More Americans have little or no trust in Netanyahu: poll

A growing number of Americans have little or no confidence in the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handles world affairs, according to a new poll.

The report, issued Thursday by Pew Research Centerfound that 53 percent of American adults said they had little or no confidence in Netanyahu doing the “right thing” regarding world affairs, including 25 percent who said they had no confidence in him at all.

The percentage of Americans who do not trust the Israeli prime minister has increased by 11 percentage points since last year, when 42 percent shared the sentiment.

Just 9 percent of U.S. adults in the latest survey said they had “a lot” of confidence in his handling of world affairs, while 21 percent said they had some, Pew found. These are slight drops from last year, when 8% said they had a lot of confidence and 24% said they had some.

The center noted that the decline in trust could be linked to a change in recognition of Netanyahu. In 2023, 26% of Americans said they had never heard of it, while only about 15% said the same this year.

The findings come as Netanyahu faces increasing scrutiny over Israel’s military campaign during the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since the beginning of October, according to local health officials.

He rejected characterizations that Israel is not doing enough to protect civilian lives and promised to move forward in eliminating the threat from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.

The war has been raging for nearly seven months since Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel last October, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 others hostage. Ceasefire negotiations remain still despite mounting pressure from leaders around the world.

Pew also found that Americans’ sentiment toward Netanyahu varies across party lines. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have much more positive views of the Israeli leader than Democrats and those who lean Democratic — 51% to 13%.

About 38 percent of Democrats and Democratic supporters said they had no confidence in Netanyahu at all, compared with 13 percent of Republicans who said the same, according to the poll.

Opinions also vary across age groups, with older Americans more likely to have positive views of Netanyahu than younger Americans.

Among Americans ages 50 and older, 42 percent have at least some confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs, while about a quarter of people ages 30 to 49 say the same. Only 13% of adults under 30 have at least some confidence, according to the survey.

The Pew Research Center survey was conducted April 1-7 among 3,600 U.S. adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.