Saturday, February 28, 2026

Michelle Goldberg: How Israel Lost Americans

[I]t's not just Israel's policies toward the Palestinians that have eroded Americans' good will toward Israel. Perhaps as important has been Israel's role in American politics ... . Israel, by behaving appallingly and then trying to silence any condemnation of its appalling behavior as antisemitic, gives ammunition to Jew haters. As Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and president of the liberal Zionist group J Street, told me, "When you end up using antisemitism as a pretext for kicking kids out of universities and out of the country, and you use it as a pretext for ending cancer research and use it as a pretext for undercutting the First Amendment, you're going to get some blowback against the people doing that."

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The blowback will almost certainly get worse if America bombs Iran, as Netanyahu hopes it will. Americans don't want a war, and Trump hasn't bothered to explain why he might wage one. In this murk, conspiracy theories about Israel manipulating America into another Middle Eastern conflict are bound to flourish, especially because there will be a grain of truth to them. Friday's Gallup poll marks a low point in American sentiments toward Israel, but they could still have much further to fall.

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"As long as the possibility of a Palestinian state remained alive, liberals who feel warmly toward Israel could tell themselves that this system of de facto apartheid was only temporary," Goldberg notes. "But Netanyahu's government has done everything in its power to make a two-state solution impossible, including, before the attacks of Oct. 7, propping up Hamas. In theory, a state that's both Jewish and democratic may be possible. Today, on the ground, it looks like a pipe dream."

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-02-28 05:05 AM

Hi Doc Sarvis:

Israel lost more Americans today with the US attack on Iran.

No Congressional Declaration of War.

I remember this map from the Oslo Accords last century showing a way for Palestinians and Israelis to share the same country peacefully-- the "Two-state Solution.".

A 20-mile elevated and cocooned highway was to connect Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians and Israelis wouldn't have to see each other all day if they chose not to.

Israel already has plenty of elevated highways.

This would have saved so many lives and billions of dollars.

American taxpayer dollars.

Dissipated pipe dream.


#2 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-02-28 05:23 AM

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