A majority of Americans stand strongly behind Israel over Palestinians in their bitter decades-long territorial conflict —while an even stronger 66% support a “complete eradication” of Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the terror group’s mass killings of civilians in the Jewish state, according to a new survey.
The Rasmussen Reports poll asked likely voters, “Which is closer to your opinion about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: That Israel is mostly to blame, that the Palestinians are mostly to blame, or that both sides are about equally to blame?”
53% of respondents said Palestinians were mostly to blame for the dispute, while only 10% said Israel was mostly to blame and 24% said both sides are about equally at fault.
Another 13% of respondents had no opinion.
Voters also were asked, “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: ‘Israel has no choice but to seek the complete eradication of Hamas in Gaza.'”
66% of respondents agreed, while only 19% disagreed — a staggering 3-to-1 margin.
The US and European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist organization because of its armed resistance and attacks against Israel.
The group controls the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2 million.
The survey of 1,007 likely voters was conducted from Oct. 10-12 after Hamas launched a sneak invasion of Israel, killing and kidnapping civilians, on Oct. 7.
The poll has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Israel has declared war and is moving to destroy Hamas in what is expected to be a brutal ground war in Gaza.