Israel is experiencing a deep erosion of support in the United States among both Democrats and Republicans, Prof. Yossi Shain, an expert on international relations, warned in an interview with 103FM on Monday. Shain, who formerly served as a Yisrael Beytenu MK, said the perception that opposing Israel and AIPAC has become politically advantageous marks a fundamental shift in American political dynamics.
"Being anti-Israel in the US today is a hot commodity; it is worthwhile and rewarding, and not just anti-Israel, but anti-AIPAC," Shain said. He noted that candidates are now running for Senate on platforms hostile to Israel and winning votes with that position. "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.
The Democratic Rift
Shain's analysis points to a breakdown in Israel's relationship with the Democratic Party that he attributes to strategic miscalculation. "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," he said. This pivot toward Trump, according to Shain, alienated Democratic allies at a critical moment when bipartisan support was essential.
The professor described the current situation as "a long process of collapse," quoting David Hess, who headed the American Jewish Committee, as comparing US Jewry and Israel's standing to a building in Florida that collapsed on its residents. The metaphor suggests not just decline but catastrophic structural failure.
Republican Support Weakening
The erosion isn't limited to Democrats. "On the Republican side, there is no willingness, from their perspective, for Israel to drag the US into another war," Shain said. He warned that Israel has become "a toxic brand" even among Republicans, a development that extends beyond Tucker Carlson to mainstream conservative circles. "I speak with the offices of senators who are supporters of Israel, and they are worried about this," he said.
Shain noted that Trump's inability to deliver decisive outcomes is filtering down to voters. "If in the past they said Trump wanted to reach the midterm elections, and therefore did not want to escalate because it did not win him points, right now there is concern that the lack of a decision is also costing him points among his supporters," he said.
The Genocide Narrative
The professor highlighted the penetration of genocide accusations into American discourse. "On the one hand, there is the campaign that began immediately after the war in Gaza, about genocide, which has penetrated very deeply both intellectually and politically," he said. More concerning, he noted, is that "even in the American education system, when you examine how the issue of genocide is taught, it is identified as an Israeli genocide."
Iran and Strategic Paralysis
On Iran policy, Shain said there will be no agreement between the US and Iran, though "Israel would be praying for an agreement." He described a failed strategy in which Israel convinced Trump to act against Iran with promises that the regime 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 said. "When America did not complete it, we kept chipping away more and more at its standing in the system and at its willingness."
Shain's conclusion was stark: "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." He added, "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."
Why This Matters:
Shain's assessment reveals a strategic crisis that transcends partisan politics. If accurate, Israel faces a support vacuum in Washington at precisely the moment when Iranian proxies remain active, regional threats persist, and diplomatic pressure intensifies. The collapse of bipartisan consensus doesn't just complicate Israeli diplomacy—it removes the security backstop that has anchored Israeli strategic planning for decades. The penetration of genocide narratives into American education and political discourse suggests a generational shift that won't reverse with a single election cycle. For a democracy surrounded by adversaries who reject its right to exist, the erosion of American support represents not just a diplomatic setback but a fundamental security challenge. The question isn't whether Israel needs American backing—it does. The question is whether current leadership can rebuild what Shain describes as a collapsing structure before the damage becomes irreversible.