonstrated by years of polling – is that Americans support Israel and have no sympathy for the Palestinians.

Now Donald Trump’s Iran War and Israel’s war with the Palestinians have profoundly altered attitudes.

Of course, while we call it a Trump war it is very probably one he had been goaded into partly by Israel and Netanyahu and partly by his own hubris.

According to Gallup polling from 2001 to 2025 Israelis consistently held double-digit leads in Americans’ Middle East sympathies, with the gap averaging 43 % between 2001 and 2018.

Gallup identified, however, a narrowing of attitudes in 2019.  Now, in 2026, 41% of Americans say they sympathise more with Palestinians in the Middle east situation while 36% sympathise more with the Israelis.

The split is probably not statistically significant, but it is a clear contrast between the large leads over the past 24 years. Gallup suggests that it seems that there has been a cumulative effect of gradual changes in US attitudes which has led to the Israelis no longer being viewed more sympathetically.

The Gallup poll showed that for the first time adults aged 55 and over 49% sympathise more with Israel while only 31% sympathise with Palestinians. What is significant about this finding is that it is the first time since 1995 that less than half of older Americans have said they sympathise with Isreal.

In terms of favourability Americans are less favourable towards Israel while their view of Palestinian territories has improved. 48% of Americans are positive on this rating.

For the first time as many independents hold a very or mostly favourable view of the Palestinians Territories as they do of Israel. Gallup says that 57% of US adults favour the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel – the so-called ‘two state solution.”

Of course, that is now academic given Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians, its ethnic cleansing strategies and the rapid takeover of more land in the West Bank and other places such as Lebanon.

Every day Israeli settlers push further into the West Bank. Israeli Lt General Eyal Zamir visited the West Bank and condemned the violence and attacks saying they were “nationalist crime incidents…morally and ethnically unacceptable.” (The Economist 29/3)

Sadly, he didn’t mention that much of the ethnic cleansing was being carried out by Israeli Defence Forces soldiers.

Meanwhile, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – is facing a backlash.

The Economist (28/3) also reported that sales of a 20 year old book is resurfacing as a bestseller.

The John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt book – The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy – “argued that a loose coalition of pro-Israel advocacy groups exerted significant influence over American policy debates at times steering decision-makers in directions – such as support for the Iraq War- that proved bad for America,” The Economist said.

The lobby group spent US100 million in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. It also works with a variety of front groups which don’t mention Israel – such as recent campaigns in New Jersey and North Carolina.

“In Illinois two of the four AIPAC candidates won. An AIPAC backed candidate in North Carolina, Valerie Foushee, disavowed it on the campaign trail and in New Jersey a pro-Palestinian candidate won.”

The killing goes on. The lobbyists remain activists. Critics face pile ons and accusations of anti-semitism and the Albanese Government laid out the red carpet for the Israeli President Isaac Herzog.