- Americans are more likely to blame Hamas (34%) than Israel (6%) for the recent fighting in the Middle East, though nearly half (47%) blame both sides equally.
- Only 33% of Americans approve of how President Obama is handling the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, while 50% disapprove. Democrats approve while Republicans and independents disapprove.
- President Obama's overall job approval remains low, with 41% approving and 50% disapproving of his job performance as president.
- Americans are more likely to blame Hamas (34%) than Israel (6%) for the recent fighting in the Middle East, though nearly half (47%) blame both sides equally.
- Only 33% of Americans approve of how President Obama is handling the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, while 50% disapprove. Democrats approve while Republicans and independents disapprove.
- President Obama's overall job approval remains low, with 41% approving and 50% disapproving of his job performance as president.
- Americans are more likely to blame Hamas (34%) than Israel (6%) for the recent fighting in the Middle East, though nearly half (47%) blame both sides equally.
- Only 33% of Americans approve of how President Obama is handling the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, while 50% disapprove. Democrats approve while Republicans and independents disapprove.
- President Obama's overall job approval remains low, with 41% approving and 50% disapproving of his job performance as president.
For release: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 7:00 AM EDT
Conflict in the Middle East July 29-August 4, 2014
After a month of bloodshed, Americans are far more likely to blame Hamas (34%) than Israel (6%) for the fighting in the region, though even more (47%) blame both sides equally.
President Barack Obamas overall approval rating is 41%, and just 33% approve of his handling of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel and Hamas
After four weeks of conflict, more Americans blame Hamas than Israel for the recent fighting that has erupted. 34% think Hamas is most to blame, while just 6% lay most of the blame on Israel. However, nearly half 47% - think both sides are equally to blame.
Most Republicans (54%) lay the blame on Hamas, while Democrats and independents are more likely to blame both sides equally.
Who is Most to Blame for the Fighting Between Israel and Hamas? Total Reps Dems Inds Hamas 34% 54% 24% 32% Israel 6 2 10 6 Both equally 47 35 55 48
Assessing the Presidents Job Performance
Americans are critical of how President Obama has been responding to this conflict. 50% of Americans disapprove of how the President is handling the situation between Israel and the Palestinians, while just 33% approve. Most Democrats (56%) approve of how the President is handling the situation, and most Republicans (71%) and independents (53%) disapprove.
President Obamas Handling of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Total Reps Dems Inds Approve 33% 15% 56% 29% Disapprove 50 71 30 53
Overall, President Obama continues to receive a negative job approval rating. 41% of Americans approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as President while 50% disapprove, numbers that have changed little since earlier in the year.
This poll was conducted by telephone from July 29 - August 4, 2014 among 1,344 adults nationwide. Data collection was conducted on behalf of CBS News by SSRS of Media, PA. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones.
Additional interviews were conducted with Hispanics (for use in future analysis), to yield a sample size of 426. The Hispanic oversample consisted of callbacks to Hispanic respondents who had previously completed a survey as part of a random sample, and interviews with respondents whose telephone numbers were likely to fall in high-incidence Hispanic areas on landline exchanges and cell phone rate centers.
The weighting of the Hispanic sample consisted of non-response corrections for the callback numbers (to account for systematic differences between those completing and those not completing the callback interview), and a weighting adjustment to ensure that Hispanics in high-incidence areas were not overrepresented in the data.
The Hispanic and non-Hispanic samples were weighted separately to match their groups population characteristics such as gender, age, education, region, marital status and phone use based on recent U.S. Census estimates. The samples were then combined in proportion to their size in the population, and weighted to standard parameters of the total U.S. adult population.
The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. The margin of error for the sample of Hispanics is 6 pts and 4 pts for Non-Hispanics. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
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CBS NEWS POLL Conflict in the Middle East July 29 August 4, 2014
Q1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as President?
TOTAL RESPONDENTS Total Rep Dem Ind Jun14d % % % % % Approve 41 8 74 36 40 Disapprove 50 86 20 50 54 Don't know/No answer 10 6 6 14 6
Q2. Q7 HELD FOR FUTURE RELEASE
Q8. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the situation between Israel and the Palestinians?