In recent weeks, the Biden administration has distanced itself and U.S. policy from Israel’s response to attacks from Hamas and Iran, two of Israel’s bitterest enemies. Americans show sharp political divisions in their support of Joe Biden’s policy shift toward the U.S.’ long-time Mideast ally.

Hardly a day goes by without more news from the Mideast, much of it related to Israel’s retaliation following Hamas’ shocking Oct. 7 invasion, resulting in at least 1,200 dead and 240 kidnapped and held as hostages in Gaza and elsewhere.

This month, after Israeli missiles killed the Iranian general who masterminded the raid, Iran launched a massive missile and drone strike against Israel. It was successfully defended by Israel and its regional allies, including the U.S. Israel followed up with an April 18 offensive of its own on key military and nuclear sites in Iran.

For this month’s nationwide online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,432 voters taken from April 3-5, we asked Americans about the cooling of formerly warm ties between the U.S. and Israel:

In recent weeks, the Biden administration has shifted away from Israel by refusing to veto an anti-Israel measure at the U.N., blocking some arms shipments to Israel, and giving aid to Gaza, now controlled by the terrorist group Hamas. Do you agree or disagree with this shift away from Israel?

Those who answered the poll, with a margin of error, were given five possible responses: “agree strongly,” “agree somewhat,” “disagree somewhat,” “agree somewhat,” and “not sure.”

Americans are split almost equally between “agree” (37%) and “disagree” (35%). Broken down further, 19% said they “agree strongly,” while 18% said they “agree somewhat” with Biden’s shift away from supporting Israel. Among those on other side of the issue, “11%” said they disagreed “somewhat,” while 24% said they disagreed “strongly.”

A hefty 27% said they were not sure.

A closer look at the data shows that the split is primarily a political one, with Republicans (55% “disagree,” 20% “agree”) a bastion of support for Israel when compared to Democrats (56% “disagree,” 20% “agree”) and independents (33% “disagree,” 34% “agree”).

We followed up with a second question, trying to get at the reasons for the apparent shift away from Israel, asking:

“Which of the following most closely matches your view on why the U.S. policy has changed so dramatically?” The possible responses, along with the percentages selected, are below:

1. Biden desperately needs the votes of Muslim-American communities in swing states to get re-elected. (20%).
2. The Democratic Party has moved left on many issues in recent years, and this is just another example (25%).
3. The administration has genuine concerns about the well-being of those who live in Gaza and the West Bank (21%).
4. The administration worries about losing influence in the Middle East to Russia, China and the EU, all of whom support Hamas to varying degrees (11%).
5. Not sure (24%).

As the data show, the answers broke pretty evenly, with the exception of number four, which got just 11%. But once again, the differences by party were strong:

Response No. 1 received 16% support from Democrats, 26% support from Republicans, and 18% support from independents.

Response No. 2 broke 18% Dems, 36% GOP, and 21% independents.

Response No. 3 won 32% of Democratic support, versus 7% of Republicans and 21% of indie voters.

Response No. 4 garnered 11% of Democrats, 14% of GOP votes, and just 7% of independent/third party supporters.

The answer from both questions suggests that there has been a major political realignment in America, with Republican voters and, to a lesser extent, independents, supporting Israel and Democrats pulling back on their former strong backing of the multiethnic, multiracial, multireligious nation of 10 million people.

But there has also been a major realignment by age groups. Those 18-24, for example, strongly support the shift away from Israel (46%), compared to 44% of those 25-44, 32% for the 45-64 year-old group, and 30% for those over 65.

Israel has a problem with young Americans, which goes a long way toward explaining the extraordinary anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations now creating discord and even violence on college and university campuses across the nation.

The horrific Oct. 7 terrorist assault by Hamas left Israelis reeling, but also set off an at-times-bitter debate over Israel among Americans. The debate has included Jewish-Americans, themselves sharply divided on supporting Israel against the Palestinians.

Decades of talks between the Israeli government and Palestinian representatives regarding a so-called two-state solution have gone mostly nowhere. Now, with chants of “From the river to the sea” (a slogan essentially signifying the end of the Jewish state) echoing at anti-Israel demonstrations across the nation, the debate has taken an ominous turn.

