Why American Jews are turning away from Israel

Watching politics in the United States is akin to seeing a never-ending parade of compromised individuals finding new ways to devote themselves to the Israeli cause.

The genocide in Gaza and mass killings in the occupied West Bank are seemingly no impediment to their commitment. Voices supporting Palestine, or at the very least questioning Israeli tactics, are few and far between.

But American public opinion is shifting, quite radically in some cases – including within the Jewish community.

Israel is increasingly a country that’s wholly backed by evangelical Christians, conservative Jews, European political parties with Nazi backgrounds, and the global far right. A hatred of Muslims, Islam, multiculturalism and democratic plurality is the glue that binds these disparate groups together.

A recent Economist/YouGov poll in the US is a stark reminder that Israeli actions in Gaza and beyond since 7 October 2023 have caused a monumental drop in American support for the Israeli state.

Twenty-one percent of American adults sympathise more with Palestinians, compared to 31 percent with Israelis – but it’s the biggest percentage for Palestine since this question was first asked by Economist/YouGov seven years ago.

Perhaps most revealing is the impact on Democratic and Republican voters. Republicans, likely buoyed by having their man, President Donald Trump, in the White House, still strongly support Israel. But 35 percent of Democrats express more sympathy for Palestinians, compared to nine percent for Israel. 

Democratic delusion

It’s unsurprising that many voters in the swing state of Michigan simply refused to turn out for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the November election, due to her party’s fanatical backing of Israel. 

While foreign policy is rarely a major determining factor in western elections, Gaza was clearly an impediment to the Democrats keeping the White House, with some Arab voters buying the Trump line that he would end the war in Gaza. 

To this day, Democrats continue to blame voters for abandoning the party over Gaza – a deluded strategy that shows how little the party’s elite have learned after being defeated.

There’s no evidence that Harris was interested in the daily evisceration of Palestinians in Gaza, so voting for her, as opposed to the oafish Trump, was hardly the sensible option for Americans who cared about Israel’s genocidal actions and intent.

American Jews, long believed to be Israel’s loudest supporters, are splintering – and it’s long overdue. According to a poll released last May by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, around one-third of US Jews agreed with the contention that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

The massive pro-Palestine protests across the US, especially at university campuses, have been smeared by critics as antisemitic hate marches. But among the polled American Jews, 28 percent saw the demonstrations as wholly anti-Israel, while 34 percent described them as pro-peace and anti-war.

In a further blow to the uncritical pro-Israel consensus among those fanatically devoted to the Israeli state, more than half of those polled supported the idea of withholding American weapons to Israel in the context of the Rafah invasion.

Last November, when Americans were voting in the presidential election, another poll of American Jews, conducted on behalf of the liberal Zionist lobby group J Street, showed general support for Israel but massive reservations about the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sixty-two percent backed Washington not sending some weapons to Israel until Netanyahu backed a ceasefire deal in Gaza. The majority of those polled also had unfavourable views of the Israeli prime minister and supported sanctions against the far-right ministers in his government.

Sharp divide

The loudest Jewish voices in most western countries are usually the most belligerent in their backing of Israeli actions, motives and ideas. The more extreme and openly racist the Israeli government has become, the more unhinged the country’s blind supporters have turned. 

But there has always been a sharp divide in the Jewish community on Israel between those who believe it’s a duty to support whatever the country does, and others who have long recognised that their values differ sharply from backing a Jewish ethno-state in the Middle East. 

It’s become impossible to deny Israel’s far-right turn. The nation proudly backs Trump’s vision of ethnically cleansing Gaza, along with Israel’s desire to indefinitely rule over Palestinians in the occupied territories. 

Nearly 60 years of an illegal occupation is hardly temporary. It’s permanent and deepening by the day.

As a Jewish, German and Australian citizen, I’ve long believed that diaspora Jews have allowed our communities to be represented by the most radical Zionist groups that display disdain for Palestinians and democracy – outfits such as Aipac in the US, UK Lawyers for Israel, and Aijac in Australia.

With Israel happily moving towards a likely theocratic future, its key backers must look to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with envy. The nation’s image as a liberal oasis in the heart of the Middle East will be hard to sustain, no matter the amount of money spent on shameless propaganda.

For countless Americans, including the diverse Jewish community, this outcome elicits concern and heartache. It’s arguably more unsafe to be Jewish in Israel than in almost any other country on the planet. The allure of Israel, long heralded by establishment Jewish spokespeople, has thus been significantly diminished.

Zionism was always conceived as a colonial project, including by its founders – and now many in western countries are starting to see the ticking time bomb within its borders.