US-Israel ties are in a state of crisis, and Israel can no longer assume that the bipartisan consensus that sustained the relationship for 75 years will persist. While many in both US parties still believe Israel is vital to the safety of Jews around the world and that Israel is America’s most reliable partner in a crucial and unstable region, growing factions on both sides of the aisle question the relationship. Before a generational shift becomes irreversible, Israel needs to return to a basic tenet of its national security strategy during the first 75 years of statehood: maintaining stable bipartisan support in the US, even at the price of difficult political decisions in Israel.

As a powerful but small country, Israel’s security depends on continued strategic cooperation with the United States. After fall elections in both countries, it will be urgent for a new government in Israel to take quick action to begin repairing this vital relationship.

Israelis need to understand the generational transition that cuts across both parties in the United States. Younger voters and leaders did not experience the

Holocaust, Israel’s War of Independence, the Six-Day War or the Yom Kippur War. They came of age with Israel emerging as a regional power and a long-serving government confidently dismissing US concerns. At the same time, due partly to Israel’s own policies and partly to a concerted campaign by adversaries to reframe history, Palestinians came to be seen as victims, David to Israel’s Goliath.

Erosion on the Democratic side was marginal for a long time. But for decades, supporters of Israel who raised concerns about Israel’s policies regarding West Bank settlement expansion, treatment of Palestinians, its diplomatic and military strategy, or even disrespect shown to US presidents, were treated as naïve or hostile. Sadly, a young generation was ripe to be persuaded by a long-simmering settler colonial narrative that turns Israel’s real founding story on its head. For too many, the image of Israel as an oppressor and Palestinians as the oppressed replaced the idea that the establishment of the State of Israel enabled Jews to return to their historic homeland after millennia of displacement by one empire after another and the extermination of six million European Jews who had no country to turn to.

On the Republican side, isolationism is no longer a fringe issue, and justifying a one-country exception for Israel is challenging for many. There is a strong desire to avoid US entanglement overseas and to put America first by spending American resources at home. This is further amplified in the wake of an Iran War that is broadly unpopular in the United States, with many loud voices on the American right arguing that Israel pulled the US into war.

There was a moment of unity after Hamas brutally slaughtered 1,200 in Israel and raped or kidnapped hundreds more on October 7. President Joe Biden’s early visit offered comfort at a moment when Israel was frozen in trauma and could not begin to imagine healing; his promise of materiel support gave Israel confidence that it could prevail on the battlefield. From the outset, Biden also called on Israel to meet its obligation to protect civilians, which was always going to be hard. Israel was fighting an enemy that chose to hide behind civilians, including women and children,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)