Jewish People in the USA Prefer Mamdani to Netanyahu

44% of American Jews say they support New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, compared to just 32% who support Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an AP-NORC poll conducted in June, Mamdani polled higher among Jewish adults, than President Trump (38%) and America’s most prominent Jewish politician, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (41%).

In last year’s election, just 26% of New York Jews voted for Mamdani, who got 50.8% of the overall vote share. In May, the mayor fulfilled his campaign trail promise to skip New York’s annual Israel Day Parade, having consistently described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide. 

Mamdani has said he will uphold an arrest warrant for Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024 if the Israeli prime minister comes to New York. This could be tested in September, with Netanyahu saying he will attend the UN General Assembly in the US city. Of the 3,040 Americans polled, including 1,022 Jews, 31% agreed that “Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza amount to genocide”, while almost half said they did not know.

Among just American Jews, a similar proportion said a genocide had occured (30%), but almost half (49%) said it had not. The vast majority of American Jews (73%) also said that Israel’s immediate military response to Hamas’ attack on 7 October 2023 was justified, compared to just 43% of the wider American population. 

The findings suggest American support for Israel is in steep decline – including among the Jewish community – almost three years after Israel launched its all-out assault on Gaza following the 7 October attack by Hamas.

Asked whether they supported the establishment of a Palestinian state that includes the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, American Jews were evenly divided between support (33%), opposition (36%) and neither supporting nor opposing (30%). Meanwhile, 43% of American Jews said that the US was not supportive enough of Palestinians, compared to 28% who felt Israelis needed more support. 60% of Jews also said that US military action in Iran had gone too far.