{"id":545412,"date":"2026-07-17T03:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545412\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T03:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:03:08","slug":"israel-must-confront-the-collapse-of-its-support-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545412\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel must confront the collapse of its support in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

As grim as the political scene is in Israel today \u2013 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition bulldozing through contentious and damaging legislation<\/a> on the final days of the Knesset before the October election \u2013 the view on the other side of the world in Washington regarding Israel is just as worrisome.<\/p>\n

Two events overnight Wednesday emerging from the US Capitol, one a vote and the other an interview, exemplified the rockslide \u2013 turning into an avalanche \u2013 of anti-Israel sentiment that has taken hold in the hallowed halls of decision-makers.<\/p>\n

The degree to which both the Republican and Democratic parties are sharpening their claws against Israel and hyper-focusing on it to the exclusion of critical issues indicates that the long-standing US-Israel bond is in a real crisis.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, 103, voted for an amendment to cut off aid to Israel<\/a>. The amendment was defeated 314-104. It was sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), whose disagreement with his party on Israel is his signature issue. He recently lost the GOP primary to run for reelection in the November midterms.<\/p>\n

Lest we breathe a sigh of relief that Republicans en masse voted against the amendment, US Vice President JD Vance demonstrated that Israel has just as much to worry about from the Right in the US.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Vice President JD Vance speaks on Joe Rogan’s podcast, published July 15, 2026. (credit: Screenshot\/YouTube)Vance claims Israeli ‘influence campaigns’ affect US political decisions<\/p>\n

In an interview with highly popular America First podcaster Joe Rogan, who has labeled Israel\u2019s war efforts in Gaza as \u201cgenocide,\u201d Vance suggested that shadowy Israeli<\/a> \u201cinfluence campaigns\u201d exist in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think you have seen this very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the deal,\u201d he told Rogan.<\/p>\n

An article in Time magazine<\/a> on Tuesday was \u201cworth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government,\u201d Vance said. \u201cAnd those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the people who were receiving that money were actually attacking me in completely dishonest ways,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, my response to that is: \u2018Go to hell.\u2019 I\u2019m going to do what I have to do for the American people. I represent Americans first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance shares claim spread by far Right influencers linking Jeffrey Epstein to Israeli intelligence<\/p>\n

Vance, who is seen as a prime contender to be the Republican nominee for president in 2028, also waded into the conspiracy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, the late convicted sex offender. Epstein \u201cclearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence,\u201d he said, reiterating a claim that has been refuted and discredited.<\/p>\n

The embrace by such a senior Trump administration official of conspiracy theories about Epstein\u2019s ties to Israeli intelligence, which have proliferated in the years since his death and often have veered into antisemitism, is part and parcel with Vance\u2019s increasing alignment with the far Right base populated by the likes of Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens.<\/p>\n

Taken separately, the vote in the House of Representatives and the Vance interview are worrisome signs that the \u201cspecial\u201d relationship between Israel and the US is on life support at best. Taken together, they should be an alarming wake-up call that the days of the \u201ckishkes\u201d identification test with Israel \u2013 as exemplified diversely by the late Lindsey Graham and former president Joe Biden \u2013 are long gone.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s easy to place the blame elsewhere \u2013 and there are a plethora of strong arguments to be made in retort to both Democratic and Republican detractors of Israel \u2013 we must also look inward and see what can be done to reverse the tide of sentiment against us.<\/p>\n

We can surely criticize the headline-provoking gambit by US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) last week, who chose to only hear and see the Palestinian side of life in the West Bank. But we can also acknowledge that vigilante Jewish groups are patrolling the area in a heavy-handed and lawless fashion that creates potentially lethal friction points and does irreparable damage to Israel\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

We can criticize Rahm Emmanuel for haughtily coming to Israel and warning us about what needs to be done to repair the US-Israel relationship, while acknowledging that some of his points were spot-on and unfolding before our very eyes in the House vote and Vance interview.<\/p>\n

Jerusalem can no longer ignore or downplay the growing trends in the US of having to endorse the \u201cIsrael is genocide\u201d trope to become a candidate, or of blaming Israel for getting the US entangled in Iran. The unsettling news this week demonstrates that with stark clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As grim as the political scene is in Israel today \u2013 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition bulldozing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11012,111,49,13135,54,85,46,11487,14406,43,2396,44185,730],"class_list":["post-545412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-anti-zionism","tag-antisemitism","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jd-vance","tag-knesset","tag-news","tag-prime-minister","tag-republicans","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}