Israel’s war in Gaza has eroded support across the US political spectrum, while Netanyahu’s claim to act for all Jews risks fuelling the very anti-Jewish hostility Israel says it opposes.
US Vice President JD Vance stated during an interview with Joe Rogan: “Right now, Israel is losing the public opinion battle in the United States of America. It is a simple and obvious fact.” This statement was not merely a passing stance from a politician representing the new American right, but a precise reflection of consistent opinion poll results published by major research institutes and American newspapers.
Pew Research Center surveys clearly confirm this shift; a majority of Americans under fifty across both Republican and Democratic parties now view Israel negatively. Most significantly, the percentage of Republicans aged 18 to 49 holding negative views toward Israel rose to 57 per cent, an unprecedented shift within the conservative base that historically formed one of the most steadfast strongholds of support for Israel.
Surveys from Yale, Harvard Harris, and Brookings Institution also show that younger demographics (aged 18 to 34) record rejection levels exceeding 70 per cent in certain segments, alongside rising demands to reduce or suspend US military aid to Israel.
The essence of this global decline stems from the actions of Israel itself. Following the events of October 7, 2023, the Israeli government gave in to a relentless drive to restore its shattered deterrence image, deploying excessive military force to prove it remains the premier striking power in the Middle East.
However, in its frantic effort to establish field dominance, Israel was relinquishing its global moral and political standing, driving western consciousness back toward ancient patterns of anti Jewish sentiment and pulling Judaism into atmospheres reminiscent of dark medieval times.
Roots of rejection and tolerance
Deconstructing this phenomenon requires returning to the deep history of Western and Eastern collective consciousness regarding Jewish people. Historically, Western Europe provided a structurally hostile and repelling environment for Jewish communities. During the medieval period, Jewish populations faced successive waves of persecution, forced expulsion, and violent pogroms.
King Edward I issued a decree expelling Jewish people from England in 1290, a move repeated in France, culminating in the major tragedy of 1492 with the Alhambra Decree in Spain, which forced Jewish individuals to choose between forced conversion to Catholicism, execution, or exile. The West treated Jewish people as outsiders, inventing the concept of the ghetto to isolate them from broader society. This ingrained hostility continued to manifest in various forms until reaching its fascist peak in the mid twentieth century prior to World War II.
Conversely, the Eastern and Islamic collective mindset engaged with Jewish people as People of the Book who held rights to life, citizenship, protection, and independent religious practice. When European doors closed to Jewish communities trapped between inquisitions and exile, Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (and later Sultan Selim) dispatched the Ottoman fleet to Iberian shores to rescue thousands of Jewish people, resettling them in Ottoman cities such as Istanbul, Salonica, and Izmir.
By the sixteenth century, Jewish residents constituted roughly 25 per cent of the population in Istanbul, holding central roles in trade, medicine, and finance under a framework of pluralistic tolerance that Europe never experienced during those eras.
Post October 2023 dilemma
Following World War II in 1945, and driven by historical guilt among Western capitals, deeply rooted anti Jewish sentiment was not eradicated from Western collective consciousness; rather, it was redirected through the Zionist project. Israel was presented to the West as an ideal solution: a redeemer that would gather Jewish populations far from European societies while simultaneously serving a geostrategic function as an advanced Western base in the heart of the Middle East.
However, this delicate functional balance fractured following the October 2023 war. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and his far right religious nationalist allies, Israel refused to accept its designated functional role. Instead, it came to view itself as an independent ideological pole, acting as if dictating terms to major capitals, chief among them Washington. The supported ally transformed into a political and moral liability attempting to drag a superpower into open regional conflicts that serve neither American nor European national interests.
This shift manifested clearly in changing discourse within American political arenas; critical voices were no longer confined to the far progressive left, but penetrated the core of the isolationist right. Statements from prominent media and political figures like Tucker Carlson directly criticised Israeli interventions and called for halting unconditional military and financial aid, framing it as a waste of American taxpayer dollars.
This political shift cannot be separated from profound changes in public mood, especially among younger generations. Data indicates that youth bases in both parties no longer treat the special relationship with Israel as a political given, but view it as a policy subject to review and critique.
Consequently, rhetoric advocating restrictions on military support or tying it to international law compliance is no longer exclusive to leftist movements, but finds growing resonance within Republican circles as well.
