Many American voters who support some sort of peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority apparently do so because they don’t actually understand the nature of the conflict in the Middle East.
That’s one conclusion that could reasonably be reached from an analysis of online polling data from Gideon300 and RMG Research.
The organizations polled 1,000 registered voters earlier in March, asking four simple questions.
First, respondents were asked, “Do you favor or oppose the U.S. encouraging Israel to make a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority?”
A majority of those polled, 55 percent, either somewhat or strongly favored such encouragement, compared to only 23 percent who somewhat or strongly opposed it. Another 22 percent said that they were unsure.
Second, the pollsters asked, “Would you describe the Palestinian Authority as more extreme, more moderate, or essentially the same as Hamas?”
Nearly a third of respondents, 31 percent, admitted to their ignorance here, saying they weren’t sure of the relative extremity of the two groups. A slightly larger group of 35 percent said the PA was more moderate than Hamas, while 27 percent considered the groups “essentially the same” and another 7 percent inexplicably claimed that Hamas was the less extreme of the two.
Third, the poll asked, “If you knew that the Palestinian Authority (PA) wanted to form a unity government with Hamas including cabinet positions for Hamas terrorists, wanted to pay Hamas terrorists, and that 82% of PA supporters approved of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, would you say that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are part of the same terror cartel?”
Over half of the voters asked, 56 percent, said that if the PA were, indeed, to seek a unity government with Hamas, it would signify a very close association between the two. About a quarter, or 27 percent, said they weren’t sure and another 17 percent said no.
Should Israel agree to a ceasefire before utterly destroying every bit of Hamas that remains?
Fourth and finally, the pollsters affirmed that what had been phrased as a hypothetical situation in the third question was, in fact, reality.
“In fact, the Palestinian Authority (PA) does want to form a unity government with Hamas including cabinet positions for Hamas terrorists, wants to pay Hamas terrorists, and 82% of PA supporters approve of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas,” the survey said. “Knowing this, do you favor or oppose the U.S. encouraging Israel to make a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority?”
This time around, the answers were quite different from when this question was asked the first time around. Now, only 30 percent strongly or somewhat favored such encouragement, with those who said they strongly favored it dropped from 27 percent to 10 percent.
Moreover, 46 percent now said they now somewhat or strongly opposed the U.S. encouraging such a deal, with those strongly opposed rising from 10 percent to 25 percent — almost a mirror image of those who had originally strongly favored it.
A news release from Gideon300 broke the data down by political party, reporting that Democrats dropped from 73 percent supporting a peace deal prior to being informed of the close ties between Hamas and the PA to only 43 percent after learning the facts.
Independent voters shifted significantly as well, from 47 percent showing support for a ceasefire initially to 28 percent after being better informed.
Even Republican support for a potential peace deal dropped by half, from 38 to 19 percent, when informed of the true nature of the relationship between Hamas and the PA.
“This data reveals that voters are squarely opposed to any proposal that would force Israel to make a deal with terrorists, or those who support terror,” Matthew Faraci, president of Gideon300, said in the news release. “At the beginning of this survey, a slim majority favored the U.S. brokering a deal involving Palestinian Authority. However, after learning about the PA’s alignment with Hamas, voters dramatically switched their opinion, and — in the end — a strong majority across all parties opposed such a deal.
“The biggest seismic shift is among Democrats — who swung a stunning 30 points — but there is also significant movement with Independents and Republicans,” Faraci continued in the statement. “Elected representatives in both parties should look past the noise and pay close attention to data revealing where the public really is on this issue.”
The poll has a +/-3.1 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence interval, according to RMG Research.
