New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is viewed more favorably among Jewish Americans than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The poll found 44% of Jewish adults hold a favorable view of Mr. Mamdani, a Muslim Democrat, compared with 39% who view him unfavorably — a net positive rating of 5 points. Mr. Netanyahu, by contrast, posted a net rating of negative 27 points, with 59% of Jewish respondents viewing him unfavorably and 32% viewing him favorably.
The survey also found broader erosion in Jewish American sentiment toward Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza. Thirty percent of Jewish adults said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians, while 49% disagreed and 21% said they did not know enough to say. Among Jewish Democrats, 45% said Israel’s actions amounted to genocide, compared with just 3% of Jewish Republicans.
On U.S. policy, 38% of Jewish adults said Washington is too supportive of Israel, while 32% said it is not supportive enough and 28% called the current level of support about right. That marks a shift from January 2024, when 45% of Jewish Democrats said the U.S. was too supportive of Israel — a figure that has since climbed to 51%, according to AP-NORC.
Views on Hamas remain far less divided among Jewish respondents. Seventy-nine percent said Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel was not justified, and 73% said Israel’s immediate military response to that attack was justified. Support drops considerably for Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza, which 42% of Jewish adults called justified and 43% called unjustified.
The findings come amid heightened debate within the Democratic Party over U.S. policy toward Israel and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mediaite was among the first outlets to highlight the contrast between Mr. Mamdani’s and Mr. Netanyahu’s favorability numbers after AP-NORC released the survey. Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign drew national attention over his sharp criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The AP-NORC survey was conducted June 11-17 among 3,040 adults nationwide, including an oversample of 1,022 Jewish adults. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points; for the Jewish adult subsample, the margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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