But will it impact the election? It may already have. Plainly, Republicans and independents are far more favorable to Israel in the current climate than Democrats.

Biden, concerned about losing the support of pro-Israel Democrats, on Saturday said he would back a $26 billion aid package for Israel, part of a larger foreign-aid bill that includes billions of dollars for Ukraine and Taiwan, as well. That move has created “heavy pushback from Muslim voters and organizations,” Fox News reported.

Biden has hemorrhaged political support from midwestern Muslim communities for not coming down hard on Israel’s campaign against Hamas terrorists.

That leads some to question: Is his support for more aid for Israel an attempt at restoring his party’s historic ties to U.S. Jewish voters? Or just part of a deal to get more money for Ukraine?

If the former, that would be a dramatic reversal from earlier this month, when Biden phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his concern that Israel’s response to the Iranian retribution might widen the war in the Mideast.

At the time, Biden administration officials were scathing in their not-for-attribution remarks on Israel: “I don’t think they had a strategy,” one senior administration official said. “The Israelis don’t always make the best strategic decisions.”

Since then, however, Israel’s military response against Iran proved to be less than what many had expected after it launched a limited airstrike, hitting an Iranian air base in Isfahan. Many on the left had expressed concern that Israel would carry out a devastating attack against multiple sites in Iran, igniting a regional war. It didn’t happen.

With the 2024 campaign in full swing, groups that back Israel have forged a $100 million push the return the Democratic Party back toward the pro-Israel side of the debate. It’s too early to tell whether it’s had much impact, if any.

Even so, big media outlets remain concerned about the possible defection of Jewish votes and financial support in the coming election. As one recent New York Times headline lamented: “How the Israel-Gaza Protests Could Hurt the Democratic Party.”

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has at times been mildly critical of Israel. But his track record while in office from 2017 to early 2021 was impeccably pro-Israel.

Still, he’ll be facing an uphill battle in getting Jewish support. As the Jewish Virtual Library notes, “American Jews tend to favor Democratic candidates, with 71% of Jewish voters choosing Democratic candidates on average and 26% choosing Republicans since 1968.”

That includes 2020, when Trump got just 30% of the Jewish vote to Biden’s 68%. Will this be another formerly solid group of Democratic backers from which Trump wins support, as polls show for both Hispanics and blacks?

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.

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1. U.S. To Begin Gaza Aid Pier Construction ‘Very Soon’: Pentagon – AFP

“All the necessary vessels are within the Mediterranean region and standing by,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists about the watercraft carrying equipment for the pier project.

The facility will consist of an offshore platform for transferring aid from larger to smaller vessels and a pier to bring it ashore. President Joe Biden first announced the plans in early March, as Israel held up deliveries of assistance by ground.

2. UN Rights Chief ‘Horrified’ By Mass Grave Reports At Gaza Hospitals – BBC

The UN’s human rights chief has said he is “horrified” by the destruction of Gaza’s Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals and the reports of “mass graves” being found at the sites after Israeli raids.

Volker Türk called for independent investigations into the deaths. Palestinian officials said they had exhumed the bodies of almost 300 people at Nasser. It is not clear how they died or when they were buried. Israel’s military said claims that it buried bodies there were “baseless.”

3. Hezbollah Launches Deepest Attack Into Israel Since Start Of Gaza War – The Jerusalem Post

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had launched a drone attack against Israeli military bases north of the city of Acre, in its deepest strike into Israeli territory since the Gaza war began.

The IDF said it had no knowledge of any of its facilities being hit by Hezbollah but had said earlier on Tuesday that it intercepted two “aerial targets” off Israel’s northern coast.

4. Russia To Step Up Strikes On Western Weapons In Ukraine – Reuters

Russia will intensify strikes on Ukrainian storage bases that house Western-supplied weapons, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, as the U.S. prepares to approve and deliver a long-delayed batch of new military aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Kyiv will soon receive more long-range ATACMS missile systems as part of the package. U.S. officials say the aid will include ammunition supplies and interceptors for air defense systems.

