No, Pew Did Not Find 80% of Democrats Hold an Unfavorable View of Israel — The Real Number Is Less Than Half That

A widely shared claim attributes to Pew Research Center a finding that 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaners hold an unfavorable view of Israel. No such survey exists. The real Pew data tells a meaningfully different story.

Pew's March 2024 report, 'Majority in U.S. Still Favor Israel Over Palestinians,' found that 38% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners held an unfavorable view of Israel — and that a majority of Democrats still held a favorable view. A separate Pew report from late 2023 showed the unfavorable share among Democrats peaked at roughly 40–45% in the months following the October 7 attacks. That is a real and notable rise, but it is nowhere near 80%.

Gallup's independent polling backs this up. Their March 2024 data found about 38% of Democrats sympathized more with Palestinians than with Israel — again, a significant shift from prior years, but a far cry from 80% holding an unfavorable view of Israel outright. No major pollster has recorded anything close to the claimed figure.

To be fair to the strongest version of this claim: Democratic opinion on Israel has genuinely shifted. In 2019, only around 20% of Democrats held unfavorable views. That number has roughly doubled. The underlying trend is real — the 80% figure just wildly overstates it, turning a notable change into a fictional landslide.

This kind of inflation is worth watching for. When a real trend exists, exaggerating it into an extreme number makes the story feel more urgent and shareable — but it also misleads people about where the public actually stands. Always check whether a specific poll is cited, and look up the original source before sharing.