cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/43828737
Michelle Goldberg Feb. 27, 2026, 6:47 p.m. ET
https://archive.ph/kOzWb#selection-4499.0-4501.12
It’s been obvious for some time that Americans are souring on Israel, but a Gallup poll that came out on Friday marks a turning point. For the first time in the poll’s 25-year history, it found, more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. The shift wasn’t just among Democrats, whose opinion of Israel has been in free fall in recent years. According to Gallup, only 30 percent of independents now sympathize with Israel; 41 percent sympathize with the Palestinians. Among adults under 35, support for Israel has fallen to a record low of 23 percent. With numbers like this, bipartisan backing for Israel, long a constant in American politics, will in time become unsustainable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel famously prides himself on his ability to shape American policy. As he said in a secretly recorded 2001 conversation, “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.” Yet he has presided over an ongoing collapse in American Zionism and could eventually go down in history as the prime minister who lost Israel’s most important ally.
That’s funny. There’s no shackles to break off. This isn’t a 40 year bribery scandal, it’s a proxy war. No different than the ones fought in Korea, Vietnam, Ukraine, Afghanistan, or elsewhere.
Israel can’t even “buy” Canadian politicians, there’s no super pacs, there’s no corporate donations, there’s almost no influence here from them.
Yet the Canadian governments for the last few decades, Conservative AND Liberal, have always supported Israel against Iran. They STILL support Israel, despite it being massively unpopular among their voters and them losing votes over it.
Because once they become MPs, they get educated on what’s really happening and why it’s important.
I almost want your side to win sometimes, so that when the inevitable worse situation occurs a new generation can be educated on why violence is sometimes necessary to prevent far worse violence. It was a lesson learned through the sacrifice of tens of millions in the world wars, and yet it has been forgotten by those who fail to learn from history.