5. Ukraine Restricts Consular Services For Conscription-Age Men Living Abroad – RFE/RL

Ukraine has moved to restrict consular services at its diplomatic missions for men of conscription age (18-60) who live abroad as Kyiv tries to increase troop levels in its fight to repel invading Russian forces.

“As it looks like now, a man of conscription age goes abroad and shows his state that he does not care about its survival. He then comes back and wants to receive services from this state. It does not work this way. Our country is at war,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on X.

6. Russia Rejects U.S. Journalist Gershkovich’s Detention Appeal – AFP

A Moscow court denied U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s appeal against the extension of his pre-trial detention in the espionage case that he and American authorities have rejected as false.

Gershkovich, 32, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison for over a year after being arrested while on a reporting trip to Russia.

7. Sunak Promises To Boost UK Defense Spending By 2030 – Al Jazeera

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he would raise defense spending to 2.5 percent of the country’s annual GDP by 2030. He said the British arms industry must be on a “war footing” when the world has become more dangerous since the Cold War.

He said one of the central lessons of the war in Ukraine was that countries needed deeper stockpiles of munitions and the ability to replenish them more quickly. His remarks came on the heels of a new pledge to send arms worth 500 million pounds ($622m) to Ukraine, including missiles, armored vehicles, and ammunition.

8. China Braces For Worst As It Becomes Punching Bag In U.S. Election – Bloomberg

With Beijing already becoming a top target in the U.S. election campaign, President Xi Jinping’s government is resisting any move that could backfire on the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s restraint was on display after President Joe Biden blasted Beijing as “xenophobic” and vowed to triple tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum exports during a campaign stop in a swing state where rust-belt jobs are on the line.

On the same day, Washington opened a probe into its rival’s shipbuilding sector, causing stocks of Chinese firms in that industry to tumble. Congress also fast-tracked efforts to force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd.

China’s response to all this has been relatively muted.

9. China Is Extending Its Lead Over The U.S. In Africa’s Energy Transition – Semafor

Analysts say China’s manufacturing “overcapacity,” fueled by government subsidies, is giving its companies an edge over the United States in Africa’s transition to green energy.

In the first half of 2023, South Africa quadrupled its solar panel imports from China to 3.4 gigawatts as people sought to escape long-running power outages caused by state utility Eskom.

China currently has an advantage over the U.S. in accessing critical minerals in Africa needed for the global energy transition, including cobalt, which is used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries.

10. Amnesty Annual Report Criticizes European ‘Double Standards’ – D.W.

The human rights watchdog has deplored European countries’ approach toward Gaza. The situation in the Middle East is a primary focus of Amnesty’s latest annual report.

Presenting its report, Julia Duchrow, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Germany, explicitly criticized the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock.

In contradiction of Baerbock’s statements, Duchrow said she was not, in fact, pursuing a human-rights-based foreign policy and was applying “double standards” in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

11. North Korea Delegation Visits Iran, Fueling Speculations On Military Cooperation – Reuters

A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media said in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties.

The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang by air, leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency said. It gave no other detail.

12. North Korea Says “Will Build Overwhelming Military Power” – Reuters

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the country will continue to build overwhelming and the strongest military power to protect its sovereignty and regional peace, the North’s KCNA news agency reported.

Kim said a series of military exercises by the U.S. military in the region this year, starting with live-fire drills conducted with the “South Korean puppet military gangsters,” are driving the regional security environment into dangerous turmoil.

13. Neosporin Ointment In The Nose May Help Fight Off Respiratory Viruses – HealthDay News

Researchers found that lab animals whose noses were treated using neomycin- the main ingredient in over-the-counter Neosporin ointment- mounted a robust immune defense against both the COVID-19 virus and a highly virulent strain of influenza.

The same nasal approach also appeared to work in humans, this time with Neosporin itself. Researchers reported that the ointment triggered a swift immune response from genes in the human nose that serve as a first line of defense against invading viruses.

14. The Age Considered Old Has Advanced Over Time – HealthDay News

Researchers report in the journal Psychology and Aging that decades ago, folks born in 1911 set the beginning of old age at 71 when they were asked that question at age 65.

But folks born in 1956 said old age begins at 74 when asked at age 65, researchers found.

Republished with permission from TIPP Insights