© UnknownIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu • US President Donald Trump
A crucial sign of the emerging divergence between US and Israeli policies was the conversation between Donald Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu on May 20, during which the American president informed his Israeli counterpart that Washington was preparing to reach an agreement with Tehran and would no longer continue military actions against Iran.
Reporting on this, the Jerusalem Post underscored the Israeli leader's evident displeasure, describing (in Hebrew) how "his hair was burning on his head".
The New York Times claimed that the Trump administration had completely sidelined Israel from discussions on Iranian affairs, as its leaders were almost entirely excluded from the ceasefire negotiations between the United States and Iran. According to the newspaper, Netanyahu had long positioned himself to Israeli voters as a kind of mentor to Trump, possessing a unique ability to secure the president's support and maintain it. In a televised address at the beginning of the war, he presented himself as the president's equal, assuring Israelis that he spoke with Trump almost every day, exchanging advice and ideas and making joint decisions. In February, he drew the United States into the war, harboring grand plans to once and for all halt Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Growing Criticism of Netanyahu in American Society
Israel's genocidal war in Gaza has led to notable shifts in American public sentiment; it is gradually moving toward criticizing Netanyahu's policies and moving away from any criticism of the Jewish state's policies being treated as antisemitism. Even longtime supporters of Israel are forced to acknowledge that there are strong reasons to dislike - even despise - the current leadership of Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly placed his own political interests above national ones, National Security Minister Ben-Gvir has hung a portrait of Jewish mass murderer Baruch Goldstein in his living room, and radical settlers, facing virtually no resistance from the government, mock, terrorize, and sometimes kill their Palestinian neighbors in the West Bank.
Since Israel began its war against Gaza in October 2023, public opinion in America has undergone one of the most significant shifts in the history of US-Israeli relations. Israeli approval of US foreign policy has fallen to a record low of 32%. Among Americans under 35, that figure is just 9%. A similar trend can be seen regarding Iran: only 15% of Americans aged 18 to 34 approve of Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear program. Even among Republicans - Israel's most reliable political base - the situation is changing. The latest data from the Pew Research Center shows that 57% of Americans aged 18 to 49 have a negative view of Israel.
The American Pro-Israeli Lobby Is Weakening
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israeli lobby founded in 1954 and once the most influential foreign policy organization in Washington, is weakening. An increasing number of Democrats are publicly declining AIPAC invitations and stating their unwillingness to accept funding from the organization. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is being put forward as a potential Democratic candidate for the US presidency in 2028, has declared that he will no longer accept donations from AIPAC.
Many Republicans and allies of Trump within the MAGA movement are openly accusing the president of betraying their movement because he allowed Israel to draw the US into the Iran conflict. Even Robert Kagan, a neoconservative intellectual, warned that this conflict risks ending catastrophically for Israel, as regional power shifts from Washington and Tel Aviv to Tehran.
The old bipartisan consensus regarding support for Israel, which AIPAC consistently maintained, is crumbling.
The fact that this process is gaining momentum is evidenced by the US authorities' recent decision to lift sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. These sanctions were imposed after she published a report accusing 48 companies of complicity in Israel's genocidal war against Gaza, including American technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
The primaries in Kentucky drew particular attention. Congressman Thomas Massie lost these primary elections because of his criticism of aid to Israel. Unprecedented amounts of financial resources were poured into his opponent's campaign (billionaire donors such as Miriam Adelson invested huge sums in Kentucky to defeat Massie, who had spoken out against the growing pro-Israeli lobbying movement in Washington). Trump was particularly unhappy with Massie for demanding the disclosure of documents in the Epstein case; the entire White House apparatus was focused on supporting Massie's opponent. In an unprecedented breach of norms, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled to Kentucky the day before the vote to personally campaign against Massie - an unusual step for a sitting cabinet member taken amid the ongoing US operation in Iran.
This campaign has garnered numerous reactions and has been characterized as a Pyrrhic victory for the Israeli lobby in Kentucky and the echo of an old system demanding unquestioning support for Israel from any candidate. However, the war in Gaza has disrupted this picture: millions of Americans saw daily images on social media of destroyed neighborhoods, shattered hospitals, starving civilians, and mass casualties. The scale of the destruction has changed public opinion, especially among young Americans - Palestinians are increasingly being referred to as a population living under occupation.
All this gives the press grounds to conclude that the American pro-Israeli lobby has exhausted its capabilities. The changing sentiments of Americans is also reflected by the fact that a Democratic Party candidate for the House of Representatives from the state of Texas promised to put Jews in concentration camps if they identify themselves as Zionists.
In essence, the aggressive actions of the current Israeli authorities against Gaza, Lebanon, other Arab states, and Iran are encountering growing resistance in various countries that previously viewed Israel rather favorably. Israel is becoming a pariah state. For the first time, a number of EU members have demanded the imposition of sanctions against Tel Aviv. France, according to Le Monde on April 8, has refused to supply weapons to Israel.
Israel's influence over American policy is diminishing, and thus, so will Israel's role in the region. In this regard, the US and Israeli war against Iran has become a sort of turning point.
I should hope so. Imagine a world that entirely supported that savagery.