The American Jewish community has reached a moment of profound reckoning. For two years, since the horrors of October 7th, and throughout the long and painful conflict that followed, Israel has faced an unprecedented assault, not only on the battlefield and in the halls of the UN, but in the political bloodstream of the United States.
Extremists and populists on both ends of the political spectrum have exploited the chaos to mainstream conspiracies, normalize Antisemitism, and weaponize Israel as a partisan football.
As America enters another fevered election cycle, with the midterms next year, the stakes are high. If we want an America where support for Israel remains a stabilizing, bipartisan constant, and where Jews can live freely and safely, we cannot be passive. American supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship must lead the fightback for moderation and common sense.
For decades, American support for Israel was understood not as a favor to the Jewish State, nor as an act of charity, but as a strategic necessity squarely aligned with U.S. national interests.
Israel is the region’s only democracy, its most innovative security partner, and the forward operating base for American influence and interests in a turbulent Middle East. That truth has not changed. What has changed is the willingness of some politicians to twist facts, play to social-media mobs, and surrender moral clarity for ideological purity.
The rise of extremes on both sides now threatens what generations built.
On the far left, anti-Israel activists have metastasized into a powerful messaging force inside the Democratic Party. What began as fringe rhetoric has entered the mainstream, with certain members of Congress using their platforms to demonize Israel and downplay terrorism.
At the same time, elements of the right have embraced a different but equally corrosive populism. In the Republican Party, some isolationists now frame support for Israel as a burden rather than a benefit, or worse, as a pawn in their culture-war theatrics.
A minority, but an increasingly noisy one, openly question security aid, echo foreign propaganda, or mask Antisemitism behind “America First” slogans stripped of strategic understanding.
The center, traditionally the backbone of pro-Israel policy, is being squeezed. Many of our allies in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans, have confided that they feel intimidated, out-shouted, or politically exposed when defending Israel.
They have seen what happens online, on campuses, and on the streets to those who take a stand. They have watched colleagues attacked by activists, smeared by extremists, or targeted by partisan hit-jobs.
Without reinforcement and support, even the bravest voices falter.
That is why the American Jewish and pro-Israel communities must adopt a new posture: confident, unapologetic, and proactive.
We need to make it unmistakably clear that standing with Israel is standing with America. Israel is the ally that shares intelligence that saves American lives, the partner that dismantles Iranian terror networks from Syria to Europe, the democracy that proves freedom can survive in a region dominated by autocrats. When Israel is weakened, American security is weakened. When Israel triumphs over extremists, American interests are strengthened.
The fightback must begin on three fronts.
First, we must strengthen the political center. That means empowering congressional leaders, Democrats and Republicans, who refuse to be bullied by extremists in their own parties. We must amplify them publicly, support them politically, and show them that there is a broad national constituency for moral clarity. When a senator or representative takes a courageous stand, we can no longer applaud silently. We must have their back.
Second, we cannot be afraid to call out the extremes by name. This is not the 1990s, and polite avoidance no longer works. When the far-left excuses terrorism, spreads blood libels, or demands conditioning aid to Israel in the middle of a war for survival, we must say so plainly. When far-right populists flirt with anti-Semitic tropes or undermine decades of strategic partnership, we must confront that too.
Silence is not civility; silence is surrender.
Third, we must reclaim the civic and moral narrative. For two years, too many have allowed activists, propagandists, and foreign-funded networks to shape the discourse. We need religious leaders, business leaders, educators, veterans, students, and public figures to speak with moral authority about the reality of the Middle East.
This is not a call for partisanship. On the contrary: it is a call to reject partisanship as the lens through which Israel is viewed. Our goal must be to rebuild a broad American consensus that transcends election cycles.
We must have courage; Jewish history teaches us that crises reveal character. The last two years have shown us how quickly false narratives spread, how rapidly extremists organize, and how fragile democratic consensus can be. They have also shown us the power of resilience, truth, and unity.
America is strongest when it stands with Israel, not because of sentimentality, but because the alliance anchors stability in a world of chaos.
It deters Iran, pushes back against Russia and China in the Middle East, and protects American citizens and interests. The Jewish State is a vital and irreplaceable ally. As Former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, a four-star general, once called Israel: “America’s largest aircraft carrier which never could be sunk.”
Those who seek to break that alliance are not offering an alternative vision, they are offering a vacuum that our adversaries will fill.
We must not wait for others to lead. We must lead.
At a moment when extremists are the loudest voices in the room, we must ensure they do not become the most influential. We must energize the center, support the principled, and expose the dangerous. We must remind America that standing with Israel is standing for democracy, stability, and shared values.
The fightback begins now.
The writer is a Los-Angeles based philanthropist and real-estate developer who has played a key role in U.S.–Israel relations, notably helping secure bi‑partisan support for the Iron Dome missile‑defense funding. He serves as chairman of the Abraham Accords Roundtable and Golda Meir Commemorative Coin Committee in Washington DC.