The headlines are grim. The anti-Zionists, bash Israel firsters, and antisemites are on the march – yes, I’m being redundant – threatening America and its relationship with Israel.
Such widespread Jew-hatred hasn’t polluted America since the 1930s. In New York City and Colorado, fanatically anti-Zionist candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America win primaries in navy blue Democratic districts. Increasingly, anti-Zionism becomes many (regressive) Progressive candidates’ calling card – and their get-out-of-jail-free card when governing.
Zohran Mamdani demonstrates daily that radicals can break promises of free buses, government grocery stores, and cheap rent, but if they keep denouncing the “Zios” harshly enough, their fellow Jew-haters cheer. And, on the Right, US Vice President JD Vance’s sneering defense of US President Donald Trump’s Iran zigzags thrills Jew-haters everywhere.
Some polls estimate that only 36% of Americans are pro-Israel, with only 17% of Democrats supporting Israel.
Long-time Israel haters and Israel’s greatest cheerleaders finally agree on something. Some rejoice, and others mourn the same conclusion: The US-Israel relationship is doomed.
Hmm… is it? Many Democrats who want to win elections in America fear these lunatic Left anti-Zionists. They remember how Trump boxed Kamala Harris into a cray-cray, anti-American corner.
The New York Times reported: “Centrist Democrats Rebuke Party’s Left Wing: ‘We are Capitalist Not Socialist.’” And Politico reported, under the bolded words, “You can call it the Bolshevik Revolution of 2026.” That, after the fanatically anti-Zionist, sloppily socialist candidates triumphed in New York, the National Republican Congressional Committee sent Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries “a sympathy card and flowers.”
“Remember, Manhattan is an island,” one Midwestern Democratic Congressman recently assured me. Millions of Americans support Israel – tens of millions more can be wooed back.
My new e-book, which JPPI encourages organizations, foundations, and individuals to print and distribute, The Essential Guide to the US-Israel Partnership: The 250th Anniversary Edition, notes two recurring phenomenon: the constant fear this mutually-beneficial alliance is collapsing coexists alongside a remarkable resilience uniting these two “over the rainbow” democracies, always yearning, churning, building their promised “land that I dreamed of, once in a lullaby.”
Admittedly, Israel’s worry that this time, this tension, with this president, things will blow up irreparably – is rational. Small, embattled, Israel depends on American support while facing life-and-death challenges.
Nevertheless, my third Essential Guide shows that from president Dwight Eisenhower’s fury over the Suez to president Ronald Reagan’s frustration over the First Lebanon War and the bombing of Osirak to former US president Joe Biden’s rage at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no president has avoided frustration with Israel. Nevertheless, America has never bolted.
This resilient relationship is unnervingly mercurial yet reassuringly stable. Being constantly in the headlines makes Israel’s image volatile, buffeted by current events. Many Americans’ attitudes toward the Jewish state remain headline-driven. It plummets during crises – especially when Israel defends itself– then revives when Palestinians or other jihadists barbarically spill Israeli blood.
Domestic issues motivate most American voters. They are foreign policy goldfish, forgetting yesterday’s faraway headlines. True today, Israel faces unprecedentedly evil predators, anti-Zionist sharks. Still, the Jewish community, like everyone else, wastes far too much time responding to them. Ignore them!
Reading Stanley Cohen’s Moral Panics and Folk Devils (1972) puts these rabid Jew-hating, anti-Zionists in perspective. We keep experiencing mass manias – over vaxxing and masking, regarding George Floyd, trans sports winners and drag-queen storytelling. Anti-Zionism is a similar mania – making Israel and Netanyahu “folk devils.”
Those who die by the media sword live by it, too. Fortunately, even amid today’s Israel-smearing storm, built-in buoys maintain Israel’s public, congressional, presidential, military, economic, and institutional red-white-and-blue support.
These ballasts range from extraordinary military cooperation to the many dividends America enjoys from Israel’s military innovation, diplomatic cooperation, technological advances, and medical breakthroughs.
Looking into the future
The Essential Guide advises:
First, keep appealing to America’s conditional Zionists. True, unduly susceptible to headlines, they unfairly put Israel on probation. Nevertheless, they will happily return to the pro-Israel fold.
Second, Israel’s supporters must seek non-Trumpians willing to wage war on woke, fighting the new illiberal liberalism as real liberals and concerned patriots, recognizing anti-Zionism as another manifestation of this self-destructive anti-Americanism.
At the same time, let’s double down on embracing identity Zionism. I’m not interested in being defensive and justifying Israel’s existence. Instead, let’s celebrate Zionism as a constructive form of identity-strengthening, community-building, liberal nationalism that can inspire Americans and other Westerners.
Third, offer a “Transactional Analysis,” detailing the many ways Israel benefits America – militarily, diplomatically, technologically, ideologically, and economically.
Fourth, narrowcast. Open multiple “gates of friendship” using different “love languages” tailored to specific groups in the pro-Israel coalition, speaking to Proud Jews, Evangelists, supportive Golden Agers, angry Iranian-Americans, anti-Islamist Indian-Americans, national-security-oriented patriots, and hard-headed JD Vance America firsters asking, “What have you done for me lately?”
Finally, let’s develop a new vocabulary. Call Israel the DIY (do it yourself), meaning defend it yourself, ally, and the ROI (return on investment) ally. Talk about MIMI – what’s in it (as an American) for me and me – appreciating the military, international, medical, and industrial dividends from a quite minimal investment.
When president Harry Truman recognized the Jewish state in 1948, few could have imagined how much support America would give Israel. Similarly, it was inconceivable that this small country of 600,000, surrounded by so many hostiles, would flourish into a regional military power and a high-tech superpower that has improved the lives of everyday Americans so much.
Tensions will continue to come and go. But the many dividends both Israelis and Americans enjoy from this partnership will continue paying off far into the future.
The writer is an American presidential historian and a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. For America’s 250th, he published with David Suissa 250 Reasons to Thank America; and with the JPPI, The Essential Guide to the US-Israel Partnership, the 250th Anniversary Edition.
Source:
www.jpost.com
