American Jews Don’t Have an Israel Problem; They Have a Bibi Problem

A version of this article was published in Haaretz on July 31, 2026.

Americans and American Jews do not have an Israel problem. They have a Bibi problem.

Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid his eighth visit to Donald Trump since the President’s election to his second term. And, once again, there has been much discussion in the Jewish community about the fraying ties between Americans and Israel and between American Jews and Israel.

A Gallup poll released several months ago found that more Americans sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, and in a more recent poll 58% of Democrats now say that the U.S. supports Israel too much. Republican support for Israel has also declined.  As for American Jews, a NORC poll out of the University of Chicago shows that only 23%, less than a quarter, say that the term “Zionist” describes their position.

I admit that while American support for Israel is at an all-time low, Bibi is not the entire problem.   But he is most of the problem. If Netanyahu were to stop being Prime Minister tomorrow, support for Israel would rebound overnight. My guess is that within a few months, it would return to pre-October 7 levels.

Why? Because for most Americans, Bibi and Israel are one. Americans who think of Israel think of Bibi, and all that he stands for. And what is true for Americans is especially true for American Jews, who have been watching with growing horror and revulsion as the Netanyahu coup d’etat shreds the little that remains of Zionist sanctities and Israeli rule of law.

What specifically has Bibi done in his nearly two decades in office and especially in the three years since October 7?

He has pushed Donald Trump – a capricious, narcissistic president – into a war with Iran, without offering any answers as to how that war might be finished and won. He has lied about the war again and again, promising – with American backing – to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and not doing so, and to topple the Iranian regime and not doing so. He has said that he would finish off both Hamas and Hezbollah, and yet, both survive, in some ways stronger than ever. He has disregarded and undermined the deep, long-held ties of Israel to the Democratic Party, and yet, incredibly, has somehow managed to lose much of the Republican party as well. Thank you very much, Benjamin Netanyahu, for losing America.

And at home in Israel, he has delegitimized the core procedures of democracy, denying his primary responsibility for the October 7 massacre. He has ignored his unforgivable dereliction of duty in waiting while 46 Israeli hostages were murdered in captivity because he would not do what needed to be done to release them. He has given in to the insatiable demands of the Haredim, encouraging them to loot the Israeli treasury, shirk the draft, and drift further into parasitism, while average Israeli citizens pay the unbearable price of duty and death. And he sat silently while the racists in his government ran wild in the territories, setting fire to mosques, tearing up crops, and beating and killing West Bank residents.

And, perhaps worst of all, he has refused to work for a political settlement, which every ally of Israel views as essential, and which offers the only possible exit from the dance of death to which Israel is otherwise condemned.

Bibi Netanyahu was, in his earlier years, a better politician and a more honorable man than he is now. It is not an exaggeration to say that his conduct today endangers the very existence of the Jewish state.

But, undeterred, Netanyahu seems intent on assuaging his own ego. His guiding interest in these critical days is himself — not the welfare of his allies, or even the welfare of his own country, but his own election, which will enable him to prolong his criminal trial indefinitely and stay out of prison.

To achieve his goals, he has shaped the Likud party in his image. Bibi rules Likud, and Likud – once a principled party, liberal in the classical sense – is today filled with messianists, anti-Zionists, settler thugs, and democracy-hating bureaucrats, all of whom dance to Bibi’s song.

What does all this mean for American Jews?  It means that Bibi must lose the October election.  Israel’s existence is literally at stake. And the good news is that there is a chance this will happen.  Bibi’s arrogance, his serial failures, his cowering at the feet of Haredim, his indifference to settler violence, and his refusal to admit responsibility for October 7 have finally taken their toll. Israelis, it seems, have had enough. According to most polls, the parties opposing Netanyahu expect to win about 70 seats in the October election, while Netanyahu’s coalition partners are expected to win about 50.

American Jews can play at least a modest role in Bibi’s hoped-for defeat. They cannot contribute financially to the election campaigns of Israel’s political parties, but they can donate to NGOs that promote voting, educate voters about the issues, and promote tolerance and understanding between Israeli Arabs and Jews. (The Israel Religious Action Center is my favorite, but there are many to choose from.)  And they can also educate the American Jewish community and the general community about the election, making it clear to politicians and all Americans that Netanyahu is not synonymous with Israel, and that in Israel’s vibrant democracy, there are many voices that oppose Bibi’s would-be-autocracy and prefer another path.

Imagine, I tell my friends and colleagues, that the opposition parties in Israel were to unite. Imagine that Gadi Eisenkot, head of the Yashar party, were to assume the leadership, with all the opposition parties backing him.  And imagine that Netanyahu then loses the election, as all the polls suggest that he will. What would happen?

Eisenkot would talk tough but sensibly on Iran; would express concern and dismay over civilian deaths caused by Israeli forces; would search for an opening to initiate talks with the Palestinians and Arab states; would reach out to Democrats and Progressives in the United States, as well as cultivating conservatives on the Republican side. And quickly, very quickly, the support for Israel would return, as strong as ever, and the Jewish state would be embraced by the American right and the American left, as it once was.

A dream?  Perhaps, yet not impossible. And the key is this: if there is to be hope for Israel’s future, Bibi must go.