‘Facts Matter’: Poll Shows Americans’ Firm Rejection of Hamas-Linked Two-State Solution

On the heels of a much publicized Gallup poll released Wednesday showing Americans’ shrinking support for Israel’s war in Gaza over the last four months, another poll is revealing that when people are informed about the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) alignment with the terrorist group Hamas, their support for a peace deal between the PA and Israel drops dramatically.

The survey, conducted by the public affairs agency Gideon300 in partnership with Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research, found that “55 percent of American voters initially favor the U.S. encouraging Israel to make a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority.” However, after survey conductors informed the participants that the PA “wants to form a unity government with Hamas (including Cabinet positions for Hamas), pay Hamas Terrorists, and that 82% of PA supporters approve of the October 7th terrorist attacks by Hamas,” the percentage that still approved of the peace deal dropped down to 30%.

Notably, the survey also found that Democratic voters saw the “biggest swing towards negative sentiment” towards the peace deal after learning about the PA’s association with Hamas, from 73% of initial support down to 43% support (Republicans went from 38% to 19% and Independents went from 47% to 28%).

On Wednesday, Matthew Faraci, president of Gideon300, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to discuss the impetus behind his organization’s administration of the poll and what the results indicate.

“There’s a Harris/Harvard CAPS poll that they do quite regularly, and one of the things that we’ve seen in this poll back from the beginning, since October 7th, is that [Americans’] support for Israel hovers around 79 to 80%” versus support for Hamas, he pointed out. “[I]n fact, one of the interesting trends is that young people have actually trended more supportive [of Israel], which again, goes against everything you see from the propaganda official state media that we’re fed every day.”

But as Faraci went on to contend, the Biden administration is attempting to lessen the public’s support of Israel in order to put pressure on the Israeli government to give in to Biden’s preferred policy objectives, including a two-state solution.

“[P]art of the tension [between Israel and the U.S.] is clearly that the U.S. … doesn’t want Israel to finish the job and take out Hamas and invade Rafah,” he explained. “But the slight of hand, the quiet other thing that they are pressuring Israel for is that they ultimately want Israel to settle for a two-state solution, which means the end of Israel. And the State Department … is trying to polish up the Palestinian Authority and make them look more palatable. Because the question is, if there’s a two-state solution, who would such a solution be with? Who’s the person making the deal on the other end? And what the Biden administration is doing is saying, ‘Well, that’s going to be the Palestinian Authority, the more moderate, peaceful wing of the governance over there.’”

However, when Americans are presented with the facts regarding the PA, Biden’s policies aren’t well received, Faraci observed. “Once people started to learn the details of that, they swung in their opinion,” he noted. “I’ve never seen a swing this big in any poll I’ve ever done, and I’ve done hundreds of them.”

“So Matthew, are you saying facts matter?” asked Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

“Shocking,” Faraci deadpanned in response. “Facts matter.”