“The whole world is against us / No matter, we’ll overcome / They don’t care about us at all / No matter, we’ll manage.”

These are the opening lines of a popular Israeli song written by Yoram Taharlev in 1969 and performed by the Dizengoff Band. The song reached No. 1 on Israel’s Kol Yisrael popular-music chart that October. At the time, its defiant message reflected a widespread Israeli sense of isolation: if the world was against us, Israelis would simply have to manage on their own. In recent years, however, that attitude has become something closer to a worldview in Israel’s relationship with the United States.

In the Israeli media, political system, and among segments of the public, a convenient but dangerous assumption is taking hold: growing criticism of Israel in America is viewed almost exclusively through the lens of antisemitism. This leaves little room for the possibility that something deeper is happening, that America’s relationship with Israel itself is changing. It allows Israel to avoid the harder question: Why are growing segments of the American public changing their views of Israel, and what does that mean for the relationship between the two countries?

The erosion of support for Israel is not primarily the result of hatred of Jews. It reflects deeper changes in American society: a generational shift, growing skepticism about U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and the revolution in social media.

None of this means that antisemitism does not exist or does not affect attitudes toward Israel. It does, and at times it is an important factor. But it is not the only explanation for the shift. Insisting that antisemitism is the principal explanation obscures deeper processes taking place in American society.

To understand the growing anger surrounding AIPAC, consider the Senate primary in Michigan. AIPAC and affiliated organizations spent nearly $30 million supporting Representative Haley Stevens and trying to........

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