For much of the 21st century, American political support for Israel has been a bipartisan exercise, cutting across the aisle to become one of the few universally agreed-upon subjects in Washington, D.C. However, as Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip nears the two-year mark, that broad support has eroded significantly.
Not only are Democrats increasingly willing to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government, but certain conservative circles are, too. While President Donald Trump had made the vociferous backing of Israel a key feature of his administration, some members of his MAGA coalition have begun publicly breaking from the party orthodoxy and speaking out against Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
‘Growing skepticism’ over Israel from the right
While the Trump White House has been “measured” in its criticism of Israel, its “cautious approach” contrasts with the “ascendance of a loud wing of the president’s base that has sharply criticized Israel,” said Politico. While “plenty” of Republicans, including “MAGA loyalists,” are still “backing Israel,” the party’s right flank is growing “increasingly frustrated” with support for a war they see as “politically noxious” and a “moral stain on the country’s reputation.”
Writing on X that the situation in Gaza amounted to “genocide, humanitarian crisis and starvation,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) became the “first Republican in Congress” to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide” — an “indication of growing skepticism on the right about Israel’s conduct of the war,” said The New York Times. That Trump himself broke with Netanyahu recently by affirming mass starvation was happening across Gaza is “creating space for a GOP realignment on Israel,” Axios said. While “America First” MAGA supporters have been historically skeptical of U.S. foreign aid, Trump had “carved out an exception for Israel,” the consensus for which has “eroded at a stunning rate” recently.
While the majority of mainstream Republicans still support Israel’s war on Gaza “virtually unconditionally,” conservatives willing to speak against the Gaza war are “becoming more influential online and outside Washington,” said Responsible Statecraft. That’s true “particularly among conservatives under 30.”
Republicans willing to speak out about Israel’s wartime conduct are likely “reading the tea leaves in terms of public opinion,” said Northeastern University Political Scientist Costas Panagopoulos at Newsweek. Lawmakers have been “getting pressure from constituencies about what’s going on in Gaza” and are being asked to “hold Israel to account.”
Violence that hits ‘significantly closer to home’
MAGA’s “increasing unease” about Trump’s Gaza policy has both put “a spotlight on the administration’s close ties with Israel” while raising “additional questions” about Trump’s plans moving forward, said The Hill. Escalating violence in both Gaza and the West Bank “hits significantly closer to home” for many of Trump’s more “traditionally” conservative supporters who may be “less swayed by flashy controversies” than they are by “harm to Christians” living in those communities, Haaretz said.
“My people are starting to hate Israel,” Trump reportedly told a Jewish donor recently, according to a “Middle East expert who speaks regularly with the administration,” said the Financial Times. Even so, it’s important to avoid “overstating the impact of critics on the far right.”
“I don’t think” the MAGA frustrations will lead to a “blow-up with Israel and Trump,” said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But “there are people in the White House who are watching this narrative develop in the right wing, in the MAGA world, that is very anti-Israel, very anti-Jewish.”
As the world watches a humanitarian crisis unfold across Gaza, some of Israel’s most staunchly conservative defenders have begun speaking out against its actions in the occupied territories
