CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten on Thursday revealed how Israel’s war in Gaza has led to a “historic shift” in public opinion as U.S. voters have increasingly sympathized more with Palestinians over the past two years.
Enten, in a segment following Israel and Hamas signing the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, turned to Quinnipiac and New York Times polling that shows how voters sided with Israelis more than Palestinians by a margin of +48 percentage points in October 2023 — the month of the Oct. 7 attacks.
Voters now sympathize more with Palestinians by a margin of +1 point, the “first time ever” that the group had “any sort of lead” over Israelis on the question going back to the 1980s, per Enten.
Enten stressed that Democrats have fueled the turn in public opinion, sympathizing more with Israelis by +26 points back in Oct. 2023 to — now — sympathizing more with Palestinians by +46 points.
“Truly a historic shift,” he said.
Enten added that the conflict has also caused “real division” among Republican voters, as well, before pointing to a “massive, huge age divide” in the party.
GOP voters under age 50 indicated that they sympathize more with Israelis by +25 points, whereas those 50 or older sympathized more with Israelis by +66 points, per Quinnipiac polling.
“That is a huge gap. And I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how the Republican Party adjusts going forward,” he said.
Enten — when asked by CNN’s John Berman how Americans could view the news of a permanent Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal — referred to an AP-NORC poll from September, which showed that 51% of adults found it extremely/very important to negotiate such a deal. Another 31% of adults found it somewhat important.
“So, the bottom line is, I think a lot of Americans are really going to like this,” he said of the deal.
