Even as we have become used to polls showing plummeting US support for Israel – primarily among Democrats and Independents, but also increasingly among young Republicans – an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released this week gave pause.
Not because about one-third of US adults – including roughly half the Democrats – believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, or because 58% of Democrats say the US is too supportive of Israel. We have seen those trends reflected in other recent polls.
Rather, because among American Jews, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani enjoys a more favorable rating than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the poll, 44% of American Jews have a very or somewhat favorable view of Mamdani, who does not believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state and has called AIPAC “monsters,” while only 32% have similar positive feelings toward Netanyahu.
The reverse is also true. American Jews view Netanyahu more unfavorably (59%) than Mamdani (39%).
Let that sink in for a moment. According to this poll, American Jews dislike the prime minister of Israel more than they dislike the mayor of New York, who has said he would like to arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit the city.
Some will argue that this goes to show how bad and dangerous Netanyahu is. We think otherwise.
A reflection on the state of American Jewry
More than a reflection on Netanyahu, it is a reflection on the state of American Jewry and the degree to which the bonds of peoplehood and solidarity there are fraying.
If one’s own people prefer a man whose rhetoric denies the Jewish people the right of self-determination enjoyed by every other nation over the leader of the state that embodies that very right, then there is a problem.
Is there a problem with Netanyahu? Certainly. But is there a problem with those segments of American Jewry that applaud those who would weaken or harm the Jewish state? Even more so.
Another AP-NORC poll released at the same time found that three in 10 American Jews identify as Jewish ethnically, culturally, or through family background, even though they describe themselves as agnostic, atheist, or religiously unaffiliated. Unsurprisingly, they are also far less connected to Israel.
The survey confirmed something that many have long sensed: the more engaged American Jews are in Jewish religious life – whether Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform – the stronger their attachment to Israel.
In other words, the more Jews in the pews – regardless of denomination – the stronger their attachment to Israel and, one can reasonably assume, the less inclined they are to support those who wish the Jewish state harm.
Therein lies the problem: American Jews are increasingly not in the pews.
Many Israelis first heard about this poll through interviews that former Chicago mayor and apparent presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel gave this week during a visit to Israel, where he delivered a blistering indictment of the government in a speech at Tel Aviv University.
In an interview with this newspaper, he waved this poll, somewhat disingenuously, as evidence that Israel has lost (not is losing, but has lost) not only the Democratic Party but America itself.
Israel has a serious problem
His message was unmistakable: when even Jews prefer Mamdani to Netanyahu – though the poll never framed the question as a choice between the two, merely asking respondents for favorability ratings of various public figures – Israel has a serious problem.
Why is that disingenuous? Because it is Jews such as Emanuel, though he is by no means the worst offender, who have spent the better part of the last three decades demonizing the settlement movement, the Israeli Right, and Netanyahu for not being willing to drink Oslo’s two-state Kool-Aid.
“You’re losing America and American Jews,” they repeatedly tell the Israeli public.
“No wonder,” should come the reply, “because you – as Jews – are helping to sour Israel in their eyes.”
None of this is meant to absolve Israeli policy, military actions, or the inflammatory rhetoric of some government ministers of responsibility for the erosion of American public support.
Netanyahu himself was disingenuous when, in a CNN interview this week, he seemed to place most of the blame for the decline in support on TikTok.
But those like Emanuel, who hyperbolically declare that Israel is completely isolated economically, militarily, and diplomatically, and has become an international pariah, bear no small share of responsibility for making many believe it is so.
