A recent poll of Americans’ opinions about the Israel-Hamas war revealed some disturbing (and contradictory) beliefs held by the younger demographic. While acknowledging that Hamas wants to murder all of the Jews, a majority of young Americans thought the solution to the conflict should be the annihilation of Israel and replacing it with a Hamas-run entity.

The monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found that overall, 81% of Americans backed  Israel in its war against Hamas, but a majority (51%)of young respondents aged 18 to 24 felt that Israel should be “ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.” This compares to only 26% of young respondents who supported erasing the Jewish state after October 7. This contrasted sharply with older Americans with only  4% of Americans aged 65 and above saying that Israel should be ended.

In a seemingly contradictory manner, 58% of these young respondents thought Hamas should be removed from running Gaza. Overall, 81% of Americans believe that Hamas should be removed from running Gaza. 34% of Americans say that Israel should run Gaza, 27% say that the Palestinian Authority should, and 38% say that it should be a new authority set up with Arab nations.

Among 18-24-year-olds who were asked this question, 45% answered that Israel should administer the Gaza Strip, followed by 41% saying the PA should, and 14% saying a new authority should. 

Other solutions that did not require the complete genocide of Israel were less popular with young Americans.  32% of the same age group favored a two-state solution which would create an unprecedented Palestinian state inside of Israel, ethnically cleansed of Jews, with its capital in an exclusively Muslim Jerusalem. 17% suggested that other Arab countries should take in the Palestinians.

Overall, 60% of respondents preferred a two-state solution.

66% of respondents in the 18-24 age group believed that Hamas’s October 7 massacre of over 1,200 Israelis constituted genocide. The poll also found that 60% of the 18-24 age group believed that Palestinian grievances justified Hamas’ Oct 7 terrorist attack. 74% of all Americans and 58% of the 18-24 age group acknowledged that Hamas wanted to commit genocide against the Jews in Israel.  

Nonetheless, 76% of 18-24-year-olds think Hamas is an organization that can be negotiated with to create peace.  Among the totality of Americans, 64% disagree, saying that they believe Hamas is dedicated only to the destruction of Israel.

80% of Americans believe that Hamas uses civilians as human shields and three-fourths said they believe that Hamas, not Israel, is primarily responsible for endangering Gazan civilians.

Additionally, almost three-fourths of Americans (73%) said Hamas is primarily responsible for triggering the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but a slight majority of Americans aged 18-24 said that Israel is primarily responsible for endangering Gazans.

Overall, 73% of respondents said the Hamas onslaught was genocide, and similarly, 73% believed it to be unjustified.

57% of American Muslims said they believed Hamas’ attack against Israel was justified.

58% of the young Americans acknowledged that Hamas wanted to commit genocide against the Jews in Israel, but 60% of them also accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza in its war against Hamas. Only 37% of Americans overall believed Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. 63% of all respondents believed that Israel’s military offensive was aimed at defending by eliminating Hamas, but 60% of the younger demographic believed that Israel’s motivation was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Only 37% of Americans overall believed Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. 

In a contradictory manner, 69% of Americans said that they believe Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. The percentage of Americans between the ages of 18-24 who thought the same was higher than the national average of 70%.

81% overall and 80% of young Americans said that Israel has a right to defend itself against terror attacks by launching airstrikes on targets in heavily populated Palestinian areas with warnings to those citizens”. 

Overall, 64% of respondents said a ceasefire should be agreed to only after the release of hostages and Hamas being removed from power. 67% of 18- to 24-year-olds favored an unconditional deal that would leave things as they are with the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza and Hamas staying in power in Gaza.

Additionally, 53% of the young Americans said that students should have the right to call for the “genocide of Jews” without facing any consequences even though 70% said such calls constituted hate speech.

Overall,  74% answered that those who make the calls should face disciplinary action, while 79% said the calls were hate speech.  63% of 18-24-year-old respondents acknowledged that antisemitism is prevalent on university campuses. Overall, 24% said that Jew hatred was always present on campus. 20% of respondents blamed students, 18% blamed left-wing political movements, 11% claimed university presidents and administrators were to blame for Jew hatred, 11% pointed at foreign funding of universities and student groups, 7% university professors, and 8% answered none of the above.

The poll also showed that 67% of the 18-24 age group believed that Jews should be seen as oppressors. 73% of Americans rejected this as a “false ideology.”

Overall, 69% of Americans said they were paying “very close” or “somewhat close” attention to the war in Israel. 81% of the 18-24 age group are paying “very close” or “somewhat close” attention to the war between Israel and Hamas. 

While more than 80% of Americans overall sided with Israel, the 18-24 age group was evenly split at 50-50.

Mark Penn, the chairman of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, was shocked to  discover that two-thirds of the youngest voters view Jewish people as oppressors after 6 million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust “stands out as representative of [Generation] Z’s attitude towards Jews and Israelis.” 

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted from Dec. 13 to 14 and surveyed 2,034 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll. 

The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.

NOTE: While researching this article, the author discovered that the Hindustan Times reported that 13 Israelis were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack. The actual figure is over 1,200 with over 200 Israelis taken hostage. The article also claimed the Hamas attack was  “a response to the Palestinian grievance”.