Blame for the conflict between Israel and Palestine over Gaza is mostly placed on Hamas, according to a Pew Research Center poll, but the youngest age group polled had a higher number blaming Israel.

The results of the poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 adults in the U.S. between July 24-27, showed that a majority of those who were older than 65 blamed Hamas, while 29 percent of adults aged 18-29 blamed Israel.

Only 21 percent of the youngest group blamed Hamas.

The reason may be based in the religious beliefs of the individuals, Alec Tyson, a senior researcher at Pew, told the Christian Science Monitor.

"For age, we know that younger people are much more likely to be religiously unaffiliated, and white evangelical Protestants are really bolstering American support for Israel," he said.

Similar results were seen among different races, where minorities were less supportive of Israel as they were less likely to be affiliated with pro-Israel evangelical denominations, according to CSM.

"I think to a certain extent that the African-American and Latino difference we now see is again due to white Evangelicals being more supportive of Israel," Tyson said.

About 35 percent of Hispanics sided with Palestine, and African-Americans were split -- 27 percent blamed Israel and 25 percent blamed Palestine.

The information was also briefly discussed on CNN Friday night. Rula Jebreal, a foreign policy analyst, said that the current U.S. ambassador to Israel was born in the country while she, a native of Israel, could never dream of being appointed, and that "tells you everything about the conflict."

Jebreal also discussed the view of young people and why their support may lean toward Palestine.

"Young people also talk about universal human rights, and they also talk about the aspirations of the Palestinians, and they talk about one thing that was never mentioned -- demilitarization of Hamas, that we all want, together with de-occupation," she said.

David Gergen, a former adviser to four U.S. presidents, told CNN, "I think it has a lot more to do with the nature of what we see about Israel today versus what we used to see, which was a nation that wants to occupy the moral high ground and the picture that makes the Israelis look like the occupiers and the bullies."

But overall, sympathy for Palestine has remained low in both the most recent poll and in 1978, according to the CSM.

Related