For nearly half a century, the United States led the free world in confronting Soviet communism. Americans understood that ideas mattered. Totalitarian ideologies rarely arrived wearing military uniforms; they entered societies through institutions, culture, and politics long before they threatened governments.

Today, more than a generation after the Cold War ended, America appears increasingly willing to tolerate—if not embrace—ideas that once stood in direct opposition to the principles it spent decades defending. Nowhere is that transformation more visible than in the country’s changing attitude toward Israel.

The headlines have been unmistakable.

For the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 2001, Americans now sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israelis. Among Democrats, the shift has been especially pronounced. A Washington Post poll found that nearly six in ten Democrats now believe the United States supports Israel too much. In Congress, nearly half of House Democrats recently voted in favor of reducing military assistance to Israel—almost three times the proportion that took that position just two years ago.

Many observers see these developments as evidence that Israel is losing America’s support.

They are asking the wrong question.

The real question is not what these trends mean for Israel.

It is what they reveal about America.

A New Ideological Lens

During the Cold War, support for Israel was never merely a geopolitical calculation. Israel was seen as a fellow democracy standing on the front lines of a larger struggle between free societies and authoritarian movements. Americans instinctively understood that defending democratic allies strengthened the very principles upon which their own Republic rested: individual liberty, religious freedom, the rule of law, and the belief that free societies have both the right and the obligation to defend themselves against those who seek their destruction.

The Soviet Union disappeared, but ideological conflict did not. It simply changed its vocabulary.

Many commentators attribute today’s shift in American sentiment to generational differences, suggesting that younger Americans simply see the conflict differently than their parents and grandparents. There is truth in that observation. But it is not the whole story.

America itself is changing. Its demographic composition is evolving. Immigration has transformed many communities. New ideological movements have gained influence in universities, media, and politics. Increasingly, public discourse is no longer framed around liberty versus tyranny or democracy versus totalitarianism. Instead, it is viewed through rigid categories of power, identity, and oppression. Nations are judged less by whether they are free than by whether they are perceived as powerful. Democracies are often scrutinized more harshly than the terrorist organizations or authoritarian regimes that seek to destroy them.

Israel has become the clearest example of that reversal. Within this new framework, it is no longer viewed as a small democracy defending itself in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods. It is instead cast as a symbol of colonialism, power, and privilege. Hamas, despite openly embracing terrorism and rejecting Israel’s right to exist, is too often seen primarily through the lens of victimhood.

Once that moral inversion takes hold, Israel’s actions become indefensible almost by definition.

The Irony America Should Notice

The consequences reach far beyond the Middle East.

The election of New York City’s mayor offers one illustration of these changing political currents. His willingness to portray Israel’s democratically elected prime minister as a criminal while minimizing the existential threats Israel faces would have been politically unimaginable in much of America only a generation ago. Whether one agrees with every policy of the Israeli........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)