After a year of war between Israel and Hamas, U.S. public opinion on the conflict remains polarized, a new survey by the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds, with Democrats more likely to be critical of Israel, while Republicans remain more supportive.  Dems are fools.

     There are a few points of relative consensus - about half of U.S. adults, for example, say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility for the continuation of the war, while about one quarter says it has “some” responsibility and about 2 in 10 say it has “not much” responsibility or “none at all.” But U.S. adults remain divided on the extent to which the Israeli government is responsible for the conflict continuing. And the findings indicate that the past year of war hasn’t done much to widen or narrow the partisan gulf that existed early in the conflict.

     Democrats remain more sympathetic toward the Palestinians than Republicans and more critical of Israel, while Republicans are more likely to sympathize with the Israelis and view Israel as a U.S. ally that shares the United States’ values and interests.  However, it’s unclear from this survey if public opinion will shift as the war in the Middle East expands beyond Gaza. It was conducted from Sept. 12 to 16, before Israel’s military significantly escalated its operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and before Iran launched missiles at Israel on Tuesday. Hamas, based in Gaza, and Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, are militant groups allied with Iran.

     President Joe Biden has maintained crucial U.S. military support to Israel throughout the Gaza war, while repeatedly trying - and failing - to broker a cease-fire. Americans are most likely to place “a lot” of blame on Hamas for the continuation of the war between Israel and the militant group, followed by the Israeli government, and the Iranian government and groups backed by Iran.

     They place much less responsibility on their own country. Only about 1 in 10 Americans say the U.S. government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the continuation of the war between Israel and Hamas, while about 4 in 10 say it bears “some” responsibility, and 45% say the U.S. bears “not much” or no responsibility at all.