The Biden administration’s efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority may not be in line with his Democratic voter base, according to a poll conducted earlier this month.
Though 73% of Democrats initially said they supported a peace deal between the Jewish state and the Palestinian entity ruling Arab areas of the West Bank, there was a dramatic shift when the respondent was told about the Palestinian Authority’s alignment with Hamas, and the potential inclusion of the terrorist group in a unity government.
After being given additional information, Democrat support for a peace deal dropped to 43%. And only 19% of Republican voters and 28% of Independents still supported peace after learning about plans to form a unity government between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, according to the poll.
It remains unclear whether Hamas would be included in a unity government. Reports initially claimed that Hamas was open to being in a joint government with the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, before Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said last month that the terror group cannot be part of a unity government “for now” because of the risk of boycotts from countries around the world, according to the Times of Israel.
But polling of Palestinians shows Hamas remains popular. A poll from Ramallah’s Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published a report Thursday showing 59% of Arabs in the West Bank and 52% of Arabs in Gaza prefer to see Hamas remain in control.
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90% of respondents in the West Bank and Gaza said they do not believe Hamas committed atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7. Another 71% said they believe Hamas’s massacre was a correct decision.
Democrats around President Joe Biden have grown increasingly concerned about how his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is influencing his reelection chances.
Democratic Strategist James Carville said the war in Israel could cost Democrats the election in November on Sunday.
“This Gaza stuff, this is not just a problem with some snot-nosed Ivy League people,” he said. “This is a problem all across the country. And I hope the president and Blinken can get this thing calmed down because if it doesn’t get calmed down before the Democratic convention, it’s going to be a very ugly time in Chicago. I promise you that.”
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In Michigan, which has the largest concentration of Arab Americans, 101,449 voters were uncommitted in the Democratic primary after Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and other activists encouraged people to show opposition to President Joe Biden’s support for Israel.
When combined with ballots cast for other candidates, only about 10,000 more votes were needed to meet the threshold that Biden defeated Trump by in 2020.
The polling indicates, however, that Biden siding against Israel could end up being more disastrous, especially given the unpredictable nature of the situation.
“This data reveals that voters — especially Democrats — have no stomach for any proposed peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” said Matthew Faraci, President of Gideon300, which commissioned the poll.
He pointed out that all parties surveyed by a strong majority opposed such a peace deal after learning about the Palestinian Authority’s alignment with Hamas, but that Democratic voters had the biggest swing in opinion.
“The biggest seismic shift is among Democrats,” Faraci added. “Elected representatives should pay close attention to where the public is on this issue.”
The online survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted online on March 11 and 12 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, according to Gideon 300 that worked with RMG Research.
