20 December 2024

US Opinion Leaders Deeply Divided on Israel-Gaza WarNovember 25, 2024

Lama El Baz, Craig Kafura, Dina Smeltz, Jordan Tama, and Joshua Busby

US President-elect Donald Trump is set to inherit an unprecedented and intractable conflict in the Middle East, one that has slowly drawn Israel, the United States’ closest regional ally, into a broader confrontation with Iran. As he prepares to take office for the second time, the world eagerly waits to see how he intends to resolve this conflict and establish a lasting peace in the Middle East.

A 2024 Chicago Council-University of Texas survey, conducted August 7–October 3 among 471 foreign policy opinion leaders, finds stark partisan divisions in views of US policy on the Israel-Gaza war. Mirroring the partisan divisions found in the 2024 Chicago Council Survey of the American public, Republican elites favor a more militarized and heavy-handed approach than Democratic and Independent opinion leaders, who favor more diplomatic and restrained policies toward the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

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