Biden's Gaza, student protest policy not sitting well with Democrats — poll

Democrats are deeply divided over US President Joe Biden's handling of both Israel's genocidal war in Gaza and the US campus protests against it, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found, fraying the coalition that he relied on four years ago to defeat Republican Donald Trump.

Some 44 percent of Democratic registered voters responding to the May 7-14 poll said they disapprove of Biden's handling of the crisis. Democrats who disapproved of his response were less likely to say they would vote for Biden in the November 5 election — no small concern given his tight rematch with Trump.

Biden has faced heavy criticism from some members of his own party for continuing to provide arms to Israel even though more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza.

The flow of weapons has continued even after Biden last week delayed a shipment of 2,000-pound [907-kg] bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel over concerns they might be used for a major invasion of Rafah, a town in southern Gaza.

The widespread campus protests, including some that have ended in violence when university officials called in police to clear campus, have undermined Biden's 2020 campaign pledge of a return to stability after Trump's chaotic four years in office.

Overall, just 34 percent of registered voters approve of Biden's handling of the war, including 53 percent of Democrats, 31 percent of independents and 22 percent of Republicans.

Demonstrations against the war have not been limited to college campuses, with protesters targeting Biden and other members of his administration at public events for months.

The online poll surveyed 3,934 US adults nationwide, including 3,208 registered voters. It had margins of error of about 2 percentage points for responses from all registered voters, about 3 points for registered Republicans and Democrats, and about 4 points for independents.

"This issue is a stone-cold loser for Biden," said Douglas Schoen, a pollster and strategist who reviewed the Reuters/Ipsos poll results. "He's losing votes from the left, right and center."

Robert F. Kennedy factor

Among the registered Democrats who disapprove of Biden's response to the Gaza war, about 77 percent said they would vote for him in November, compared with about 93 percent of those who approved of his Gaza response.

While those voters might not turn to Trump, they could choose not to vote at all or cast a ballot for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose independent campaign garnered the support of about 13 percent of registered voters in the poll.

Schoen said there was a strong likelihood that the Gaza war could inflict serious damage on Biden in Michigan, a key battleground state with a large Arab American population and where Kennedy is on the ballot.

Americans are also uncertain what US policy toward Israel should look like. When asked which party has the better policy, 39 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of independents said they didn’t know.

Some 51 percent of registered Democrats said they did not approved of Biden's response to the protests, while 41percent said they approved and the rest didn't answer the question.

Some 37 percent of Democrats disagreed with a statement that the protests reflected an anti-semitic view, while 37 percent agreed.

Kenneth Wald, who studies the Jewish American vote at the University of Florida, said he was skeptical the conflict or the protests would generate a large-scale shift away from Democrats.

Secular Jews in particular, Wald said, are likely to stay aligned with Democrats if the alternative is Trump.