PUBLIC SHIFT ON ISRAEL AND JEWS
There has been a noticeable shift in public opinion on Israel and Jews—they are related but not identical—and it does not look promising. Leading the way are the most left-wing members of the Democratic Party. Just last week, more than 100 House Democrats voted to eliminate roughly $3 billion in military aid to Israel. Siding with the Congressional Progressive Caucus was Rep. Nancy Pelosi, as well as others not known to be extremists.
The vote came after a publicity stunt by Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat from California; he has presidential ambitions. His visit to Israel was not designed to be a goodwill gesture; rather, it was a media-grabbing headline done at the expense of the Israelis. He claimed that he was “detained” from entering a restricted area, when in fact he was briefly stopped to assure identification.
After the Israeli military intervened—they were never notified of his coming—he was allowed to proceed. At no time were he and his crew threatened by “violent settlers,” as he put it. He further exploited this staged event by charging Israel with “genocide” and “apartheid.”
Politicians like Khanna are taking a page out of the playbook of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the surging competitor to the Democratic Party. The DSA is so filled with hatred of Israel that on July 12 they rejected a proposal to back Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a presidential candidate; she was deemed too moderate. According to the New York Times, she was seen as “insufficiently supportive of the Palestinian cause and efforts to end the war in Gaza.”
Another reason why the DSA opposed Ocasio-Cortez had nothing to do with Israel: it had to do with Jews. To be specific, on July 8 it issued a statement ripping her for sponsoring a recent event with Jewish leaders on the subject of anti-Semitism. They branded it a “deep betrayal.”
We have entered a new day when radical Democrats are criticized by influential left-wing activists for opposing bigotry against the Jewish people. This is not a surprise. In New York City, protesters have been seen walking the streets brandishing anti-Jewish posters, some adorned with swastikas, at pro-Palestinian rallies. This would never have happened as recently as during the tenure of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but now that Zhoran Madmani, the Marxist Muslim, is in charge, these kinds of vile incidents are now unexceptional.
Earlier this year, a Gallup survey found that 41 percent of Americans said they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis (they drew 36 percent). This is a dramatic change. As Gallup reports, “From 2001 to 2025, Israelis consistently held double-digit leads in Americans’ Middle East sympathies, with the gap averaging 43 points between 2001 and 2018.”
The change, as noted by Gallup, came after October 7, 2023. That is when Hamas launched an unprovoked attack that killed 1,200 innocent Israelis, many of whom were women and children. Subsequently, Israel sought to drive the terrorists out of Gaza. So why did public opinion work against Israel?
A study issued last year by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that of the 17 leading international media outlets, 77 percent of the coverage focused on Israel and only 23 percent on Iran. Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera English focused 92 percent of its coverage on Israel.
More than anything else, the media, and elites in general, have been pushing the “two-state solution,” meaning the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Gallup reports that 57 percent of Americans now favor such a solution. On paper, this sounds reasonable, even appealing. Time for a reality check.
A two-state solution was broached in 1947, but the Arab leadership opposed it. Under the U.N. partition plan, Arabs would be given complete control over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But they rejected the new Jewish state. Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948 and on May 15th it was invaded by five Arab armies. The head of the Arab League declared that “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre.” Those were not empty words—he meant it.
In 2005, there was another attempt at a two-state solution. The Israeli government unilaterally withdrew its military forces and removed 9,000 Jewish residents from the Gaza strip, turning over the land to the newly elected Hamas government. It was up to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to build a peaceful state in Gaza. World leaders everywhere were joyful and commended Israel. But Hamas wanted war, not peace.
Those who applaud a two-state solution need to turn their anger at those who have intentionally subverted it. It was tried in 1948 and again in 2005, and in both instances anti-Israeli terrorists made plain their real goal. They are not interested in co-existing; they are interested in destroying Israel.