Uncategorized
Poll: 40% of American Jews believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
Multiple polls have found that about 60% of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a biting charge that Israel and the United States reject.
Now, for the first time, a poll has taken the pulse of U.S. Jews specifically — and found that 39% of them hold the opinion.
The new poll by the Washington Post, conducted in early September prior to President Donald Trump’s latest breakthrough in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, also found that 61% of American Jews said that Israel has committed war crimes against Palestinians.
While allegations that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza have been lodged against the country by international bodies, human rights groups and pro-Palestinian activists, the poll suggests that charge is now resonating more widely among even U.S. Jews — those who are most likely to have a personal connection to Israel.
The poll found that many American Jews still hold strong ties to Israel. Three-quarters of American Jews surveyed said that Israel’s existence is vital for the long-term future of the Jewish people, while over half said that they were “very” or “somewhat” emotionally attached to Israel.
But emotional ties to Israel were far weaker among younger respondents. While 68% of American Jews over 65 said they were emotionally connection to Israel, among those aged between 18 to 34, that share dropped to 36%. Younger Jews were also more likely to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, with half of Jews aged 18 to 34 using the term.
The poll found that Jews were almost evenly split over Israel’s actions in Gaza, with 46% approving and 48% opposing. That divide was also split sharply on partisan lines, with 85% of Jewish Republicans approving compared to 31% of Jewish Democrats.
The majority of American Jews also blame Hamas more than Israel for the civilian death toll in Gaza, with two-thirds of American Jews blaming Hamas for starting the war and operating in civilian areas of Gaza, according to the poll.
The poll also found that criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had significantly increased among American Jews in recent years. It found that 68% expressed a negative opinion of the Israeli leader, with 48% rating his leadership as “poor,” compared to 54% disapproving of him in a 2020 Pew Research Center poll.
On the continuation of the conflict between Hamas and Israel, vast majorities of the American Jewish community assigned blame to both Hamas and Netanyahu, with 91% saying Hamas bears responsibility and 86% saying Netanyahu bears responsibility.
As several European countries recognized Palestinian statehood last month, the poll also found that over half of American Jews believe that Israel and an independent Palestinian state can coexist peacefully with each other.
Looking to the relationship between the United States and Israel, about half of respondents said that U.S. support for Israel is at about the right level. A third of respondents said that the United States is too supportive of Israel, a share that jumped 10 percentage points since the 2020 Pew poll, and 20% said it is not supportive enough.
The Washington Post poll surveyed 815 American Jews from Sept. 2 to 9 and had a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.
—
The post Poll: 40% of American Jews believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
Uncategorized
Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
Uncategorized
Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.