Most in US support Palestinian state recognition: Survey
Most Americans think the U.S. should recognize Palestinian statehood, as a fragile ceasefire holds between Israel and Hamas following two years of war in the Gaza Strip, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
Out of those polled, 59 percent supported the U.S. recognizing statehood, while 33 percent were opposed. The rest of the respondents were not sure or did not have an answer.
Most surveyed Democrats, at 80 percent, support U.S.-backed statehood, while 41 percent of Republicans support it.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents not registered to either major party support the U.S. backing a Palestinian state, whereas 28 percent do not.
Should peace efforts continue to be successful, 51 percent of Americans in the survey think President Trump deserves the credit, according to the poll. Among Republicans, 83 percent think Trump deserves the credit. Democrats are much less supportive of giving him credit, at 25 percent.
While several of its allies have expressed support for a Palestinian state, the U.S. has backed Israel throughout the duration of its war with Hamas across the Biden and Trump administrations.
Last week, Trump said “we’ll have to see” about a two-state solution between Israel and Gaza.
“A lot of people like the one-state solution,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Some people like the two-state solution. We’ll have to see. I haven’t commented on that.”
Vice President Vance went to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to oversee the continuation of the ceasefire. Vance said officials were discussing the formation of an international security force to govern Gaza.
The ceasefire was tested over the weekend when “terrorists” attacked Israeli military positions in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, according to the Israelis.
“The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a post on the social media site X.
Trump warned Hamas to not attack Israel amid the ceasefire.
“This is a very violent group of people, and they got very rambunctious, and they did things that they shouldn’t be doing,” Trump said during a meeting with Australia’s prime minister. “And if they keep doing it, then we’re going to go in and straighten it out, and it’ll happen very quickly and pretty violently, unfortunately, we are going to eradicate Hamas.”
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted Oct. 15-20 and included 4,385 respondents. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.