US President Donald Trump’s full-court press on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a Gaza deal comes at a time when the Israeli leader finds himself in a greatly weakened position. It comes, as well, at a time of anxiety and confusion among American Jews, a critical pillar of support that is clearly weakening in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War.
White House aides are telling reporters the president is “exasperated” with Bibi’s evasive “yes, but” approach to negotiations. This time, Trump seems to be putting it all on the line with more than his usual hyperbolized hype. He even forced Bibi to phone the Qatari prime minister to apologize for the September 9 missile strike on Doha that failed to kill Hamas leaders, and to promise it won’t happen again.
Trump and Netanyahu reached an agreement on Monday, and the president said that it was “potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.”
I genuinely hope this Trump plan succeeds.
“If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President,” Netanyahu told Trump in front of reporters afterward, “Israel will finish the job by itself.”
Netanyahu is caught between an American ally who wants to cut a deal, and his own government coalition partners who are demanding that he keep his vow of “total victory” or lose his job and risk going to prison.
While Netanyahu has been bombing Gaza, he has been burning bridges in the rest of the world, nowhere more dangerously than in the United States. Israel is hemorrhaging support in America across the political spectrum, particularly among younger voters. Israel’s historic wall-to-wall bipartisan support is in ashes.
Netanyahu has a long and messy record of meddling in American partisan politics, mostly favoring the GOP. He has decimated support in the Democratic Party, once Israel’s bastion. Now, Trump White House officials are accusing him of poking unwelcome fingers into Republican politics as well.
The Jerusalem Post has noted that Netanyahu’s partisan intrusion “does not serve Israel’s war aims or our long-term strategic interests” (editorial, August 28), and it is also alienating many Jews.
A new Quinnipiac poll shows American voters’ support for Israel has fallen from 69% to 43% in just the past two years of Gaza warfare, while nearly three in five support Palestinian statehood. Half of these voters feel Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Other polls show similar results.
Rift between Israeli and American Jews
The greatest long-term threat may be growing estrangement between Israel and American Jewry. “Bibi has single-handedly unraveled bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship. It took the Jewish community 80 years to build it, and he has blown it up,” said the executive of a large Jewish organization. “It gives rise to feelings of: ‘If you don’t care about us, why should we care about you?’”
The largely silent response of Jewish groups to the prime minister’s UN appearance last week was a revealing indicator of that erosion. His condescending speech, laced with trademark props and gimmicks, prompted a walkout by hundreds of delegates.
Once again, he failed to present a serious “day after” vision for peace – something most American Jews say they want to hear – instead of the prospect of permanent occupation, which means permanent conflict.
“The US Jewish community has never been so polarized,” one prominent Jewish professional told me. “People don’t talk to each other, they scream.” His colleagues around the country are exhausted over the division among Jews; other communities don’t want to work with them because of Israel and Gaza.
Antisemitism is linked to the Israel-Hamas War, not Jews, he pointed out. Bibi appears indifferent toward the civilian death toll in Gaza. Dennis Ross, the former ambassador and top US Mideast negotiator, has written that Netanyahu’s approach to the war “failed the fundamental test of dealing with a guerrilla conflict: to protect the population.”
THE YAWNING gap between Israel and American Jewry is not just a matter of policy differences but the refusal of successive Israeli governments to take the interests of Diaspora Jewry into account when making decisions.
“The seismic changes of the past year have moved us to issue a call to the government of Israel to weigh the consequences of its actions not only for the citizens of Israel, but for the Jewish people as a whole,” Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) said in its annual report.
JPPI is a non-profit established by the Jewish Agency to bolster ties among Diaspora Jews, and between them and Israel. Based in Jerusalem, its chairs are Ambassadors Stuart Eizenstat and Ross.
The report calls for the perspective of Diaspora Jews to be considered in Israel’s decision-making processes. Not just the wealthy donor class.
If Israel is the nation-state of the entire Jewish people, the report said, the government of Israel must consider the potential consequences of its decisions and actions for Diaspora Jewry. This is especially urgent in light of current events in the region and globally, when anti-Israel and extremist organizations are exploiting the situation to intensify incitement and harm against Jews, it noted.
The disdain for the Diaspora is embodied in Netanyahu’s selection for Diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli. The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent dubbed him the “Minister of Confrontation.” He seems to know little about the Diaspora and cares even less. Members of Congress and some Jewish leaders have found him “remarkably ignorant.” He’s been particularly disdainful of non-Orthodox, Reform, and liberal Jews.
Many activists in the Jewish community feel the Israeli approach to American Jewry has been: “Shut up and send more weapons and money.”
There’s another side to that bad coin. In my personal experience with Jewish leaders, I’ve heard complaints about Israeli policies and actions in private, but when it comes to speaking truth to power face-to-face, they often chicken out.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, told Jewish Insider that he does not believe there is a serious effort in Jerusalem to address the emerging American political realities. Netanyahu has no vision beyond today and is blind to the shifting political winds in America, considering them “existential issues,” he added.
The days of bipartisan pro-Israel consensus in Congress are history and unlikely ever to return. Shared values and strategic interests are the foundation of bipartisan political support, but so are constituents and supporters. And when politicians see Jewish support for Israel turning away, as it has in the Netanyahu era of extremism, those ties become frayed and can unravel entirely.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.