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| California governor, Gavin Newsom |
Presidents and party chairmen, senators and key members of
the House all considered it a plus to address that body. The only people who
rejected AIPAC were the usual anti-Israel politicians of the type that
supported BDS. But they were always considered to be on the fringe of the
American political landscape.
That has changed. It seems the opposite is now happening —
mostly (and unsurprisingly) in the Democratic Party. It is almost toxic to be
associated in any way with AIPAC. The most recent candidate to eschew their
support is Gavin Newsom, who is widely considered to be running for the
Democratic nomination for president in 2028. He has said he never took money
from AIPAC and never will.
It isn’t only Democrats. Sadly, what was once near-universal
Republican support for Israel has now become a matter of debate. Even though I
still believe the vast majority of Republicans support the Jewish state and
would easily accept AIPAC support, there is a serious attempt by some
Republicans to disabuse their party entirely of that support.
That effort is led in part by a number of popular ‘conservative’ podcasters,
Tucker Carlson chief among them. With millions of followers who lap up every
word he says. So - even though the majority of Republican politicians still
strongly support Israel, for the first time in a long while there is anti-Israel
pressure from among their ranks. I am, however, gratified to see most of them
resisting that pressure.
But still, it is disheartening to see any erosion of support
at all. The question is why? Why is this happening?
I think it is safe to say that Israel’s war in Gaza was the
tripwire. Media coverage was relentless in depicting images of Palestinian
suffering in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes were followed by images of death and
destruction, and a media narrative — often shaped by anti-Israel Palestinian
reporters — had its impact.
After two years of images like that and the accompanying
narrative broadcast on the nightly news, made it seem as though Israel was
indiscriminately killing Palestinians. Which anti-Israel progressives started calling
genocide. Two years of those daily images like that made it almost impossible to
refute that charge.
That caused a huge drop in American support and helps
explain why political support has changed. Many (perhaps most) politicians
stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing - and
that’s how they decide what their political positions will be.
It takes a lot of courage to examine the veracity of what’s being reported and to understand the context of those images. Courage is something most politicians do not have in abundance...
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