Israel Isolated

Thrown into the Arms of MAGA

Israel enjoyed the support of Americans of both political parties and all ideological persuasions for the first twenty years of its existence after the Second World War as the world’s only Jewish state. Now the trend against Israel is getting close to the point where the only support Israel may be able to rely on in the U.S. is MAGA. And that support (the ``Make America Great Again’’ movement on the far right) is wholly dependent on one man, President Donald J. Trump, whose backing is far from reliable. If Israel were to do something – anything – to displease President Trump, he could quickly turn MAGA into Israel’s worst enemy. Just as he has turned against former supporters in his own Republican Party.

Israel started off after World War II warmly embraced by the left. Zionism began in Europe in the late 19^th century as a Jewish counterpart to right-wing ``blood and soil’’ nationalist movements, which were springing up all over the continent. European Jews were mostly on the left politically, and socialism was a major strain of the Zionist movement.

In its early years, Israel warmly embraced socialist policies. Labor was Israel’s major party and collective farms – kibbutzim – were an important way of life. Both the United States and the Soviet Union (countries that had vanquished the Nazis) supported Israel during the early years of the Cold War.

Israel’s alignment with the left began to change after the Six Day War in June 1967. Having won a great victory over invading Arab forces, Israel gained control over territory inhabited by Palestinians and controlled by Arab countries but claimed by Zionists as a Biblical right. Israelis began to be seen by Western liberals as

white Europeans occupying territory belonging to indigenous Third World people – the last European ``settlers’’ claiming such a right.

I once interviewed Israeli general Ariel Sharon just before he became prime minister. He complained that American Jews were losing their Zionism. ``How would you define Zionism?’’ I asked. ``With a single word,’’ Sharon answered: ``Oretz’’ (the Hebrew word for ``land’’). Most Israeli Jews claim that the land given to the Jewish people by God in the Bible is their birthright.

Most Americans today say they favor a ``two state solution’’ (an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel). In fact, Americans favor a two-state solution more than either Israelis or Palestinians do. A territorial compromise along those lines is unacceptable to both sides. The State of Israel was first created in 1948 with a partition of territory that didn’t work out because it was unacceptable to both sides.

It is sometimes assumed that American support for Israel is rooted in pity for Jews victimized by the Holocaust. But American support for Israel increased considerably after the Six Day War, when Israeli Jews were seen as winners, not as victims – particularly at a time when many Americans were frustrated by the stalemate in Vietnam. ``Where is our Moshe Dayan?’’ many Americans asked. American support depends more on admiration for winners than on pity for victims.

Sympathy for Israel has now collapsed among rank-and-file Democrats. Anger at Israel first emerged among young people who were outraged by the racism and discrimination of Israeli occupation policy. The progressive base of the Democratic Party – which includes many Jews -- became deeply critical of Israel, and the rule is that political elites eventually move toward their base. It took a long time because Jewish voters and Jewish financial support are so strongly tied to the Democratic Party, but eventually Democratic Party support for Israel started to weaken.

The May New York Times-Siena College poll asked voters which side they sympathize with more ``in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.’’ Only 17 percent of Democrats said Israel; a majority (57 percent) said the Palestinians. Independents were also inclined to support the Palestinians, though by a smaller margin (44 percent said the Palestinians and 29 percent said Israel). Republicans were far more one-sided – and not for the Palestinians (66 percent of Republicans said they sympathize more with Israel and only 9 percent with the Palestinians).

There is evidence that Democratic politicians are moving toward their base. In a 2025 vote to block an arms sale to Israel, only 15 Democratic senators voted to block the sale. A year later, another resolution to block an arms sale to Israel got 36 Democratic Senate votes. Moreover, several Democrats who may run for president in 2028 told Politico that they would not accept contributions from AIPAC, America’s leading pro-Israel lobby. AIPAC endorsements and contributions are becoming a litmus test for Democrats on the Israel issue. Many progressive Democrats have come to regard AIPAC as poisonous.

There is also trouble for Republicans on the Israel issue – but from the right. President Trump is experiencing a backlash from some conservatives who say his support for Israel in the war with Iran conflicts with his ``America First’’ campaign pledge. Joe Kent, a former counterterrorism official, was quoted as saying about the war with Iran, ``It is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.’’ Mark Lynch, who is challenging Sen. Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina Republican primary, says Graham ``is not America First. He is Israel instead.’’

There is some evidence of a Republican division over Israel. Trump voters who identify themselves with MAGA are more pro-Israel, notwithstanding some important defections from the MAGA movement over the war with Iran (commentator Tucker Carlson, former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, former White House strategist Steve Bannon). In the May Politico poll, Trump MAGA voters are more likely than non-MAGA Trump supporters to believe the Israeli government has too much influence over U.S. foreign policy. And only 19 percent of MAGA Trump voters complain that President Trump is spending too much time on foreign affairs. Among non-MAGA Trump supporters, 40 percent feel that way.

Sam Markstein, a spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition, put the Republican Party’s Israel problem issue this way: ``The Democrats have a full blown 105-degree fever. Republicans have a sore throat. . . . We can’t lay down and let the radicalized fringe of the [Republican] Party do to us what happened to the Democrats.’’

An April IPSOS poll for the Washington Post and ABC News found that the view that the U.S. is too supportive of Israel has more than doubled since 2015. It increased from 26 to 66 percent among Democrats, from 20 to 51 percent among Independents and from 7 to 22 percent among Republicans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken to arguing that the strong military alliance between Israel and the U.S. -- ``an alliance like no other’’ – is the real payoff for Israel for the war with Iran. But some MAGA supporters are unhappy that U.S. military might is being used by another country to fight its war.

President Trump is now making a last-minute demand that more Muslim countries – particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan – should sign the Abraham Accords and normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. Trump recently wrote on Truth Social, his social media site, ``After all the work done by the United States, . . . it should be mandatory that all these countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign on to the Abraham Accords.’’ Several Muslim countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco – have already signed the accords and normalized their ties to Israel. Could President Trump get more countries to sign? He even fantasized about getting Iran to join: ``Wow, now that would be something special!’’ the President wrote.

But expanding the Abraham Accords is considered highly unlikely. Palestinians would call such a deal a betrayal of their interests. An anonymous Middle Eastern official told NBC News, ``For us, the most important issue since 2002 has been the creation of a Palestinian state. We made it clear long ago that joining the Abraham Accords would be conditional on a credible path toward Palestinian statehood being established.’’ Many Americans who are now critical of Israel would be sympathetic to that argument.