More Signs of a Seismic Shift
For decades, pro-Israel money and messaging looked unbeatable. A 407-to-89 vote in North Carolina is one more sign that the wall is coming down.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson
7/2/20263 min read
There have been signs of shifting opinions about Israel in American society for nearly 20 years. Arguably, the major event that precipitated the change was “Operation Cast Lead,” the brutal, 22-day Israeli campaign against the population of Gaza in 2008-2009. Re-reading Amnesty International’s report on “Cast Lead” feels like a dreadful foreshadowing of the genocide in Gaza, October 8, 2023-present. Many of the same tactics causing mass death and destruction in the Gazan genocide were present on a smaller scale in Operation Cast Lead.
Some 1400 Palestinians were killed, including over 300 children, and hundreds of other unarmed civilians, including 115 women and more than 85 men aged over 50.
Heavy, imprecise bombs were dropped on densely populated residential areas, causing mass non-combatant casualties. Thousands of Palestinians were left homeless.
Israeli forces targeted medical personnel, hospitals, ambulances, and medical crews attempting to rescue the gravely wounded.
Israel sealed the borders, so no humanitarian assistance could enter, and there was nowhere in Gaza where civilians’ safety could be guaranteed.
Quite familiarly, Israeli officials defended all of it on the specious grounds of “military necessity.”
Although this was far from the first time Israel had unleashed savage violence on Palestinian civilians, Operation Cast Lead triggered the first major shock wave of anti-Israel disgust. Jewish Voice for Peace and other Palestinian solidarity activists I’ve talked to have told me Cast Lead was their “wake-up call.” It was a watershed event for me as well. Cast Lead showed an undeniable level of Israeli brutality and wanton disregard for the humanity of the Palestinian people that shook the conscience, and had to be challenged. Cast Lead helped launch the exodus of a whole generation of young Jews from reflexive, unconditional support for Israel.
Fast forward nearly 20 years, and the trend continues. In fact, it gained tremendous momentum from millions witnessing the horrific images from “the first live-streamed genocide in history.” In this week’s newsletter, we feature a video documenting how “Pro-Israel Brainwashing is Finally Wearing Off”. It is striking to see the sudden moral clarity of right-wing commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens about Israeli apartheid and genocide, our complicity in Israel’s atrocities, and why American taxpayers and policymakers must distance themselves from an ethnostate that so egregiously flouts American laws and international humanitarian law.
But perhaps the biggest sign of the seismic shift in American attitudes about US military support for Israel has been the widespread revulsion among American voters across the political spectrum toward Israel’s war crimes. Sizeable majorities of American taxpayers clearly do not want to be associated with Israel’s gruesome murders of Palestinian women and children, destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, starving a vulnerable population, and assassinating journalists. Polls indicate that a majority of Democrats and Independents want a total overhaul of the U.S.-Israel relationship. The stunning success of all three of the candidates endorsed by NY City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in recent primary elections shows how real this shift is. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier prevailed on progressive themes of affordability, support for working families, and changing the US-Israel relationship. All three candidates rejected AIPAC funding, and all three were adamant about suspending U.S. military aid to Israel so long as it violates American law and international humanitarian law. All three connected misspent tax dollars funding genocide to an ocean of unfunded social needs in our communities. Mamdani and his democratic socialist candidates gave voice to “a hunger in the nation…for a politics of conscience, a politics of clarity, and a politics of conviction to follow international law, and to believe in the humanity of all people.”
As Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland put it: “Democratic voters “won’t trust any Democratic presidential candidate who does not have a record of moral and strategic clarity on these issues…nor will they support a candidate who plans to re-enlist the senior Democratic decision-makers who whitewashed the truth during the Biden administration and refuse to acknowledge their complicity.” On the local front, this past weekend, the North Carolina Democratic Party confirmed these trendlines. The NCDP became the first state party in the country to put a full arms embargo on Israel in its platform. The vote was 407-89.
The seismic shift that began with revulsion at the savagery of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, has finally started wearing down decades of seemingly undefeatable pro-Israel propaganda and big money. It’s spreading throughout the country, and is impacting state and federal elections. It has not shaken enough consciences yet, and its work is not done. But it would be unwise to underestimate its power.