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Years of Qatari-funded pro-Palestinian propaganda has succeeded in demonizing Jews and Israel in the minds of many naïve young people, particularly on the internet and U.S. college campuses. The result has been increasingly violent demonstrations on American college campuses and the streets of Europe during each of Hamas’ four major wars with Israel. Hamas aims to leave the impression that Western society in general has turned against Israel. There are, however, indications that this may not be the case.

Public Opinion in The United States

A February 2025 Harvard/Harris poll shows that 77% of the American people support Israel in the current war in Gaza, and 76% support the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is impressive, because support for Israel generally drops during war due to all the negative coverage. According to the same poll, most Americans support President Trump’s handling of the war in Gaza, which is particularly significant because the Trump administration has been the most pro-Israel government in United States history. Israel may now be a pariah for many on the left, but it is a hero to many on the right. A February 2025 Gallup poll shows that 83% of Republicans view Israel favorably. This is, in part, due to the rise of conservative media, which, with a few notable exceptions, have provided favorable coverage of Israel for years and throughout the current war.

Naïve academics imagine they have found a righteous cause in Hamas terror, but the intellectual weight in the United States is on Israel’s side. Authors and media personalities such as Douglas Murray, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Bill Maher, Dr Phil, Megan Kelly, Charlie Kirk, Bridget Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, have vehemently defended Israel throughout the war.

College Campuses

It is not clear if the protestors’ pro-Hamas, anti-Israel sentiment represents the majority of opinion even on college campuses. Despite all the publicity they received, the 100 pro-Palestinian “students” who recently vandalized the Columbia University Library do not represent all of Columbia’s 35,000 students. Some of the vandals were foreign students, and some were not Columbia students at all. That they do not represent the majority is evidenced by the election of Maya Platek, a 23-year-old Israeli student and member of Students Supporting Israel, as president of Columbia’s undergraduate student government for 2024–2025. Likewise, the pro-Palestinian who recently murdered two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Jewish Museum in Washington DC does not represent anyone but himself.

Less than two weeks after the 100 pro-Palestinian protesters rampaged at Columbia University in Manhattan, hundreds of thousands turned out to cheer for 40,000 marchers in the city’s annual Israel Day Parade. A week later, on May 25, 56,000 marched in Toronto’s “Walk for Israel.” While the 100 Columbia protesters received national headlines, the massive non-violent demonstrations for Israel received almost no coverage. Violence and terror make headlines, but they say nothing about the popular will. On the contrary, terror is usually a tactic of a violent minority attempting to force its views on an unwilling public.

Europe

In Europe, one indication that the general public may not be as hostile to Israel as pro-Palestinian demonstrators would like us to believe comes from the just-concluded Eurovision song contest. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators appeared outside the venue in Basel, Switzerland and some contestants and governments demanded Israel be banned. Eurovision however, rejected these demands and allowed the Israeli contestant, Yuval Raphael, to participate. Raphael wore an outfit honoring the hostages and herself survived the October 7 massacre by hiding under dead bodies in a shelter for eight hours after Hamas terrorists threw grenades inside. Her song “New Day Will Rise” significantly, won the most public votes and came in second place overall. The contest is scored by judges as well as online votes by the public in each country. She received the maximum 12 points allowable from 13 countries, including Spain and Portugal, and 10 points from Norway and Ireland. All of these governments are hostile towards Israel and oppose her current war for survival.

The Eurovision vote was only one sign that Western Europe’s anti-Israel media and political elites may not represent the views of their average citizen. Another is the increasingly frequent demonstrations throughout Western Europe demanding the expulsion of violent Muslim immigrants and protesting their depredations. That this populist, anti-Muslim movement is no small minority is evidenced by the UK’s Brexit vote; electoral victories; the establishment of right-wing governments in Holland, Sweden, and Italy; and the AFD’s surprising second place finish in Germany. On May 22, Nine EU countries[i] signed an open letter calling for the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to be reinterpreted to make it easier to expel criminal migrants.  These dramatic political shifts have shocked Western Europe’s established elites.  Governments in France and the UK hostile to Israel also face strong populist challenges and may well be replaced in future elections. Ireland, too, has recently seen large demonstrations against rapes and other atrocities perpetrated by Muslim immigrants.  Former Ultimate Fighting Champion Conor McGregor is now running on a populist, anti-Muslim and strongly pro-Israel platform and could be the next Prime Minister of Ireland.

It is even possible that the pro-Hamas protests may be having the opposite effect their organizers hoped for. Some populist anti-Muslim demonstrators in Europe have begun waving Israeli flags and chanting pro-Israel slogans. In the U.S. it is hard to believe Hamas’ supporters are winning the hearts and minds of the public by advocating the end of the United States, burning American flags vandalizing university buildings, and murdering innocent people. Except, of course, for their useful idiots already possessed by hatred towards their own country.

Eastern Europe

All of this applies to the United States and Western Europe. Eastern Europe does not have large Muslim immigrant communities because their governments have never had the disastrous open border polices of Western Europe nor its anti-Israel policies.  Austria, The Czech Republic, and Hungary are especially pro-Israel and often veto anti-Israel resolutions in the European Union.

Anecdotal Evidence

I make no secret of my support for Israel and have been pleasantly surprised time and again by the universally positive reactions I receive. For many years, I have had an Israeli flag decal on my car and worn Israeli-themed T-shirts, and not once have I received a negative reaction. I have, on the other hand, received lots of thumbs up and people asking where they can obtain the shirt. Although I am a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, I always respond “Israeli” when asked my nationality in order to gauge people’s reaction; this has been surprisingly positive in Europe as well as the U.S. I did business in Asia for almost 40 years and found nothing but admiration for Israel and the Jewish People. While this personal evidence is merely anecdotal, it has been so consistent, over so many years, that I, for one, am convinced that public opinion on Israel is not what Hamas, the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party and their media would have us believe.

[i] Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Original publication in Times of Israel

Photo via Israel National News