American public sympathy for Israel has collapsed to levels not seen in a quarter century - and the U.S. military is acting as though it never happened. While Gallup's latest World Affairs Survey records a historic shift in sentiment, the Pentagon is conducting the most integrated joint operation it has ever run with any partner in the Middle East.
The numbers are stark, according to a Foreign Affairs analysis by Dana Stroul, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, as reported by "Hvylya". Sympathy for Israelis among Americans plummeted from 60 percent in 2020 to 36 percent today. An August 2025 Quinnipiac poll confirmed the same figure - an all-time low since polling began in 2001 - and found six in 10 voters, including nearly half of Republicans, opposed continuing military aid to Israel.
Polls of young Americans show especially low support for a military partnership with Israel. And a CNN survey released this week found 60 percent of Americans disapprove of the current campaign and want Trump to seek congressional approval for further action.
Yet none of this has slowed the operational tempo. The U.S. and Israeli forces are running joint air defense, dividing strike targets, fusing intelligence continuously, and coordinating offensive cyber-operations. Stroul describes the integration as something the United States "has not done with any ally in a fully combined manner since World War II."
The traditional bipartisan foundation that sustained the special relationship is eroding, Stroul warns. The question is how long military leaders can sustain a partnership this deep when the political consensus beneath it is crumbling. If doubts about the alliance "continue to mount," she writes, it will become "increasingly difficult for U.S. military leaders to turn to Israel for help in times of both crisis and peace."
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