World
Israelis less sure US takes country’s interests into account, poll finds
The percentage of Israelis who believe the US takes the country’s interests into consideration has fallen to its lowest in over a decade, according to a Pew Research Center poll, which found US President Donald Trump’s ratings are slumping across dozens of nations.
Among Israelis, 68 percent of respondents believe that Washington’s foreign policy takes Israeli into consideration, a figure not seen since 2013, and down 12 points from the 80% recorded in 2023. In 2018, halfway through Trump’s first term, it was at 87%.
Across the 36 nations and areas that participated in the survey, a median of just 32% of adults believe the US takes into account the interests of similar countries in its foreign policy.
The survey, published Tuesday, sampled 42,151 people in 36 countries from February 8 to May 13, 2026. The statement noted that most or all interviews were done after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28. However, the poll was completed before the US and Iran agreed and then signed a memorandum of understanding to halt the fighting. The poll included responses from the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a single entity, separate from Israel, while noting that researchers were not able to poll in the Gaza Strip.
The poll found “negative – and often overwhelmingly negative – views of US President Donald Trump in regions around the globe,” Pew said.
A median of 76% of adults said they do not have confidence in Trump to “do the right thing in world affairs,” while 23% did trust him.
In Israel, 66% said that they have confidence in Trump in world affairs, while 33% had no confidence.
Among Jewish Israelis, confidence rose to 79% but plummeted to 13% among Arab Israelis.
The report noted that in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Turkey, the share of the public that has confidence in Trump “is in single digits.”
Asked if the US was a reliable partner, 87% of Israelis agreed, up slightly from 83% in 2022. The median from all participating areas was just 47%, while 50% said it was not reliable.
Among the 17 countries where trend data were available, all except Israel and Hungary showed declines in their view of US reliability, including Canada, which plummeted from 83% in 2022 to just 35% in the recent poll. Also in the UK, the share who see the US as a reliable partner dropped from 82% in 2022 to just 49%.
In none of the countries surveyed did attitudes to Trump become more positive, the survey noted.
The survey found that a median of 76% of adults disapproved of how Trump is handling Iran. An exception was Israel, where “a clear majority” of 73% approved (once again, notably, before the recent deal). Only 5% of Palestinians in the West Bank or East Jerusalem said they approved.
No country saw a majority approve of Trump’s handling of the war in the Gaza Strip, which began with the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and ended with a fragile ceasefire two years later, leaving Gaza bisected into Israeli-held and Hamas-held areas. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, just 3% approved, while in Israel, opinions were overall divided, with 48% approving and the same share disapproving. However, among Jewish Israelis, 57% approved, while Arab Israelis (14%) were “expressing very different views,” the report said.
Of the 36 countries sampled, a median of 37% of adults had a favorable view of the US, while 57% held an unfavorable view.
The highest rating came from Israel, where 81% were favorable. Among Arab Israelis, only 19% had a favorable view, down from 29% last year. Jewish Israelis were 96% favorable in their view of the US.
A median of 35% of adults from all the polled nations said they see the US as contributing “a great deal or a fair amount” to global peace and stability, the report said.
In Israel, that figure was at 73%, compared to just 14% in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In Turkey, it was at just 10%.
The report noted that “people have become much less likely to believe the US adds to global peace and security” since the center last checked the notion in 2023 under the Biden administration. The share of those who hold that belief dropped in 19 out of 22 countries where data was available to show the trend, it noted.
