How Israeli and American attitudes towards each other have changed

0:00Fall is right around the corner. That means the midterms. Hey, it's Miles Parks from the NPR Politics Podcast. Now is the perfect time to calibrate your news diet for the fall. Follow our show for short daily episodes that will help you stay ahead of the most important midterm storylines that you need to follow. Find the NPR Politics Podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today on State of the World, how Israeli and American attitudes towards each other have changed. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close, where they're happening.

0:41I'm Greg Dixon. Since the October 7th, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, much has happened with the U.S.'s key ally in the Middle East. Israel launched an invasion of Gaza, then Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel launched a war in Iran. So how do Americans feel about Israel now, and vice versa? Four years ago, 67 % of Americans held a favorable view of Israelis, according to the Pew Research Center. Last month, that number was 52%. But to get beyond the numbers, NPR's Frank Langfitt wanted to hear how Americans and Israelis talk about each other. He brings us his reporting from Washington and Jerusalem.

1:23When Lindsay Holliday was young, she says she was among the many Americans enamored with Israel. When I was growing up in the early 50s, it was very much in everyone's consciousness. And it was an important thing to have to be given Jews a safe haven in their own country. Because of the Holocaust? Yes. Holliday, who lives in Washington, D.C., is now 80. She says these days she's more sympathetic to the Palestinians than the Israelis. She cites Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza that has killed an estimated 73 ,000 people there and Israel's occupation of territory in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and the West Bank.

2:04I feel it's lost its way by trying to take too much. There has to be a stopping point. A Gallup poll earlier this year found Americans are more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israelis. That's a change after nearly a quarter century of polling results that favored Israel. But some Americans still back the country. Mike Hall's 51. He works as an electrician in Virginia. Paul says Americans don't talk that much anymore about the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. The one that killed an estimated 1 ,200 Israelis triggered the Israeli invasion. It's just been for God. People want to have the narrative that it's genocide and all this.

2:45But, you know, if Canada came in and did that to Detroit, Michigan, we'd be in war with Canada instantly. I think it would be a totally different story if something like that happened here. I flew from Washington to Israel. I'm walking through the Central Market in Jerusalem, and there are hundreds of stalls here, selling everything from chili peppers and dried fruit and nuts to candies. And I run into this woman, Gail Bronstein. She's buying some fish. She's worried about what she hears out of the U.S. Israel as a state is very reliant on America. It's naive not to think that. Bronstein worries that if American sentiment on Israel continues to sour, the next generation of U.S.

3:26leaders could reduce military support for the country. I believe that once it will be smaller, it will be a very big concern for us. Bronstein works as a singer and used to serve in the Israeli military as a spokesperson. I asked how she would respond to Americans who think 73 ,000 killings is excessive. Braunschwein says Israel's military does all it can to limit civilian deaths, while Hamas uses people as human shields. I think that it's a very privileged viewpoint to be able to look at everything from outside and to kind of critic how many casualties you think is enough or more than enough or too little.

4:06You don't live our reality. You don't have our challenges. The U.N. said in April that more than 38 ,000 women and girls had been killed in Gaza as of December 2025. A couple of blocks away in the market, Wissam Waraki is selling fish. He's an Arab Christian born in Virginia. When he thinks about America, he thinks about what he can do to save Palestinians who face constant attacks from Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

4:35The United States helps us with everything, he tells me, and that's very nice. It gives strong backing to Israel. But the fact is, he, Trump, could stop the chaos that's happening right now. And he's not doing anything. Iraqi worries about an explosion of Palestinian retaliatory violence in the West Bank, leading to attacks, as it has in the past, back here in Israel. Frank Langford, NPR News, reporting from Washington and Jerusalem.

5:03That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. This message comes from Designer Shoe Warehouse. You know that feeling when you find shoes you love at a great price and want to tell everyone about it? Find something to brag about at Designer Shoe Warehouse. Like the latest styles from brands you love, the trends everyone's obsessing over, and shoes that make you feel like you. Head to a DSW store or DSW.com today for shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. DSW. Let us surprise you. This season on Planet Money Summer School, we have drilled for oil in Norway, we've smuggled products into North Korea, and now we make it to our seventh continent, Antarctica.

5:49That's right. Speak for me. Mr. Penguin, speak for me. Who is that? That's another sound of Antarctica. That's a reporter trying to interview a penguin. We'll explain on Planet Money Summer School. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.