U.S. support for Israel continues to plummet, despite media’s best efforts

During a recent podcast interview, California Governor and presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom likened Israel to an apartheid state and suggested that the U.S. might need to condition military aid to the country over its human rights record.

Newsom’s comments were notable for signaling the Democratic Party’s shifting rhetoric on the issue, but they certainly aren’t controversial. Even the most mainstream of human rights organizations have been acknowledging Israel’s apartheid for years, and the country’s reputation has completely plummeted within the United States.

Last month, a Gallup poll found that 41% Americans now sympathize more with Palestinians, compared to 36% who say they sympathize more with Israelis. It’s the first time, in over 25 years of polling, that Israel has lagged behind in overall sympathy. These numbers are even more stark among young people. 53% of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they sympathize more with the Palestinians.

Newsom’s comments on conditioning aid are firmly in the mainstream. Despite virtually no progress on the issue from lawmakers, Democratic voters have overwhelmingly backed such measures for years. A YouGov/IMEU Policy Project poll from last December even found that a plurality of Republican voters now support ending aid to Israel.

Support for Israel is becoming tougher sell, but that hasn’t stopped media outlets from trying their best.

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal decries Newsom for having the temerity to criticize Israel while the Trump administration attacks Iran. The editors admit that Democratic voters have turned on Israel, but believe Newsom’s comments still represent a bridge too far.

“The timing of Mr. Newsom’s anti-Israel musing is contrary to U.S. security interests as the two countries work together as allies in a common military campaign against Iran’s terrorist government,” insists the paper. “Missions that Israelis fly are bombing runs that American pilots don’t have to. Whatever one thinks of Israel’s domestic politics, a call to cut off arms to an ally in wartime ought to be disqualifying for someone who wants to be the U.S. Commander in Chief.”

There’s reason to believe the American people have soured on the Bush-era idea of dissent being unpatriotic, let alone the idea that lawmakers should refrain from criticizing a foreign country during a war.

By the same token, it’s hard to believe that the pseudo-scandal surrounding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, is destined to gain much traction.

Jewish Insider purported to break an “exposé” revealing that Duwaji had liked a number of pro-Palestinian posts on social media. The biggest infraction was a Slow Factory post made shortly after the October 7 attack, which warned that “occupation forces retaliate against this resistance” and that Gazans will be “punished for wanting freedom from apartheid.”

She also liked posts that declared, “WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED, RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED, “RESISTANCE AGAINST OCCUPATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT,” and other sentiments recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2625.

Writing in Bari Weiss’s The Free Press, Olivia Reingold tries to raise the stakes by documenting more than 70 problematic likes from Duwaji. These include the assertion that Israel is carrying out a “vile land grab,” a post declaring that former President Joe Biden was complicit in a genocide, and other verifiable facts.

The hook of the piece is a tweet Duwaji liked from the account @zei_squirrel, which attacked journalist Adam Sella for co-authoring “Screams Without Words“, the New York Times‘ December 2023 article claiming that Hamas weaponized sexual violence on October 7.

“If I told you that The New York Times hired a recently graduated college student with only a couple prior articles written on the subject of food and cooking to be their lead on the ground ‘reporter’ on the ‘mass rape’ hoax they fabricated, would you believe it? That’s Adam Sella,” it read.

Reingold’s article fails to mention that the reporting in the New York Times piece was challenged by The Intercept, Mondoweiss, and other publications.

It’s not particularly surprising to see this kind of stuff in Jewish Insider or The Free Press, but of course, CBS News, now led by the aforementioned Bari Weiss, a right-wing journalist and self-described “Zionist fanatic.”

The network posted a video on social media highlighting the report, and said they verified Duwaji’s likes.

“The report focusing on the social media use of the mayor’s wife—who does not hold public office—more than two years ago, struck many as peculiar,” writes Natalie Korach in Status.

Multiple CBS staffers, who spoke to Korach on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that Weiss, “who has been an outspoken supporter of Israel, was making editorial decisions more in line with the type of content published by The Free Press, blurring the ideological lines between the two and fundamentally altering CBS News’ DNA in the process.”

Again, it’s hard to envision this ham-fisted effort converting anyone to the anti-Palestine cause. Mamdani’s net favorable rating is up to +48 pts in New York City, making him the most popular Democrat in the state.

Newsome might be an opportunist, but it’s clear he knows which way the wind is blowing. Attempts to smear a politician (or a politician’s spouse) over their criticisms of Israel are no longer going to stick.