A leading Israeli security research institution has issued an urgent warning: the sharp, ongoing drop in Israel’s public approval across the United States has evolved into a major threat to the country’s national security, and cannot be ignored if Israel hopes to preserve decades of robust backing from Washington. The new analysis, published Monday by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) — a think tank with formal ties to the Israeli military and Tel Aviv University — draws on recent polling data to highlight the far-reaching implications of this shifting public sentiment, arguing that without a dramatic reversal in American opinion, Israel will soon face a critical loss of support in the U.S.
The INSS analysis centers on April polling from the Pew Research Center, which confirms that 60% of U.S. adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% just one year prior. Newly released joint data from INSS and Pew breaks down this trend by age, revealing that 75% of young American adults between 18 and 29 hold negative views of Israel, with 67% of 30 to 49-year-olds sharing that sentiment. Partisan divides are even starker: 80% of Democratic voters hold unfavorable views of Israel, compared to 41% of Republican voters. For younger Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, the negative rate climbs to 85% among 18-29-year-olds and 83% among 30-49-year-olds.
The erosion of support is not limited to age or partisan groups, the report notes: falling approval cuts across nearly all major U.S. religious demographics, with majorities of Catholics, Protestants, and white evangelical Christians under 50 holding unfavorable opinions of Israel. Catholics are the most critical, with 74% of under-50 Catholic adults viewing Israel negatively. Even among white evangelicals — a core demographic of former President Donald Trump’s conservative political coalition — half of adults under 50 now hold negative views of Israel, versus just 47% who view it positively.
A separate recent survey adds further evidence of this trend, finding that support for Israel has also dropped sharply among American Jews, with a majority opposing any U.S. war with Iran. Conducted by GBAO Strategies for Washington-based liberal Zionist group J Street, the poll found that 70% of American Jews oppose unconditional U.S. military and financial aid to Israel. Thirty percent of respondents reported greater sympathy for Palestinians than Israelis, a statistic INSS cites as further proof of the scale of Israel’s declining popularity.
On Capitol Hill, shifting sentiment among elected Democrats was on display last week, when the U.S. Senate voted down two resolutions to block the sale of military bulldozers and the transfer of 12,000 1,000-pound bombs to Israel. Even with the resolutions failing, a historic number of Democratic senators supported the measures: 40 of 47 backed halting the bulldozer sale, while 36 voted against the bomb transfer. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current administration “helped launch the Iran war, has unleashed an offensive in Lebanon and continues to harm civilians in the West Bank and Gaza,” adding that “we shouldn’t send taxpayer-funded bombs and equipment to facilitate this brutality.”
INSS emphasizes that the growing negative trend among both the American public and political leaders poses a grave threat to Israeli national security, given Israel’s decades-long dependence on U.S. backing. According to an October 2025 report from the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, the U.S. has provided more than $300 billion in total aid to Israel since the country’s founding in 1948. While Washington has extended large foreign aid packages to other Middle Eastern nations, including Egypt and Iraq, Israel has received more military and economic support than any other country in the world. Today, just 37% of the American public holds a favorable view of Israel — a rating lower than that of longstanding U.S. adversaries Russia, Iran, and China, the report notes. Netanyahu himself also carries an unfavorable rating among most U.S. adults, the Pew data confirms.
The report frames this shift in American public opinion as a long-term trend that has been drastically accelerated by the Gaza conflict, with the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, widely viewed in the U.S. as initiated by Netanyahu, causing further damage to Israel’s reputation. While the recent ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran could help modestly improve Israel’s standing, INSS warns that a fundamental shift in how the U.S. public perceives Israel is already taking hold. Even if Israel sees a small rebound in approval, the report argues that without significant policy changes from the current Israeli government, this negative image is likely to become permanent. Pushing the current U.S. administration to provide maximum support for Israeli military escalation across multiple fronts, the report adds, could eliminate any chance of repairing Israel’s standing in the long term.
The warning comes as Israel prepares to mark its Independence Day Tuesday evening, a celebration overshadowed by combative rhetoric from top Israeli officials. Speaking Sunday, Netanyahu stated that Israel’s fight against Iran is “not over yet,” warning that “any moment could bring us new developments.” On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Netanyahu had ordered the military to “operate with full force, both on the ground and from the air, even during the ceasefire” in Lebanon. Katz also confirmed the Israeli military would continue demolishing residential properties in Lebanon and issued a direct death threat to Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem.