The recent letter from Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) to US President Donald Trump sent an important message, urging him to end the Israel-Hamas War.
Other prominent Israelis have appealed to Americans generally, on the assumption that only the United States can save Israelis from themselves.
Even more important than appealing to Trump is engaging and bolstering Democrats and American Jews who actually care about these issues and whose willingness to speak out carries a political and personal cost. This must involve direct contact and joint events, not just open letters and TV interviews.
Foreign students
Trump has little interest in stopping the war, especially if that precipitates Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure as prime minister. For Republicans in the United States, Netanyahu’s literal overkill in Gaza has been the gift that keeps on giving. They’re using campus protests to justify the detention of foreign students and the defunding of medical research.
The death and devastation in Gaza have divided many Democrats and American Jews, first when president Joe Biden granted Netanyahu carte blanche and $10 billion in extra military support, and now as Democratic leaders and the American Jewish establishment struggle to avoid labeling Netanyahu’s actions a genocide.
Thanks to Gaza, American Jewish credibility is at a historic low. Much of our reputation – and Israel’s – has been built on the lessons applied from turning victimhood into an abiding commitment to humanity, a social compact that has never been as precarious as today.
Voter alienation
If and when Zohran “Globalize the Intifada” Mamdani wins election as mayor of New York City in three months, Republicans will tag the entire Democratic Party as anti-Israel.
Even though most Jews nationwide will still vote Democratic, they will feel alienated from Netanyahu’s Israel and most Jewish campaign money will swing to Republicans.
In backing Netanyahu’s risky moves, Republicans are also careful not to alienate their base, which includes 50 million evangelical Christians.
Most evangelicals genuinely care about Israel’s safety, but they also see the prospect of a Middle East total war as fulfillment of biblical prophecy leading to their promised “end of times.”
How does Trump decide to push Netanyahu if he sees no benefit to himself?
With a US president again backing, and even one-upping the Israeli premier, and Netanyahu declaring victory in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, along with sweet promises of Saudi normalization and annexing Gaza and the West Bank, the idea of leveraging American political will to undermine Netanyahu may be wishful thinking at best.
There have always been a few mainstream American Jewish organizations that stood up on moral issues, and which weren’t afraid to show daylight vis-à-vis the Israeli government. Since October 7, 2023, and especially since last January 20, legacy organizations have either found common cause with Trump and Netanyahu or have gone silent.
If they dare show sympathy for starving Gazans, it’s to vindicate Netanyahu and lay blame exclusively on the Palestinians and the international community.
Limit political benefits
It is time to empower well-intentioned but risk-averse Americans to limit the political benefits accruing to Trump as “savior of Israel” and to Netanyahu as “king of the Jews.”
• Looking beyond next year’s elections in both countries, now is the time to build and rebuild a mutual-support network across the seas. Using an updated hasbara (public diplomacy) approach, begin taking back the narrative and the initiative, so agents of reason and resolve are ready to step up and step in at the right moment:Identify and recruit telegenic Israelis with unimpeachable bona fides of statesmanship, military command, and intelligence expertise – the Commanders for Israel Security (CIS) has largely achieved this.
• Solicit their analysis, recommendations, and advocacy on Israel’s true challenges and opportunities, and how Americans can help advance these interests.
• Motivate and support American Jewish influencers – a key pathway to reducing financial and political support for the extremists who steer Israel closer toward imminent or long-term disaster – to reshape the narrative of what’s “good for the Jews” or for Israel, and for dispelling the presumption that opposing Netanyahu constitutes antisemitism. Invert the parameters of discourse so Netanyahu’s apologists are the ones having to defend their positions.
• Make common cause with like-minded American Jewish voices to reach elected officials and opinion-shapers with the message that – as with opposition to Trump – expressing support for Israeli democracy is not a crime against the Jewish state, but rather an obligation.
• Publicly challenge specific policies of Netanyahu and Trump, backed with clear-eyed testimony, insights, and idealism. Don’t pander to either of them. Challenge the media and other vehicles to cover, address, and legitimize these alternative viewpoints.
In addition to American public opinion, it is vital that Israelis see this manifested in the United States, where many Israeli attitudes are validated and rewarded. Transcending Israel’s Netanyahu phase will be a long process. The work is overdue. Every election counts along the way, and there’s a lot of ground to make up.
The writer is an American lobbyist and former executive director of the American Section of the World Jewish Congress.