Almost 50 years after the end of the Vietnam conflict, Americans are still crying out for love, not war. A new Economist/YouGov poll suggests that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of ceasefires in both of the two major U.S.-backed conflicts—Ukraine and Palestine.
In regards to Ukraine, 68 percent of American respondents said they supported a ceasefire between the Eastern European state and Russia, while just eight percent of respondents answered that they did not support a ceasefire.
A similar number supported a ceasefire in the Middle Eastern conflict between Israel and Hamas, with 65 percent of respondents supporting a ceasefire, while 16 percent said that they didn’t support the peace—the latter number is down nearly half from a Reuters/Ipsos poll that found 32 percent of Americans disagreed with a potential ceasefire earlier this month, before a truce was on the menu.
When it came down to counting dollars and cents, poll results were divided. Thirty-two percent of American respondents said that the current level of aid to Israel should continue, while 23 percent said they want less. An additional 21 percent, which primarily skewed Republican, responded that they wanted to see more aid directed to the U.S. ally, according to the Economist/YouGov poll.
Democrats, meanwhile, were more likely to back supplemental aid to Ukraine, with 35 percent of Democratic respondents in favor of increasing aid. Republican respondents voted in line with their government representatives who are actively working to curtail the U.S.’s next aid package to the Eastern European country, with 44 percent of Republican respondents saying they would be in favor of decreasing Ukrainian military aid.
Israel and Hamas originally agreed to a four-day cessation in hostilities on November 24; this ceasefire has been extended several times since as the two sides negotiate. So far, 104 Israeli hostages, including 24 foreign nationals, have been freed. In exchange, Israel has released more than 200 Palestinian prisoners, all of whom were women and teenagers, according to a report from The Washington Post, which estimated that 143 hostages still remain in Gaza.
To date, the conflict has claimed the lives of nearly 15,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—since Hamas’ sudden attack on Israel on October 7, when 1,200 Israelis were killed.