Most New Yorkers believe ugly anti-Israel protests are now antisemitic, back police crackdown after Columbia chaos: poll
The vast majority of New Yorkers believe that the anti-Israel protests on Big Apple campuses were fueled by antisemitism — and they support the police crackdown on the ugly demonstrations, an eye-opening new poll shows.
Sixty-one percent of registered voters from across the Empire State agreed that the campus protesters “have forgotten that Hamas started this war” and that the demonstrations “have crossed the line into anti-Semitism,” according to a Sienna College poll.
By comparison, only a quarter (25%) of respondents disagreed, while the rest were undecided.
More than two-thirds of New Yorkers (70%) also said they supported the police action to shut down unruly protests that went too far and crossed the line into Jew-hatred. Less than a quarter (22%) disagreed.
The results come just weeks after 44 pro-terror rioters — who included two university staffers — were arrested after barricading themselves inside Columbia University’s iconic Hamilton Hall, where they smashed windows and draped it with a giant flag calling for “intifada.”
Meanwhile, 72% of voters said they support students “peacefully” demonstrating in support of Palestinians suffering in Gaza, while 22% disagreed.
Similarly, about two-thirds (64%) of New Yorkers support an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, while 27% did not, the Sienna poll found.
The survey polled 1,191 registered voters and was conducted May 13-15. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
“Older voters are more likely to say the demonstrations crossed into anti-Semitism and it was OK to call in the police, while younger voters are more likely to support peacefully demonstrating and calling for a cease-fire,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.
On other issues, almost half (48%) of respondents support a constitutional amendment to protect transgender rights — which could also be on the ballot — while 32% are opposed, with the rest undecided.
A judge recently struck down the proposed “Equal Rights Amendment” that includes both transgender rights and abortion rights as unconstitutional — though the decision is being appealed.
If it’s on the ballot this fall, 59% of respondents said they would vote for it while 26% said they would vote against it.
The broad language of the proposal — dubbed Proposition One — has sparked a fierce debate over what could happen if it gets passed, with opponents claiming it’ll lead to kids possibly being able to get serious medical procedures without their parents’ OK and allow transgender females to compete in women’s sports.
When it comes to the upcoming presidential election, President Biden only leads former President Donald Trump by a slim 9 percentage points — 47% to 38% — despite New York being a deep-blue state.
“In a state that hasn’t voted for the GOP candidate for president since Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, and where Democrats hold a 26-point enrollment advantage over Republicans, Biden only leads Trump — whose negative favorability rating is not much worse than Biden’s — by a ‘narrow’ nine points,” Greenberg said.
The wide-ranging poll also found:
79% of voters still believe the influx of migrants is a serious issue.
54% of voters said crime in the state has worsened over the past year, while only 14% said they feel safer.
63% of voters support a ban on social media platforms from providing addictive, algorithm-based feeds to minors without parental consent.
45% of voters oppose state actions aimed at reducing fossil fuel use — if it will require consumers to pay more for energy.
