Backing Israel Now Costs Votes in the U.S.

A dramatic shift in U.S. public opinion regarding unconditional support for Israel is causing alarm among Zionists and their allies in America. Polls show sympathy for Israel declining across all voter segments. Meanwhile, the influence of the once-shadowy “Israel Lobby” over the White House and Congress is becoming increasingly visible—and controversial.

This shift is hitting the Democratic Party hardest. The gap between the party’s entrenched elites and younger Democrats is widening fast. That rift played a key role in Kamala Harris’s defeat in the 2024 elections. As Vice President under Biden, Harris ignored growing warnings from the party’s progressive base and firmly refused to commit to conditioning military aid to Israel.

Mainstream media and party elites tried to downplay the role unconditional support for Israel played in Harris’s loss. Their post-election analyses often dismissed the concerns of young Democrats with a tone of arrogance.

But the recent Democratic primary for New York’s mayoral race shook the party establishment. Zohran Mamdani—a vocal critic of Israel—defeated staunch pro-Israel candidate and former governor Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani, born in Uganda to an Indian family, caught both the Israel Lobby and party leaders off guard. Now, the Democratic establishment seems unsure how to respond to his candidacy.

Mamdani’s rise in New York—a city symbolic of American power—has become a nightmare for the pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party. The key question now is: will the party leadership finally acknowledge that blind support for Israel is becoming a political liability?

Having already lost the White House, Democrats also hold a minority in both the House and Senate. With all House seats and one-third of Senate seats up for grabs in 2026, and with the "Palestinian genocide" dominating headlines, anti-Israel sentiment has become impossible to ignore.

Peter Beinart, a prominent liberal Jewish writer, underscored this in a July 6 column for The New York Times titled "Democrats Must Recognize That Views on Israel Are Shifting Fast." He argued that those who assumed Mamdani would lose the primaries failed to grasp the changing public mood.

Beinart called Mamdani’s upset victory clear evidence of a transformed political landscape. He warned that a growing “Israel gap” between young Democrats and the party establishment poses serious long-term risks. Ignoring this radical shift in opinion on Israel and Palestine, he wrote, would be a grave mistake.

Citing recent polling, Beinart noted:

“In 2013, Democrats favored Israel over the Palestinians by a 36-point margin. Today, they favor Palestinians over Israel by 38 points. Even young Republicans—and those under 50—are now viewing Israel more negatively.”

In short, unconditional support for Israel has become a deeply divisive issue within both major U.S. parties. The conflict between party leadership and younger voters could shape the future of American politics. As Israel becomes more of a political and moral burden in the eyes of U.S. citizens, these internal rifts will only deepen. And globally, the perception of the U.S. as merely an extension of Israeli policy is leaving Washington more isolated than ever.