Israel is becoming a pariah state

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Courtesy Pew Research Center

IT’S NO SURPRISE, BUT still felt like a jolt, to hear that international opinions on Israel are now more negative than positive, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center. The percentage of Americans who now view Israel unfavorably has risen to 53%, up from 42% before the most recent war began.

The jump was especially high among Democrats. In 2022, 53% of Democrats held unfavorable views of Israel; today, 69% do. This tracks with the anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses and among younger progressives in general. But younger Republicans also disapprove of Israel these days, according to the poll.

Israelis by and large don’t care what Americans think. The comment I’ve most often heard from acquaintances in Israel is that we in the U.S. can’t possibly know what it’s like to live there. We can’t imagine what it’s like to have terrorists rage through our towns and homes, murdering and kidnapping and pillaging. To worry about whether our bus will be bombed.

That’s true. We don’t know. The closest we’ve come to that kind of experience in recent years was on 9/11, when 3,000 people died in an attack on American soil. And look how we responded to that: with an eight-year-long war that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. I can understand Israelis wondering who the hell we are to judge.

Polls are by nature somewhat binary. I don’t know how I would respond to the Pew Center’s questions. Disapproval and approval are blanket terms that don’t capture the complexity of my feelings and many other people’s feelings about what’s happening in Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank.

• I approve of Israel’s right to respond militarily to Hamas’ unspeakable terror attacks on October 7.

• I disapprove of the current genocide of Palestinians happening in Gaza.

• I approve of Israeli efforts to rescue the hostages.

• I disapprove of the way the Israeli government plans to move Palestinians around to suit its own purposes.

• I am horrified by the way Israel has blocked humanitarian aid and used starvation as a weapon against civilians. The rationale has been that Hamas has kept aid from civilians. Even if that’s true, it doesn’t justify Israel’s actions.

• It is unspeakable that civilians are being deliberately shot by the IDF as they come to collect food for their starving families.

In the end, of course, it doesn’t matter what I think, or what any Americans think, except maybe for the current president, who is rapidly achieving his dream of total domination within the U.S. (Which is no doubt why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just escalated his sucking-up campaign by nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe Kim Jong Un and Viktor Orbán want to add their endorsements as well.)

The point is, as Daniel Sokatch writes in The Forward, “American Jews are now watching Israel become a pariah state in real time.” And you know what? If international censure helps shift what’s happening in Israel and Gaza right now, maybe it’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, I don’t think unlocking pariah status will change anything in Israel. Netanyahu is too emboldened by Trump’s support and too set on avoiding prison to change course because of what other people think.

I’ve thought a lot about this widening rift in the American Jewish community. Between what we learned as children and young adults, and what we’re learning now. Between support-Israel-at-all-costs and boycott-divest-sanction-Israel. In some ways these are both rather cynical approaches, which suggest there is no moderation possible, no conversation. And that’s just plain absurd. Human beings aren’t binary. Our world has never been black and white. And thanks to this neat little evolutionary trick called language, we have the ability to negotiate, to discuss, to adapt.

And then there’s also the all-important distinction between the Israeli government and the Israeli people. Personally I will not contribute money, time, or other resources toward enabling the current government’s actions. But at the same time, I don’t want to abandon the Israelis, who are, as you might imagine, exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally by nearly two years of horror and war.

Photo © +972 Magazine

SOKATCH, WHO’S THE CEO OF the New Israel Fund, criticizes American Jewish organizations for their continued knee-jerk support of Israel despite its actions in Gaza. His advice to those of us who want to hang on to our connection with Israel is to find a “new path” to support the country, breaking from mainstream organizations. For instance, he suggests supporting groups like the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Israel’s version of the ACLU, which challenges authoritarian laws in court.

A friend let me know that you can also donate to Atzurim Hafganot, a volunteer network of lawyers who have been helping the Israelis who have been protesting the government’s actions for the last 20-some months.

Are you aware of other ways to support Israelis without enabling the government’s actions? Please drop a link in the comments and let me know.