Play Time is Over: America Will Start Saying 'No' to Israel

Originally published on Haaretz, by Rotem Oreg-Kalisky, founder and director of LIBRAEL.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is considered a pro-Israel voice. He supported Israel’s right to defend itself and the continuation of American aid, visited Israel after October 7, and worked to revise educational materials criticized by California’s Jewish community as antisemitic. He has distanced himself from AIPAC and has occasionally criticized the Israeli government, but overall he has maintained the line of a liberal Zionist, in keeping with the Democratic Party’s tradition.

Governor Newsom. His remarks are not on the fringe, nor is he drifting toward it. This is the new Democratic mainstream.

That is why his statements in an interview with the hosts of the Pod Save America podcast shocked the Zionist world, in Israel and abroad. From his willingness to reconsider military aid, to his remarks that annexation would turn Israel into an apartheid state, to his blunt opposition to a war with Iran - the interview struck many like a thunderbolt. His personal attacks on Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the accusation that Netanyahu is acting out of personal motives, should surprise no one.

But Newsom is not just another Democratic governor, or even merely the governor of the largest state in the United States. According to every poll, he is also the leading contender to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in two years. His ability to voice such criticism of a key American strategic ally - and receive enthusiastic applause from the audience - shows that he does not fear backlash from his base. If anything, the opposite may be true.

Playtime is over. The era that began taking shape in the 1990s - when Israel enjoyed a blank check and full backing across the American political spectrum, and any criticism was branded antisemitic - has ended.

It is time to get used to it: open, fierce, criticism of Israel is no longer confined to the radical fringe. Within the Democratic Party, people are no longer willing to swallow every frog Israel serves them. “Reconsidering” military aid used to be a career-ending position; today it is the starting point of the conversation. The same goes for public opposition to a war with Iran.

When Newsom asked whether American weapons had struck a girls’ school in Tehran - a claim made by the Iranian regime that has yet to be proven - people in Israel fumed about a “blood libel.” In the United States, certainly in liberal America, this is not only a legitimate question for a politician to ask - it is practically expected.

The situation on the right is not particularly encouraging either. Senior members of the administration praise Israel for its performance in a war that the American public - even those who support Israel - has little interest in sending their sons and daughters to fight. Opposition rates change from poll to poll and generally are not yet too high, but as time goes on, casualties mount, and oil prices rise, public support will decline. The verbal missteps by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson (who can hardly be suspected of lacking Zionist sympathies) - saying, in essence, “we struck because Israel was about to strike, and Iran would have attacked us” - only poured fuel on the narrative that “Israel dragged us into this war.” It is doubtful that the president’s clarification 24 hours later repaired the damage.

The peak of the disconnect came when Senator Lindsey Graham called on the president to send American troops to fight Hezbollah, as if Americans have children to spare for unnecessary wars. As for isolationist right-wing influencers like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, there is hardly anything left to say.

There is no polite way to put it: playtime is over. The era that began taking shape in the 1990s - when Israel enjoyed a blank check and full backing across the American political spectrum, and any criticism was branded antisemitic - has ended. Newsom’s remarks are not on the fringe, nor is he drifting toward it. This is the new Democratic mainstream. On the right, politicians may still largely align themselves with Israel, but their voters - as reflected in influencers and social media - are increasingly inclined to see Israel as the cause of the problem rather than part of the solution.

We can get angry all we want; we can instinctively cry “Antisemites!”; we can rely on a political center that barely exists; and we can grow nostalgic for bipartisan support for Israel that simply doesn’t exist anymore.

“The Democratic Party is lost,” some say. Sometimes even, “America is lost.” Their conclusion is that Israel should “keep its head down and hope for the best” or “dig in against our enemies.” But this defeatism is a poor diplomatic strategy because it leaves the field empty. It is also anti-Zionist in the deepest sense of the word, because it refuses to take our fate into our own hands.

There are many explanations for how we arrived here: “It’s Qatar,” “It’s the woke,” “It’s the occupation,” “It’s Bibi.” We can get angry at them all we want; we can instinctively cry “Antisemites!”; we can rely on a political center that barely exists; and we can grow nostalgic for bipartisan support for Israel that simply doesn’t exist anymore.

Understanding the path that brought us to this moment is important. But far more important is a proactive, innovative approach that asks a different question: what do we do to fix it?

Beyond civil society efforts to build relationships with liberal America - like the work LIBRAEL is doing - as we approach the election year we must also demand accountability from our elected officials: a clear assessment of the situation - and, above all, a plan for how they intend to repair it.