Most Americans don’t care about Israel, the Palestinians, or the Middle East. They couldn’t find Gaza on a globe – even a marked globe. That’s not an exaggeration. It should not come as a surprise.
Actually, most Americans don’t really care about anything that doesn’t directly involve them, so not caring about Israel and the Middle East is par for the course. Americans suffer from malaise. They are consumed by malaise.
Malaise is not a modern American malady. As far back as July 15, 1979, then-president Jimmy Carter, via television, delivered his now famous “Malaise” speech. He spoke of a moral and an economic crisis, a crisis spreading across the United States, a crisis of confidence, of economics, and of spirit.
Today’s malaise is worse. Americans simply do not care.
Masses in the US don't care about Israel or world events
Judging by the media coverage of late, one might think that support for Israel is eroding quickly. The truth is that interest is eroding only with the few who care enough to pay attention to world events in the first place. When watching the media we don’t take into account the masses who, from the start, never cared. The masses are simply disinterested – not only in the Israel issue but in every other issue as well.
Americans suffer from a lack of interest. They suffer from a general sense of ennui. Sure, some get excited about sports or music. Others about new movies, new books, or new restaurants, but even that is waning.
Think about the war between Russia and Ukraine. Once front and center, it is now a back-burner issue. It is as back burner as it can get in the minds of the average American. Stop people on the street and you will learn that an astounding number of people don’t even realize that it is still being waged.
Many people, especially young people, get their news from comedy shows. Once upon a time, late-night comedy shows, those hosted by Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jon Stewart were watched live. Today, they are most often watched at the convenience of the watcher on YouTube or X. The immediacy is gone. Fast forwarding provides the ability to skip segments that are not relevant to their lives. New information does not reach their consciences.
There are, of course, supporters of Israel. There are those who care, who read every report that comes out, who watch every news program they come across. Those who seek out websites and briefings, who search for coverage that does not vilify Israel. They are the people who are involved, trying to push back against the lies and disinformation that are being so liberally spread. But they are in the minority.
And then, there are the many who are spreading the lies. Those lies are being spread by Israel’s detractors. They are the second group of people who care – who really, intensely, vocally, and in a very misguided way, care. These detractors are deeply, emotionally, committed to portraying Israel and Jews in the most vile and evil light. Truth and facts are not germane. They hang posters proclaiming “Rape is Resistance” and “Babies Are Occupiers.”. They are driven by a nearly medieval sense of Jew hatred, far deeper and more visceral than modern antisemitism.
But most Americans are in the middle. They don’t care much about anything. They not only do not know where Gaza is, but they do not know what Hamas stands for, or what Hamas holds holy. If you told them, they would probably listen – just like they would listen to the detractors. And their takeaway would be that a keffiyeh makes a very attractive scarf.
When people stop caring, they stop caring about everything. “Right” and “wrong,” “evil” and “justice” become just words. Issues-based dialogue and decisions become less relevant, often even totally irrelevant.
Converting an Israel detractor from a hater of Jews and Israel into a lover, or even a defender, of Jews and Israel is nearly impossible. That should not be the goal.
The challenge is not how to transform detractors into supporters but how to get the masses of Americans who couldn’t care less, to care about something. In our world, that something is Israel.
Deep inside, Americans know that hating Jews, burning, murdering and massacring Jews, and then embracing their murderers is wrong. The challenge is to get them to care.
It’s worth the effort. But if it doesn’t work, there is no reason to despair. With or without apathetic Americans, Israel will survive.
The writer is a social and political commentator. Watch his TV show Thinking Out Loud on JBS.