Israel is relatively popular in the US, but younger Americans and many circles within academia are rabid antizionists, as I think you've seen. Many are calling to "globalize the intifada."
Hamas has not succeeded in making the average westerner think terrorism is good, but they have succeeded in normalizing terrorism, making more people think that "terrorism" is an Islamophobic term, making more people think that Israel does not have the right to exist, and emboldening antisemites on the right and left. Younger generations are more and more aggressively antizionist as time goes on.
Settler expansion is a problem that's more complicated and less exciting to people than the war. It makes sense that antizionists want us to focus on the war and just use settler expansion for color.