Democrats vs. Republicans and the disagreement that is had by both parties about a number of issues is expected and understood by most Americans. When it comes to the USA’s relationship with Israel, however, it cuts across party lines. Blue or Red, the overwhelming support for Israel is never questioned. No foreign country should wield this much power over U.S. policy, funding and debate. Increased bi-partisan opposition to Israel’s actions in the Middle East has subsequently led to more skepticism on politicians’ support for Israel and reasons behind the support.
When the unconditional support of Israel is questioned, unsubstantiated claims of antisemitism are made. President Donald Trump recently signed Executive Order 14188, which his administration supposedly put in place to combat antisemitism. However, legal experts and free speech advocates have pointed out that it may infringe on the First Amendment.
The questions are: What is antisemitic about not wanting a foreign country to have so much influence in our politics? Is it antisemitic to critique military actions done by the Israeli government? With just under 50% of the Gazan population being under 18 according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, some people are very skeptical of the conflict and all the devastation and death that has come from it. This brings up a tough conversation that is constantly argued over. Has Israel’s response to Oct. 7, 2023 been proportional and justified?
In a country where we are encouraged to speak our mind and have disagreements about politics, people have been getting increasingly hostile about the topic of Israel. With The BDS movement (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) of Israel gaining traction, as well as legislation by pro-Israeli advocates to combat it, things are not exactly “calming down.” The amount of money that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee calculated to have given in the 2023-2024 election cycle is around $126.9 million, according to Sludge, which is an independent nonprofit that investigates money lobbying in politics. That amount of money spread out through different U.S. politicians has a lot of Americans questioning if our politicians are working for the people or the money given by AIPAC.
According to Track AIPAC, Trump has received $230 million in donations from pro-Israeli lobbying groups. Former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has received $9.4 million as well from pro-Israeli lobbying groups. Although donating to a political campaign doesn’t inherently mean that the candidate is beholden to them, the fact that there is heavy – bi-partisan support for Israel on both sides of the political aisle raises suspicions. People notice how much agreement there is from both political parties about Israel and the major backlash people receive when they criticize Israel.
Some criticism of Israel is rooted in antisemitism, but there is plenty of valid criticism that only criticizes the Israeli government and does not attack Jewish identity or culture. A common response to the criticism of the Israeli government is calling it antisemitic, which is destructive and damaging to the actual cases of antisemitism. Differentiating actual antisemitism from criticism of the Israeli government needs to be made important. The right to criticize our government or a foreign government is something that is protected by the First Amendment.
The fact that our current government has taken steps to disincentivize the criticism of Israel seems almost un-American when we hold freedom of speech as one of our founding principles. A good example of this would be the Texas Anti-BDS Law (HB 89, 2017).
It required contractors doing business with the state to sign a statement saying they do not and will not boycott Israel. After a 2019 lawsuit it was amended to only apply to companies with 10-plus employees and contracts of $100,000-plus.
Rabbi Levi Dubrawsky of Tiferet Israel Dallas had thoughts on whether criticism of the Israeli government can be valid. “I do believe, you know, you’re allowed to criticize any government official and anyone that runs for a democratically elected position has opened themselves up to disagreement,” he added. “If you’re holding Israel to a higher standard then you are any other country, what does that say about you? You know, if you think only Israel should behave in a certain way and leaders of other countries are able to mistreat their citizens are able to mistreat other minorities.”
This shows that a lot of pro-Israeli advocates claim to want the criticism of Israel to be allowed, but they don’t want Israel to be held to a harsher standard than any other country.
Patrick Moore, a government professor at Dallas College Richland Campus, had thoughts about why America has strong support for Israel. “We’ve been generally supportive of Israel throughout. Yeah. And that is partly because we have supported people’s right to self-determination and including Jews, in response to the Holocaust, which did happen. That’s partly because we’ve justified our firm aggressive support for Israel, because they were, it was said, the only democracy in the region. And so support for Israel maintained stability. It contributed to stability in the Middle East, which is important because that’s where the oil is. And so it’s in everyone’s interest for there to be stability there. We don’t want wars going on.”
Moore also spoke about the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and how that fueled more support for Israel.
“The horror at what happened on October 7th, you know, and the Hamas grotesque, terrorist violent brutality, generated a lot of support for Israel among people who might not have really been associated one way or the other before that. You know, there were a lot of people who were already strongly supportive of Israel, who were horrified, and there were people who just never thought about it. who were horrified and became supporters of Israel.”
Israeli foreign influence and the USA’s relationship with Israel both need to be examined and properly assessed. There is significant backlash from the American people.
We deserve to have our voices heard. We especially need accountability and transparency from our politicians. We want the views of our politicians to echo the communities they represent and not the donor class.
