Israel is experiencing a deep erosion of support in the United States among both Democrats and Republicans, Prof. Yossi Shain, an expert on international relations, warned in an interview with 103FM on Monday.
Speaking about the changing attitude toward Israel in the American political arena, Shain, who formerly served as a Yisrael Beytenu MK, said that “Being anti-Israel in the US today is a hot commodity; it is worthwhile and rewarding, and not just anti-Israel, but anti-AIPAC.”
“The entire idea around the world that Israel projects strength and that the Israeli lobby projects strength, and that it is not worth messing with it, is an idea that has collapsed in the US. Today, people are running for the Senate on hostility toward Israel, and that is what wins votes and victory,” Shain argued.
Shain later addressed Israel’s relationship with the Democratic Party and the standing of the Jewish community in the United States. “We are in a long process of collapse,” he explained. “David Hess, who headed the American Jewish Committee, recently said that US Jewry and Israel’s standing are like a building in Florida that collapsed on its residents.
“We can begin arguing about what causes what and how, but there is no doubt that two important points must be mentioned regarding Israel’s contribution. The State of Israel and the Israeli government simply betrayed the Democratic Party. Biden saved us, from their perspective, and we all went in the direction of Trump,” he said.
US-Iran agreement will not happen, expert says
There will be no agreement between the US and Iran, Shain also stated.
“Israel would be praying for an agreement. At present, there will be no agreement, and future administrations will also not be bound by an agreement as they were in previous years, partly because of the issue of power. Therefore, there was no international political dialogue because we relied on Trump to do the work for us, after he pledged to ‘pull the chestnuts out of the fire,'” he said.
Addressing the handling of Iran and the expectation that the United States would complete the process, Shain said that “The situation with Iran was that it had to be done within days. He asked us after we convinced him that we would bring down the regime and everything would collapse. Unfortunately, after our phenomenal victory with the Americans, we thought we would take another step forward, and America did not complete it.”
“When America did not complete it, we kept chipping away more and more at its standing in the system and at its willingness,” he noted. “On the Republican side, there is no willingness, from their perspective, for Israel to drag the US into another war,” he said.
According to Shain, the erosion of support for Israel is no longer limited to the Democratic camp. “Unfortunately, Israel has become a toxic brand. This is no longer only a question of politics right now, although it is also connected to it. We have also become toxic among Republicans. People forget what this means, and it is not only with Tucker Carlson and others, you can see it spreading. I speak with the offices of senators who are supporters of Israel, and they are worried about this. The perception that Trump is not delivering is also filtering down to voters.”
Israel ‘genocide’ campaign spreads to US education system
Shain also addressed the political considerations surrounding Trump and the changing attitudes among his supporters. “If in the past they said Trump wanted to reach the midterm elections, and therefore did not want to escalate because it did not win him points, right now there is concern that the lack of a decision is also costing him points among his supporters,” he explained.
“On the one hand, there is the campaign that began immediately after the war in Gaza, about genocide, which has penetrated very deeply both intellectually and politically. On the other hand, it has penetrated to the point that even in the American education system, when you examine how the issue of genocide is taught, it is identified as an Israeli genocide,” he added.
In conclusion, Shain warned of a continued deterioration in Israel’s standing in Washington. “If Israel does not replace its leadership with one perceived in America as sane, Israel does not have supporters even in the White House today,” he said. “It is impossible to understand the scale of the fiasco. We are telling stories because we are in an election campaign, but this is something deep,” he stated.
