American public support for Israel has historically been high, though it’s starting to shift

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American public support for Israel has historically been high, though it’s starting to shift

Loveworld / 2 mins

April 2, 2024

2 min read

Supporting Israel has also historically been incredibly politically popular in the US, bolstered by a well funded pro Israel lobby in Washington. However, that public support has markedly waned in recent years, particularly among Democrats, who marginally supported Palestinians over Israelis in a  March 23 for the first time.
Some argue that the benefits of the US’s relationship with Israel do not justify their moral and literal price. As Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, noted in foreign policy, Israel did not support the US in two wars against Iraq and even required the US protection from Iraqi Scud attacks in the first Gulf War. Moreover, he wrote before the Gaza war, “decades of brutal Israeli control have demolished the moral case for unconditional US support.”
But US policymakers seem to have accepted that it’s just the cost of maintaining the special relationship, which is not just military and political in nature, but also personal.
“The United States would rather that that Israel didn’t massacre Palestinians. The United States would rather that Israel didn’t annex the West Bank, which it is in the process of doing,” Beinin said. “Sometimes, allies don’t do what you want.”