We've had nearly seven months of radical progressives seizing campuses and now administration buildings in support of Hamas. In the beginning, they claimed to support the Palestinians, but lately the rhetorical masks have slipped even while the balaclavas have stayed on their faces. The extremists have been demanding "from the river to the sea" since the beginning, but most if not all of these 'demonstrations' now routinely feature Hamas iconography and openly praise their efforts.

After more than half a year of radical "awareness raising" about the supposed Israeli "occupation," how much has this changed American opinion on Israel and the war? A new Harvard/Harris CAPS poll shows that opinion has shifted .... not at all. Not even a little bit, in fact, which we can see from the results of a February survey by the same pollster. 

Remember this? These came from their February 2024 poll on the Gaza-Israel war:

Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose. We missed the March iteration on these questions, but it matters not at all. The numbers not only are consistent in the April survey, they are also still overwhelmingly in favor of Israel and opposed to Hamas:

Once again, the toplines are all but identical, and so are the crosstabs. The protests do seem to have eroded support for Israel a bit among college-age respondents (the youngest demo); what was a 72/28 split is now 57/43, but still with a majority supporting Israel. Almost every other demo is stronger, including black voters (67%), Democrats (74%), and notably college graduates (76%). Even liberal/progressive voters overwhelmingly support Israel (73/27).

What about the idea of an unconditional cease-fire, demanded by Hamas and the campus rioters? Support for that has increased a bit since February, but not by much. Two months ago, only 33% backed an unconditional cease-fire in place, with 67% opposed. Now it's 39/61, with almost all of the gains among respondents between 18-34. Those two demos have majorities in favor, as well as black voters (57/43), but those are the only demos to choose that option. Every other demo still has a majority favoring no cease-fire without a release of all hostages and the removal of Hamas from power.

That latter point also has a massive consensus in the US. Eighty percent of all respondents want Hamas removed from all power in Gaza at the end of this conflict, with the only dissenting demo being ... college-age adults (18-24YO) at 47/53. 

What about the operation in Rafah, assuming it comes at all? The campus radicals don't seem to have soured Americans on putting a forceful end to Hamas if necessary:

There's no dissent at all in the crosstabs for this question, oddly not even from the two age demos that support an unconditional cease-fire that would leave Hamas in place. The overwhelming majority of Americans of every age, ethnicity, party affiliation, and walk of life support a military operation in Rafah to end the war on Israel's terms.

All of this brings us to a question: Why is Joe Biden siding with the radicals rather than the rest of America? Biden and his team have done their best to hamstring Israel in its fight against Hamas, especially in Rafah, despite overwhelming support for an Israeli operation there. Biden has been almost obsessed with allegations of crimes by the IDF while saying almost nothing about the Americans held hostage by Hamas or their ongoing war crimes and terrorism by using civilians as human shields in the war they started.

And this has not gone unnoticed by Americans. Nearly half of all respondents (48%) think Biden's policy is being driven by domestic politics and base-pandering. That rises to majorities in voters 45-54YO (59%), 55-64 (53%), and 65+ (56%), which are the three age demos most likely to vote in November. This pandering is foolish given the results seen above, but also because the war with Hamas is a low priority for voters. Only 3% in either party name it as their top issue; inflation is the top issue for voters in both parties (GOP 51%, Dems 35%), followed by immigration, crime, and abortion (an interesting 4th place among Dems). Even when allowed to pick multiple issues, only 7% of respondents chose the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

 This explains why Biden's getting only 39% approval rating on this issue, down from 45% in November. The more Biden drifts toward the radicals, the less he connects with mainstream American voters. This is the third-worst issue for Biden, in fact, only a single point above his approval ratings for inflation and immigration. 

It looks like he's earned that, and worse. Biden's pandering to the radicals, but nearly all Americans see this terrorism with a moral clarity that clearly eludes the appeasers of this administration. Biden's sacrificing Israel to suck up to the extremists rather than listen to the electorate on a rare issue of consensus. It's about as incompetent as it gets, and in this case will get people killed. 

The latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast is now up! Today's show features:

• Will radical activists derail the Democrat convention in Chicago? 
• Andrew Malcolm and I discuss our skepticism, but we're a lot more skeptical about Hunter Biden's plan to sue Fox News. 
• We also discuss the unspoken problem with rooftop solar, the ongoing issues with EVs, and why you don't talk about shooting the dog.  

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!