Israelis Need to Understand that Jewish American Support for Israel Is Changing

The various protests and marches in the past months across Israel have generated international attention, and with so much focus on overhauling the Supreme Court and the very structure of Israel’s democracy, Israelis can be forgiven for missing another existential threat that is coming from the United States. This danger, almost unthinkable just a decade ago, is the very real possibility that the Jewish American community is turning away from its unwavering support for the State of Israel.

While there are many Israelis who are not interested in American support and think that Israel can handle its affairs without any assistance from partners, the fact of the matter is that Israel has long benefitted from the political and economic support of both the United States and American Jewry. Today, however, the longstanding support of Israel among many Americans is weakening among both America’s political elite and the masses and notably also among America’s Jews. Israelis need to wake up to the reality that Jews are leading the charge to end financial, military and cultural support to Israel, which could be deeply dangerous to the Jewish state in the years to come.

Data from a recent national survey of American Jews sponsored by Keren Keshet in 2022-23 are sobering and cannot be overlooked. The survey reveals that the biggest threat to support for Israel among the Jewish community comes from the rising power and growing  population of Jewish progressives. As a group, these Jewish progressives tend to mirror other progressives in the United States and place undue emphasis upon the Tikkun Olam (social justice) dimension of Jewish life, while downplaying other valued aspects of Jewish tradition. They may also be seen as unduly critical of Israel to the point of undermining the political and moral legitimacy of the Jewish State.

Although their numbers are still small relative to the overall community—the Keren Keshet survey finds that about 8 percent of American Jews identify as progressive, while 47 percent of Jewish Americans are in the left camp (liberals and progressives), 34 percent are moderate, and 19 percent are conservative—left-wing progressive Jews are organized, vocal, engaged and disproportionately influential on the current national political scene. And before dismissing these ideologues as just a fringe element of the political world, consider that progressives have become a powerful national force in Congress and electoral politics and in the educational world with pushing anti-racist agendas and creating divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion offices across the nation’s higher education campuses.

What Israelis must understand now is that these progressive Jews are appreciably less engaged in Jewish life and with historic Jewish institutions than their more moderate, liberal and centrist counterparts. Critically, they lack the traditional pro-Israel sentiments that have been a hallmark of the Jewish American community for decades. The survey data powerfully demonstrate that when compared with liberals, progressives are notably less likely to have visited Israel (21 percent versus 34 percent). Moreover, progressive Jews are less likely to feel at least somewhat emotionally attached to Israel and by quite a large gap: 31 percent versus 50 percent. So, yes, some progressive Jews are both attached to Israel while also taking deeply critical positions toward current government policies, just like many Israelis. That said, a large number—perhaps a majority—are not merely critical of Israeli policies, but also distant if not hostile to the very idea of a (or the) Jewish State.

The largest difference on Jewish engagement items between progressives and all the others, however, emerges when respondents are asked directly about American support for Israel. When queried if the United States is too supportive of Israel, a huge 42 percent of progressive Jews agree with that statement compared to just 11 percent of other political groups.

Given the political sorting in the nation and the fact that progressive Jews have taken on the political and ideological position of progressives more generally at the expense of traditional values and practices, supporting Israel is almost impossible. For many of these very liberal Jews, Israel is believed to be on the wrong side of the narrative and one’s position on the Jewish State has become a key test of ideological purity and commitment. Thus, being highly critical if not overtly hostile toward Israel is not simply one stance among others for Jewish progressives: It is a defining feature of their political identity.

Thus, being highly critical if not overtly hostile toward Israel is not simply one stance among others for Jewish progressives: It is a defining feature of their political identity.

While the Jewish progressive movement and agenda has not completely taken over the agenda and ideology of the American Jewish community, numerous groups—from Repair the World, Truah, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bend the Arc, and If Not Now—have all benefitted, despite their many ideological and stylistic differences, from a surge in Jewish ideological engagement on the left. Progressive ideology is ascendant and, like what is being seen in American politics more generally, this growing bloc of progressive Jews may fundamentally alter the political priorities and preferences of the Jewish community going forward. Many progressive Jews have radically extreme views about social justice and Israel with notably anti-institutional and anti-religious inclinations; Israel will be seriously harmed if it becomes even more isolated and loses support of both Americans and the American Jewish community.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.