A threat to the pro-Israel consensus - opinion

Israel has long been the rarest of things in Washington – the subject of virtual wall-to-wall, bipartisan support. But the times they are a changin’ and the Jewish state and the complex issues surrounding US support are rapidly becoming a third rail.

Foreign aid bills that used to have trouble getting votes have more recently been on auto pilot. Aid for Israel was called the locomotive that pulled the rest of the legislation to final passage. Israel has been a must-see destination for candidates, incumbents, governors, trade missions and political interest groups.

But the ongoing reign of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in particular the way he is waging war against Hamas in Gaza, is rapidly raising the voltage.

Netanyahu is called to be replaced

The highest elected Jewish official in American history just called on the Israeli people to replace their prime minister and the most extreme government in their nation’s history.

This government is “stuck in the past” and the country needs new leadership with a “vision for the post-war future.”

Netanyahu “has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Netanyahu went on American television to complain that Schumer’s speech was ”totally inappropriate.” He accused Schumer of criticizing Israel, but CNN interviewer Dana Bash pointed out that the senator was clearly criticizing him, not Israel.

Schumer, who used to call himself “Bibi’s best friend in Washington,” said the prime minister has become “an obstacle to peace.”

Netanyahu’s complaint about election interference might have had some credence had it not come from a notorious meddler in American partisan politics with a decades-long record of overt electoral interference.

Netanyahu has made no secret of the fact that he prefers dealing with Republicans and their Evangelical Christian base over the Democrats and American Jews. One is more inclined to go along with his extremist policies while the other raises too many uncomfortable issues.

TO BE SURE, both countries have a history of meddling in other country’s politics, though Bibi has taken that to a new level, even to the point of sending a former Republican operative to be his ambassador in Washington.

His support for Mitt Romney against Barack Obama in 2012 did considerable damage to his relations with the Obama administration. But the greatest outrage was when he blindsided the president to address the Congress and become the GOP’s lead lobbyist against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.

Schumer expressed what many Democrats were thinking but reluctant to say publicly. Colleagues quickly praised his speech, including at least three other Jewish senators. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the speech an “act of love,” warning that “Israel’s reputation is at risk” because of its conduct of the Gaza war. It’s not election interference, as Netanyahu charged, but friends helping friends, she said.

The Senate leader reflected the widespread dissatisfaction with Netanyahu among Israel’s friends and supporters in the Congress, in the Democratic Party and in the Jewish community since October 7.

One cannot underestimate the importance of his speech. Bear in mind his rank, his historic position and his personal relationship with Netanyahu and Israel.

President Joe Biden, who calls himself a Zionist and has a 40-year record of support for Israel, praised the speech but stopped short of an endorsement. He has been careful to keep the rift as being between him and Bibi and not between the United States and Israel.

He spoke with the prime minister on Monday for the first time in over a month. Biden said he shared Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas but indicated he feels Israel lacks “a coherent and sustainable strategy to make that happen,” reported National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Biden rejected as “nonsense” Netanyahu’s argument that opposing an attack on Rafah, where a million refugees have fled, is a victory for Hamas.

REPUBLICANS WERE quick to declare they love Israel more than the Democrats and decry any meddling in another country’s politics.

The GOP and AIPAC quickly sided with Netanyahu against Biden and Schumer, demanding unconditional support for Israel in this war. The Republican Jewish Coalition accused Schumer of stabbing Israel in the back.You can count on hearing more about the Biden-Bibi rift in this year’s campaigns.

Former president Donald Trump said this showed that any Jew who votes Democratic “hates their religion” and hates Israel. He also called Schumer “very anti-Israel” and said Biden has “dumped Israel.” 

He has repeatedly accused Jews of dual loyalty and has a long record of antisemitic tropes in his campaigns and social media and an affinity for white supremacists, Christian nationalists and neo-Nazis.

A Pew Foundation survey reported that only 21% of American Jews hold a favorable view of the disgraced former president, about one third of Biden’s approval rating.

A White House spokesman called Trump’s remarks “vile and unhinged antisemitic rhetoric.”

Schumer went public with what he and others, including Biden, have been saying privately to Netanyahu and other Israelis after concluding that their words went in one deaf ear and out the other.

Netanyahu’s approach to advice and criticism has been consistent: I alone know what’s best, so shut up and send more weapons and money; you’re only helping Hamas.

The crisis in the relationship is about more than Israel’s conduct of the war. Netanyahu’s ongoing attempt to end the independent judiciary vastly expand the settlements enterprise have led to major clashes with American Jewry and the Biden administration. Domestic politics also plays a role in both countries.

Netanyahu’s first priority, by most accounts, is self-preservation, with battlefield victory and returning the hostages running behind. His anti-democratic extremist partners want a scorched earth policy in Gaza as a prelude to building settlements there and eventually annexing the West Bank.

BIDEN SEES a looming humanitarian catastrophe and wants Israel to begin thinking about the “day after,” which in the view of the Americans, Europeans and Arab states is the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state of Gaza and the West Bank. Netanyahu adamantly rejects any semblance of Palestinian sovereignty – and at this point in the war so do most Israelis.

For Biden, his support for Israel since October 7 has created deep rifts in his party and political observers warn that it could cost him the election.

Biden is under intense pressure from many inside his own base: progressives, Arabs, Muslims, other minorities and young voters sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Many voted “uncommitted” in Democratic primaries and have otherwise expressed opposition to his support for Israel as a warning.

It is hard to tell how many of those will “come home” on November 5 or vote for someone else. A big motivator for their return is Trump, who many consider a racist, Islamophobe and xenophobe.

Biden has to be careful that he doesn’t try too hard to win over the progressives and risk the support he needs from moderate Republicans and swing voters.

Notwithstanding Trump’s over-the-top rhetoric, it will be difficult for Republicans to label Biden anti-Israel. Polls show he is likely to beat Trump again three-to-one among Jewish voters, not only because most support his Israel policies but also because they reject Trump’s stand on nearly every domestic issue and his growing affinity for American far-right extremists.

Authorities are preparing for massive protests at the Democratic convention five months from now in Chicago, which has the largest Palestinian population in the United States and was the site of violent anti-war demonstrations in 1968.

Television coverage of the fighting, the destruction, and the humanitarian crisis will be closely watched by all sides for the role they will play on November 5 when Americans go to the polls.

This may be an inflection point in US-Israel relations, a time when one of the last consensus issues in American politics succumbs to the era’s bitter divisions.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former American Israel Public Affairs Committee legislative director.