INTERNACIONAL
Poll finds most Americans don’t support Israel’s action in Gaza as Biden-Israel relations hit ‘low point’
Approval of Israel’s actions in Gaza has fallen among Americans for the first time since the conflict began, according to the newest Gallup poll published Wednesday.
«While there have been other recent surveys showing continued support for Israel, you have to expect there will be a negative impact on Democratic voters when the leader of the party engages in non-stop political warfare against Israel on a daily basis,» Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and former National Security Council official, told Fox News Digital. «President Biden is doing permanent damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship.»
Gallup’s poll on Israel in Gaza, taken in November when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first pushed his forces into the Palestinian enclave, found that at least half of all Americans approved of the operation – with 45% disapproving and 4% having no opinion.
The poll was taken before the United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire during Ramadan, Gallup noted.
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«The U.S. action at the U.N. has driven U.S.-Israel relations to a low point in their history and left America’s reputation as a credible ally in ruins,» Caroline Glick, one of Israel’s leading experts on American-Israeli relations, told Fox News Digital. She continued, «Israel is engaged in a multi-front war against Iran and its proxies for its survival. In Tehran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Jordan, Israel’s enemies saw on Monday that the U.S. has abandoned Israel at the height of the war, effectively adopting Hamas’ positions as its own.»
The latest survey, taken between March 1 and 20, found that 55% of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s actions, with 36% approving, and 9% having no opinion. Of those polled, 74% said they are actively following news of the crisis (a minor uptick from the 72% who said the same in November).
Political division over approval remains clear and consistent: Republicans still overwhelmingly approve, even if that approval dropped from 71% in November to 64% in March. Democrats, who mostly disapproved of the action even in November, saw support plummet to 18%, with 75% disapproval.
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Gallup highlighted the difficulty President Biden faces among his «most loyal supporters,» with some critics arguing the president «has been too closely aligned with Israel by not taking stronger actions to promote a cease-fire and to assist Palestinian civilians caught in the war zone.»
Jon Alterman, director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Middle East Program, told Fox News Digital that Americans have absorbed the conflict through multiple channels – traditional media, social media and even conversation with friends and colleagues – but the coverage has differed in some areas.
«Some Israeli leaders have been critical of their country’s own outreach, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who complained last week that he’s surrounded by people who ‘can’t put two words together in English,’» Alterman explained.
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«I’m also struck that the narrative in Israel is profoundly different from the narrative in the rest of the world,» Alterman said. «Israelis are preoccupied by stories of their own suffering and heroism, as well as persistent threats from Palestinians. There is virtually nothing in the Hebrew press about either civilian casualties in Gaza or humanitarian conditions there.»
«The international press carries both sets of stories, but it seems to me that many Israelis are embedded in their own narratives, and that makes it harder for them to shape other ones,» he added. «They end up rejecting those narratives as biased or illegitimate, rather than reshape them.»
While Republicans approve of what Israel has done, Biden himself only has 16% approval for his handling of the situation, according to a Gallup poll released last week, while Democrats had 47% approval – still a significant drop from the 60% approval in November.
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Biden’s overall approval rating has hit around 40%, according to the pollster – up from 37% in the November survey, but Gallup ascribed the shift to greater confidence in the economy than anything he’s done with Israel.
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
INTERNACIONAL
Germany’s Scholz rejects calls for no-confidence vote as coalition government collapses
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday rejected calls for a no-confidence vote after he fired his finance minister in a signal that his coalition government was collapsing, saying he will lead the country with a minority government until early next year.
Demands for immediate elections were issued by the leader of the largest opposition bloc in parliament, Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democrats, after Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Wednesday for proving uncooperative in his attempts to repair the economy.
«The finance minister shows no willingness to implement the offer for the good of our country. I do not want to subject our country to such behavior anymore,» Scholz said according to an NPR report.
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The move paved the way for Germany’s parliament to issue a confidence vote on Jan. 15, which is expected to lead to elections by March rather than the September timeline elections were previously set to be held . But some are calling for the proceedings to take place in 2024.
«The coalition no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag, and we therefore call on the chancellor . . . to call a vote of confidence immediately, or at the latest by the beginning of next week,» Merz said.
Scholz on Thursday stressed that he will not take steps to push the vote of confidence up any sooner than January.
«The citizens will soon have the opportunity to decide anew how to proceed,» the chancellor said according to a report by AP that cited the German Press Agency (DPA). «That is their right. I will therefore put the vote of confidence to the Bundestag at the beginning of next year.»
The finance minister was accused by Scholz of breaching his trust after Lindner publicly called for a plan that would create tax cuts worth billions for a few top earners while at the same time cutting pensions for all retirees.
«That is not decent,» Scholz said.
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The economic policy disagreements reportedly arose as the coalition government – which has been in power since 2021, when Angela Markel left office – looks to plug a billion-euro hole in Germany’s 2025 budget.
Scholz is reportedly hoping that he will be able to work with his coalition government – encompassing his left-leaning Social Democrats party as well as the environmentalist Greens party – in conjunction with members of Merz’s center-right party to pass legislation in the coming weeks to address their 2025 budget gaps.
«We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany for several months now, and then campaign for several more months, and then possibly conduct coalition negotiations for several weeks,» Merz said in objection to Scholz’s plan.
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Given that Scholz’s party no longer holds the majority, he is expected to lose in the upcoming confidence vote, at which point Germany’s president could dissolve parliament within 21 days and force an early election as soon as January.
«During these 21 days, we will have enough time to find out whether there are any issues that we may have to decide on together,» Merz said before pledging to work cooperatively with the minority government. «We are, of course, prepared to hold talks . . . we are also prepared to take responsibility for our country.»
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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