Americans view Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more negatively than positively overall, according to a Pew Research Center study written by researchers Jacob Poushter and Moira Fagan and published on Monday.
Per the study, 42% of respondents reported that they have no confidence in Netanyahu to "do the right thing regarding world affairs" compared to 32% who said they do.
In terms of political parties, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express confidence in Netanyahu - this also applied to levels of confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin. The poll specified that 49% of Republicans professed confidence in the Israeli prime minister compared to 17% of Democrats.
To break down the Republican data further, Pew pointed out that 60% of conservative Republicans have confidence in Netanyahu, while only 30% of moderate and liberal Republicans do. Among Democrats, approximately 24% of conservatives and moderates have a positive view of the Israeli prime minister. Only 10% of liberal Democrats reported such a view.
Younger Republicans reported a lower level of confidence in Netanyahu than those over the age of 50. However, researchers pointed out that this could be because 35% of Republicans aged 18-45 reported having never heard of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Evangelical Christians, according to the report, are especially likely (53%) to be partial to Benjamin Netanyahu. 17% of non-religious Americans have confidence in him, while a further 32% admit to not knowing who he is.
Across all demographics, 26% of those polled stated that they had not heard of the Israeli prime minister.
What do Americans think of other world leaders?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky got largely positive ratings across the board, with 56% of those polled expressing confidence in him as a leader. French President Emanuel Macron got a 37% approval rating, and Presidents Xi (China) and Putin got 7% and 6% positive responses, respectively.
Americans were also asked their opinions of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 32% expressed faith in Scholz and 20% in Modi; however, 40% of those polled had never heard of Modi and 35% were not familiar with Scholz.
Heightened tensions between the US and Israel
This poll comes amid widespread protests and general civilian unrest in light of Netanyahu's proposed judicial reforms. What is more, Israel's relations with the United States were recently strained as a result of this unrest when US President Joe Biden announced that he would not host Netanyahu at the White House unless he halted the judicial reform legislative process.
“I hope he [Netanyahu] walks away from it,” Biden told reporters in late March as he issued his most clear objections to the plan to date and opened an intensely public dispute between the two leaders, who are also good friends.
When asked if he would invite Netanyahu to the White House, Biden quickly replied, “No, not in the near term.”
Tovah Lazaroff and Omri Nahmias contributed to this report.