Most people in US support cease-fire in Gaza — as Biden remains opposed, poll finds
Most Americans support a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip — while President Joe Biden remains opposed, according to new polling.
More than two-thirds of U.S. adults, 68%, said Israel should request a cease-fire and open diplomatic channels, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Nov. 15.
The poll questioned 1,006 American adults online during the second week of November and has a margin of error of around 4 percentage points.
The poll comes as Israel enters its second month of war against Hamas, the Islamic group that governs the Gaza Strip and whose militants killed 1,200 Israelis in an Oct 7 attack, Israeli officials said.
Israel’s airstrikes and ground assault have killed over 11,000 Palestinians in the small seaside territory, which has become a “graveyard for children,” according to Palestinian health officials and the United Nations. Multiple human rights organizations — including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International — have said Israel’s actions should be investigated as war crimes.
As the death toll mounts, American public support for Israel has waned, according to the poll.
About one-third, 32%, of respondents said America should continue backing Israel, which is down from 41% who said the same one month ago.
Meanwhile, the number of people who favor the U.S. acting as a neutral arbiter in the region has risen from 27% to 39%, according to the poll.
Less than one-third, 31%, of respondents supported arming Israel, while 43% said they opposed sending weapons.
The poll reveals U.S. public opinion is increasingly at odds with the position of government officials, who continue to greenlight weapons shipments to Israel and have dismissed calls for a cease-fire.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Oct. 31 testimony on Capitol Hill, said that a cease-fire would “simply consolidate what Hamas has been able to do and allow it to remain where it is and potentially repeat what it did another day.”
Few members of Congress — including only 4% of House members — publicly support a cease-fire, according to data compiled by the Security Policy Reform Institute, a think tank, in October.
When asked about the chances of a cease-fire in Gaza on Nov. 9, Biden said, “None. No possibility.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Most people in US support cease-fire in Gaza — as Biden remains opposed, poll finds."