Democrats and Republicans Grapple with Internal Divisions on Israel

As the war in Gaza continues, rifts between progressive and moderate Democrats are deepening-and cracks within the Republican Party are also beginning to show.

The security partnership between the United States and Israel had long been one of the few issues in American politics with bipartisan consensus. However, data from the 2025 Chicago Council Survey, fielded July 18-30, 2025, finds Democrats and Republicans divided on the US-Israel relationship and fractured internally along ideological and generational lines.

Key Findings

• More MAGA Republicans say the United States strikes the right balance in its support for Israel (55%) and sends it the right amount of military aid (48%) than non-MAGA Republicans (33% and 41% respectively).1
• Majorities of liberal Democrats say the United States provides Israel too much support (69%) and military aid (60%), while only minorities of moderate Democrats agree (29% and 26%, respectively).2
• Three in four liberal Democrats (74%) favor Palestinian statehood, while moderate Democrats are divided (47% favor, 46% oppose); majorities of both MAGA (61%) and non-MAGA Republicans (51%) oppose an independent Palestinian state.
• The views of young Republicans tend to align with those of non-MAGA Republicans, the views of young Democrats tend to align with those of liberal Democrats.

Cracks in Republican Support for Backing Israel

Just a few days before the two-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced a 20-point peace planto end the Israel-Gaza war. Israel and Hamas have yet to formally accept the terms of the agreement, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly endorsed the plan under pressure from US President Donald Trumpand Hamas expressed its conditional support.

Findings from the Chicago Council's latest survey finds that rank-and-file Republicans broadly favor backing Israel and approve of Trump's approachto the war, but also suggest young Republicans and those unsupportive of the MAGA movement are questioning the partnership.

Pluralities of Republicans think the United States is striking the right balance in its support for Israel (47%) and sending it the right amount of military aid (46%). However, MAGA Republicans are more likely to say so than those who do not support the movement.

MAGA Republicans are also more likely to think the United States doesn't send Israel enough military aid (16%) than non-MAGA Republicans (5%). Comparatively, those who do not support the movement are more likely to think Israel receives too much support (21%) and military aid (26%) from the United States than MAGA supporters, although this is a minority view among both groups.

Young Republicans Less Satisfied with US Support for Israel

Older and younger Republicans also diverge in their views of US support for Israel, largely mirroring the differences between MAGA supporters and non-MAGA Republicans. This is in part because of the significant overlap between the groups: 71 percent of Silent Generation, Baby Boomer, or Gen X Republicans consider themselves supporters of the MAGA movement, compared to 59 percent of Millennial or Gen Z Republicans.

Pluralities of older and younger Republicans think the United States strikes the right balance in its support for Israel and sends it the right amount of military aid, but older Republicans tend to think so more than Millennials and Gen Z Republicans.

Still, a segment of older Republicans thinks the amount of military aid the United States sends to Israel is insufficient (17%), and to a much greater degree than young Republicans (5%). In the same vein, more Millennial and Gen Z Republicans think the United States provides Israel with too much support (21%) and military aid (27%) than older generations of Republicans (10% support, 16% military aid).

Democrats Starkly Divided over Continued Support for Israel

In July 2025, the Democratic National Committee weighed various resolutions on the US-Israel relationship but ultimately failed to pass onethat reconciled the competing demands of the party's progressive and establishment wings. Much like party leadership, everyday Democrats are starkly divided on the level of support the United States provides Israel.

Liberal Democrats are more than twice as likely to say the United States is supporting Israel too much (69%) and sending it too much military aid (60%) than moderate Democrats (29% and 26%, respectively). On the question of military aid, the plurality of moderate Democrats thinks the United States sends the right amount (35%), compared to just 15 percent among liberal Democrats.

Few Generational Differences on US Support for Israel Among Democrats

Unlike Republicans, whose generational differences fall almost exactly along ideological lines, differences between the generations of Democrats are much less pronounced than those between liberals and moderates. Across generational cohorts, Millennial and Gen Z Democrats tend to self-identify as liberal (67% vs. 33% moderate or conservative), while Democrats from the Silent Generation, Baby Boomer Generation, and Generation X are more divided in their ideological leanings (52% liberal vs. 48% moderate or conservative).

Young Democrats are slightly more likely to believe the United States supports Israel too much (58%) and sends it too much military aid (49%) than older Democrats (50% support, 41% military aid). Yet older Democrats see the United States striking the right balance in the level of support (16%) and military aid (27%) it provides Israel to a greater degree than Millennials and Gen Z Democrats (10% and 20%, respectively).

Partisan Divisions over Palestinian Statehood Persist

The debate over an independent Palestinian state has also been a source of enduring division in the United States, as successive administrations have voiced support for a two-state solution but have blocked, vetoed, or otherwise opposed effortsto advance Palestinian statehood-most recently in 2024. Meanwhile, several longstanding US allies, including France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have recently declared their recognition of the state of Palestinein response to Israel's war in Gaza. Despite mounting international pressure, Trump continues to opposesuch recognition.

Liberal Democrats strongly support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (75%), while moderates are equally divided (47% support vs. 46% oppose).

By comparison, the divide between MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans is much narrower: Both groups tend to oppose the idea of Palestinian statehood, but more MAGA Republicans are against it (61%) than their non-MAGA counterparts (51%). Unlike the issue of support for Israel, support for Palestinian statehood does not elicit significant differences across the generations of partisans.

Conclusion

Taken together, these data show a public deeply divided over the Israel-Gaza war-and not just along partisan lines but across generational cohorts and ideological factions as well. While they are now only a minority of the party, more moderate members of the GOP are moving away from unqualified support for Israel. But so are young Republicans, who the Republican leadership consider integral for the party's electoral successes in 2024. Should Trump's recent peace proposalfail, Republican leaders may have to contend with some discontent among the rank and file-particularly as a weakening economy places the administration's financial support for Israel under the spotlight.

Meanwhile, Democrats face a challenging road to the 2028 presidential primaries, as evidenced by the Democratic National Committee's failure to pass a resolution on the US-Israel relationship. The DNC's inability to articulate an inclusive position on this issue is reflective of Democrats' struggle to mobilize a base that is itself deeply divided and disillusioned with party leadershipon broader issues.

• 1

  MAGA Republicans are those who self-identify as Republicans and say they are supporters of the MAGA movement, while non-MAGA Republicans are those Republicans who say they do not support the movement. Sixty-seven percent of self-described Republicans say they consider themselves supporters of the Make America Great Again or MAGA movement.

• 2

  Liberal Democrats are self-identified Democrats who generally think of themselves as being extremely liberal, liberal, or somewhat liberal, and comprise 61 percent of the self-described Democratic respondents. Moderate Democrats are those who generally think of themselves as being moderate, slightly conservative, conservative, or extremely conservative, and comprise 39 percent of the Democratic respondents.