One thing I’ve learned in half a century in Washington observing politics and politicians is that the worst wounds are self-inflicted. Don’t take my word for it, though I have some scars. You can ask Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Newt Gingrich, Kristy Noem, Pam Bondi, and recently-resigned-in-disgrace Representatives Eric Swalwell, Tony Gonzales, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
Israel is suffering from that affliction as well, with a dramatic reversal of its historic place in American hearts. Polling data shows more Americans today sympathize with the Palestinians than with Israelis, and the gap is widening, especially among younger voters. Antisemitism is also growing, notably among those under 50.
Anger is mounting about the ongoing, unfocused war with Iran, and Israel’s role in precipitating it; as well as Israel’s tactics in Gaza, which have led even some supporters to express outrage over the alarming civilian death toll. These are big reasons why Israel has plunged to pariah status in American politics. But the erosion of support began long before these events.
The growing hostility toward Israel, and particularly its current leadership, is bipartisan but most noticeable among Democrats and – most disturbing – among many Jewish voters. There are deepening divisions, from hostility to indifference, within the Jewish community about Israel.
Candidates who once enthusiastically vied to show who could be more pro-Israel are becoming an endangered species. Support for Israel has become a contentious issue among the crowd of Democratic primary candidates to represent the nation’s largest Jewish district and replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, a yeshiva graduate and dean of the Jewish delegation.
Foreign aid to Israel, once on autopilot with a wall-to-wall bipartisan consensus that saw politicians compete to show who loved Israel more, is in deep trouble. Lawmakers are increasingly looking for ways to condition and even eliminate the $3.8 billion in annual aid, as well as restrict the weapons sold to the Jewish state.
Netanyahu's actions led to this reversal
This shocking reversal of fortune can’t be blamed on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Palestinians, Islamists, antisemites, left-wing progressives, or right-wing isolationists. They may try to take credit or be assigned blame, but it was really an inside job.
It didn’t happen overnight; it has been building for years. If you must pick a turning point, it was March 3, 2015. That’s when the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in partnership with the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, gave a speech to the Congress attacking the Democratic president and his nuclear agreement with Iran.
There is no historical precedent for a foreign leader using such a platform to attack a sitting president, much less take a leadership role in the opposition party’s campaign to defeat his landmark foreign policy achievement.
Netanyahu’s obsession with Iran struck a responsive chord in US President Donald Trump, who saw an opportunity to shred the legacy of his bete noire, Barack Obama.
More than any single player, Bibi bears responsibility for the loss of American support among most Democrats, a growing number of Republicans, and increasingly within the Trump administration.
Netanyahu, who has been obsessed with the potential Iranian nuclear threat, had a willing partner in Trump, especially because both men despised Obama. Trump ripped up his predecessor’s Iran pact in large part at Bibi’s urging. In June 2025, together the two governments, in Trump’s word, “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. But Bibi wanted more.
On February 28, they again went to war against Iran, but this time it was an open-ended, unfocused, and incredibly costly campaign. Trump declared victory “in the first hour,” but the conflict is in its third month, and no amount of hype will erase the bad news. For all his boasts and bravado, Trump is no longer demanding “unconditional surrender,” but a face-saving deal to halt the slide in his approval ratings, reverse the soaring prices of gasoline, and prevent a Blue Wave in November’s congressional elections.
I sometimes wonder whether Trump actually believes what he’s saying about winning this war, or if he understands how badly it is going at home and in the rest of the world, and just wants out. If reality somehow does ever penetrate his veil of self-hype, that could put Netanyahu in the bullseye of his wrath.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the first to lay responsibility at Netanyahu’s door in the first days of the war, but Trump quickly walked that back and said it was his idea. The Strait of Hormuz may be blocked, but not the flow of leaks from the administration – and they’re leading to Bibi.
The unpopularity of the war
The war is highly unpopular across the political spectrum and at every gas pump (unless you’re an oil company). And nowhere more than among the MAGA faithful and “America First” isolationists. Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s heir apparent, let it be known he was “skeptical” about going to war (publicly, he’s on board today), and he does not share his boss’s strong support for Israel, having voted as a senator against emergency aid right after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.
This war is popular in Israel, where Iran is seen as the country’s leading existential threat. But in the United States, it is viewed largely as an unnecessary war of choice. And rightly or not, many in America see Netanyahu as the driving force.
That only further erodes Israel’s standing in the United States, and particularly on Capitol Hill. As noted, the erosion and divisiveness have tracked Netanyahu’s leadership for many years. It has been exacerbated by his deep plunges into partisan American politics.
AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been Bibi’s enabler for decades. They seem to be in sync, avoiding any light between them. Once the bastion of bipartisan defense of the US-Israel alliance, the lobby has clearly moved to the Right, eschewing its longstanding refusal to rate and endorse candidates. Gone are the days when Congress was seen as friends and potential friends; today, enemies are named, and millions of dollars are poured into defeating them.
The catalyst for rupturing the wall-to-wall bipartisan consensus was Netanyahu’s decision to throw his lot with Republicans and the party’s influential Evangelicals and the religious Right. The Democrats and Jews could be taken for granted, went the reasoning. Besides, when the going gets tough, one Israeli official explained, the Christian Zionists send prayers and money, and the Democrats and Jews give us advice.
Netanyahu has done more damage to Israel’s support in America and its international stature than all its enemies, including the one he blamed in Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview – social media.
In that appearance, he left the impression that he wants Trump to more aggressively attack Iran’s nuclear, missile, and terror assets than the war-weary president and the wearier nation prefer.
Another major contributor to Israel’s shrinking support has been Netanyahu’s increasingly autocratic rule. It is reflected by his formation of the most extreme coalition in Israel’s history, a collection of ultra-nationalists, ultra-religious bigots, and racists. Its signal issue (before the Gaza war) – ending the nation’s independent judiciary – has further eroded the nation’s democratic stature and alienated its friends.
The greatest threat to Israel’s survival is not Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Hamas fantasies, or Hezbollah’s dreams. The real damage to Israel’s stature and support has been an inside job.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.