Prof. Yossi Shain said on Monday that Israel is facing a deep erosion of support in the United States among both Democrats and Republicans, a shift he described as a collapse of the old assumption that the Israeli state and its lobby could project strength and deter criticism. Speaking in an interview with 103FM, the former Yisrael Beytenu MK said, “Being anti-Israel in the US today is a hot commodity; it is worthwhile and rewarding, and not just anti-Israel, but anti-AIPAC.”
The Lobby Machine Starts to Fray
Shain’s remarks sketch a familiar arrangement: a state, its lobby, and a political class that once treated alignment with Israel as a safe bet. That arrangement, he said, is now breaking down. “The entire idea around the world that Israel projects strength and that the Israeli lobby projects strength, and that it is not worth messing with it, is an idea that has collapsed in the US,” he said. “Today, people are running for the Senate on hostility toward Israel, and that is what wins votes and victory.”
He later added, “We are in a long process of collapse,” and quoted David Hess, who headed the American Jewish Committee, as saying that US Jewry and Israel’s standing are like a building in Florida that collapsed on its residents. The image is blunt. So is the message. The political structure that once insulated Israel in Washington no longer looks solid, at least not from Shain’s vantage point.
Shain also said, “The State of Israel and the Israeli government simply betrayed the Democratic Party. Biden saved us, from their perspective, and we all went in the direction of Trump.” The line captures the transactional logic of state power without much disguise. Alliances are not moral commitments here. They’re temporary deals, and when the deal sours, the language turns to betrayal.
War, Power, and the Price of Dependence
Shain said there will be no agreement between the US and Iran. “Israel would be praying for an agreement. At present, there will be no agreement, and future administrations will also not be bound by an agreement as they were in previous years, partly because of the issue of power,” he said. He added that there was “no international political dialogue because we relied on Trump to do the work for us, after he pledged to ‘pull the chestnuts out of the fire.’”
On Iran, he said, “The situation with Iran was that it had to be done within days. He asked us after we convinced him that we would bring down the regime and everything would collapse. Unfortunately, after our phenomenal victory with the Americans, we thought we would take another step forward, and America did not complete it.” He added, “When America did not complete it, we kept chipping away more and more at its standing in the system and at its willingness.”
That’s the state system in miniature: one power leaning on another, then blaming the other when the machinery stalls. No one in this picture is talking about ordinary people except as collateral in a contest of leverage.
A Toxic Brand, Even for Its Friends
Shain said, “On the Republican side, there is no willingness, from their perspective, for Israel to drag the US into another war.” He also said, “Unfortunately, Israel has become a toxic brand. This is no longer only a question of politics right now, although it is also connected to it. We have also become toxic among Republicans. People forget what this means, and it is not only with Tucker Carlson and others, you can see it spreading.”
He said he speaks with the offices of senators who support Israel and that they are worried. “The perception that Trump is not delivering is also filtering down to voters,” he said. He added that there is concern Trump’s lack of a decision is costing him points among his supporters.
Shain also pointed to the campaign that began immediately after the war in Gaza, saying it was about genocide and had “penetrated very deeply both intellectually and politically.” He said it had reached the point that “even in the American education system, when you examine how the issue of genocide is taught, it is identified as an Israeli genocide.”
That’s the part the lobby can’t spin away with a press release. Once the language of genocide enters classrooms, campaigns, and voter calculations, the old script of automatic deference starts to tear.
Shain concluded, “If Israel does not replace its leadership with one perceived in America as sane, Israel does not have supporters even in the White House today,” and said, “It is impossible to understand the scale of the fiasco. We are telling stories because we are in an election campaign, but this is something deep.” The election campaign may keep the talking points moving. The collapse he described sounds less like messaging trouble than a political order losing its grip.