Reshaping political landscape
The gravity of this shift becomes apparent when examining recent primary elections and the rise of politicians adopting stances critical of Israeli policies, such as Zohran Mamdani and other young figures making notable breakthroughs in key electoral strongholds. Attention now turns to the upcoming US congressional midterm elections scheduled for November 2026, where initial assessments suggest foreign policy and financial support for Israel will serve as decisive sorting issues.
Younger generations of Americans – whether on university campuses or within party bases – no longer view Israel as an oasis of democracy or a small threatened state. Instead, they perceive an authoritarian state acting with hubris and imposing its preferences on the US administration. This generational and political evolution confronts American politicians with a new dynamic: unconditional support for Israel no longer guarantees votes automatically, but risks alienating substantial voter demographics.
Danger of anti-Jewish revival
The political and moral trajectory directed by Netanyahu carries severe risks for the long term future of Jewish communities worldwide. A broad segment of Jewish intellectuals, thinkers, and anti Zionist movements in America and Europe recognised this early on. They understood that equating the Jewish faith and identity with the actions of a fundamentalist right wing government places Jewish populations globally in the line of fire of public outrage.
This concern extends beyond intellectuals and anti-Zionist movements to broader segments of the American Jewish community itself. Surveys conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute show that roughly 30 per cent of American Jewish respondents view Israeli actions in Gaza as qualifying as genocide, with that figure rising to between 37 and 40 per cent among those aged under 45. These findings reflect a widening gap between the Israeli government and growing segments of Jewish populations, particularly among younger generations.
When Israel insists that its military actions and policies embody the collective Jewish will, it strips away the protective shield formed after World War II, reawakening old Western collective biases. Western societies, where anti Jewish sentiment remained dormant for decades under the weight of guilt and strict legal measures, are witnessing environments where Israeli behaviour provides pretexts to revive old stereotypes.
Consequently, an increasing number of writers, thinkers, and Jewish organisations publicly disavow the actions of Tel Aviv, raising the slogan “Not in Our Name.” They demonstrate and reject Israeli policies not merely out of humanitarian empathy for victims, but as a conscious defence mechanism to protect Judaism itself from politicisation and fundamentalism, preventing Israel from dragging global Jewish communities into a new era of isolation and hostility.
Judaism as cover for genocide
What intensifies the danger of this scene is the insistence by Israeli leadership and its allies to bestow a sacred religious character upon the war. Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme ministers continually frame military actions as a defence of global Jewish existence, asserting that the Israeli military fights on behalf of every Jewish individual on earth.
This intense utilisation of religion, along with framing crimes, genocide, and harrowing imagery emerging from Gaza and the West Bank as actions performed in the name of the Jewish faith, generates intense psychological and emotional reactions among global public opinion. When global audiences witness systematic destruction and civilian casualties under the banner of protecting the Jewish people, a dangerous conflation forms between the political actions of an aggressor state and individual Jewish people worldwide.
Practical evidence of this catastrophic outcome is emerging in societies far removed from the conflict. Rising anger over actions committed in the name of Judaism has driven isolated violent incidents against Jewish targets or individuals. While humanly and legally condemnable, these incidents point to a painful reality: Israel is not protecting Jewish people, but turning them into targets for reactions sparked by its own conduct.
By transforming its war into wars of David and invoking religious texts to justify violence, Israel is generating the exact hostility it claims to fight. It is reinvigorating anti-Jewish sentiment across Western societies, fostering environments of suspicion and isolation, and undoing decades of integration and coexistence achieved by Jewish communities across both West and East.
Paradoxically, this concern is no longer limited to observers or academic elites, but echoes within the American Jewish community itself. Current Israeli conduct risks turning back the clock of history, dismantling human rights achievements, and restoring atmospheres of hatred that the world assumed were left behind forever.
Refaat Ibrahim
Refaat Ibrahim is a Palestinian writer from Gaza and the founder of The Resistant Palestinian Pens ( https://resistantpens.org/ ). A graduate in English Language and Literature from the Islamic University, he writes about political, social, and cultural issues in Palestine. Through his work, he amplifies Palestinian voices under occupation, believing writing is a bridge between truth and people’s hearts and minds.