How Netanyahu Lost America

He sold Israelis on his extraordinary understanding of America. He bet our most important alliance on Donald Trump. Now look where we are.

Benjamin Netanyahu has made a colossal mess of Israel’s relationship with America. And the bitter irony is that this is the very relationship he spent decades telling us he was uniquely qualified to manage.

Sometimes the obvious bears repeating: America is not just another ally. It is the ally. For decades, Israel and the rest of the world have understood that the strength and stability of the U.S.–Israel alliance are among the foundations of Israel’s security and standing in the world. And I’m not talking just about military aid, weapons or diplomatic protection. The knowledge that America stands firmly behind Israel shapes the calculations of our enemies, our friends, potential partners and governments around the world, often in ways we don’t even see. That is an enormous strategic asset, whose value goes far beyond anything that can be measured in dollars or weapons systems.

And yet, somewhere along the way, we Israelis have come to take it for granted, as though American support were a law of nature rather than a relationship that needs to be constantly nurtured and protected.

And who better to entrust with that responsibility than Benjamin Netanyahu, the man who spent decades telling us that nobody understood America, or knew how to manage our relationship with it, better than he did?

The pitch was convincing. He lived and studied in the U.S. He knows the culture, the television studios, the politicians, the donors, the way Washington thinks. Put Bibi in front of an American camera and he doesn’t need a translator, cultural or otherwise. He’s right at home.

Bibi, the America whisperer.

Well, look where we are now.

Support for Israel among Democrats hasn’t just weakened. It has collapsed. And now something even more alarming is happening: Israel is becoming a political liability within the Republican Party, too, including among younger Republicans and the America First movement. The old bipartisan consensus is coming apart before our eyes.

Consider AIPAC. Whatever you thought of its politics, for decades AIPAC was one of the most formidable forces in Washington, sought after in the corridors of power in both parties. Today Democratic candidates run away from its endorsement. In October, the organization announced it would stop directly endorsing candidates and contributing through its political action committee. What a transformation: A political asset has become a toxic liability.

The numbers are brutal. A March 2026 Pew survey found that 80 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents viewed Israel unfavorably. If that were not catastrophic enough, 57 percent of Republicans under 50 felt the same way. And that was before last week’s midterms, before Donald Trump started talking about cutting off military aid to Israel, and then telling “60 Minutes” that a “great dislike for Israel” was a major reason for the GOP defeat, echoing similar comments by Vice President Vance a few days earlier.

With our short political memories, it’s easy to forget the many years of Netanyahu’s political vandalism, needless confrontations and burned bridges that brought us here. Netanyahu didn’t lose America overnight, and he certainly didn’t begin losing it with Donald Trump.

On the Unholy podcast, Jonathan Freedland made the case bluntly: Bibi had taken Israel’s number one strategic asset, its relationship with America, and trashed it. The man who supposedly knew American politics inside out got the big strategic judgment woefully wrong.

How did that happen?

It Didn’t Begin With Trump
Go back to Barack Obama. Netanyahu and Obama disagreed, often profoundly, about the Palestinians, settlements and especially Iran. Fine. Israeli prime ministers have clashed with American presidents before. The question was never whether Netanyahu had the right to disagree ‒ it was what he chose to do with those disagreements.

In 2011, Netanyahu publicly dressed Obama down in the Oval Office over the president’s proposal for negotiations based on the 1967 lines with agreed land swaps. The following year, his conspicuous warmth toward Mitt Romney left the unmistakable impression that Israel’s prime minister was rooting for the Republican candidate against the sitting president.
Then came 2015, when Netanyahu went to Washington at the invitation of Republican House Speaker John Boehner, behind the White House’s back, to address Congress against Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran. Dozens of Democrats boycotted the speech.

Think about it. Israel’s prime minister had effectively joined the American president’s political opponents in a campaign against one of his central foreign policy initiatives. And in the middle of that spectacle, Netanyahu declared, with a straight face, that the U.S.–Israel alliance had always been above politics and must remain there.

It was painful to watch. Netanyahu had stepped over a line that should never, ever be crossed. His critics in Israel even began calling him a “Republikudnik,” accusing him of treating our country as the “Israel branch of the GOP.”

And the really maddening part? Look at what Obama was actually doing for Israel.

The President Israelis Were Taught to Distrust
Obama’s administration poured billions into Iron Dome and other defense systems, including David’s Sling and Arrow. It deepened intelligence and military cooperation, supplied advanced weapons and helped preserve Israel’s military edge. In 2012, Netanyahu himself acknowledged that security cooperation was unprecedented and that Obama had backed his words with deeds. Ehud Barak said much the same.

And in September 2016, Obama committed the United States to $38 billion in military assistance over ten years, including $5 billion for missile defense, a commitment unparalleled in American history.

Yet by the end of his presidency, 57 percent of Jewish Israelis told pollsters that Obama’s attitude toward Israel had been unfriendly. Only 22 percent called it friendly.

Yes, Obama took positions that angered many Israelis, and his refusal to veto the December 2016 UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements didn’t help. But Netanyahu had spent years portraying the president as an adversary rather than a partner with whom he had serious disagreements. His confrontations helped create an Israeli public perception that could look at extraordinary American security support and still see an enemy in the White House.

What a breathtakingly short-sighted and stupid own goal.

What Did Destroying the Iran Deal Actually Achieve?
Iran has been Netanyahu’s lifelong obsession, and it was the issue on which he staked so much of his confrontation with Obama. He regarded the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, as dangerously inadequate. It wasn’t a totally unreasonable position. The agreement had weaknesses, including restrictions that would eventually expire. But it also imposed real limits on Iran’s nuclear activities and provided extensive international monitoring. Netanyahu spent years fighting it, and in 2018 Trump pulled the U.S. out and reimposed sanctions. Netanyahu got what he wanted.

And then? Iran progressively blew past the agreement’s nuclear limits, enriched uranium to levels far beyond those permitted under the deal and restricted monitoring. The confrontation escalated into war.

Netanyahu spent years insisting that Iran’s nuclear threat had to be dealt with by force. Well, we’ve now tried that, too. And look where it has left us.

Iran has suffered enormous military damage, but the regime has survived. Far from breaking its resolve, the war has hardened it, making Tehran more determined than ever to acquire nuclear weapons. And by demonstrating its ability to paralyze shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and strike across the Gulf, Iran has gained new strategic leverage over its neighbors and the global economy. By refusing to capitulate, the regime has turned its very survival into a strategic victory.

And Israel is now paying another enormous price. We are being blamed for dragging Trump into a disastrous, deeply unpopular war. Netanyahu spent years demanding a military solution to the Iranian threat. Well, he’s had his war. And the result? A defiant, emboldened Iranian regime, a more dangerous regional balance of power, and growing resentment toward Israel in the United States.

How exactly has any of this made Israel safer?

All Our Eggs in Trump’s Basket
After Obama came Donald Trump, and suddenly Bibi had a president who gave him much of what he wanted. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the American embassy there. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. His administration brokered the Abraham Accords. Those were real diplomatic achievements, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise.

But Netanyahu’s strategy was no longer merely siding openly with the Republicans. He made his personal relationship with Trump a pillar of his political brand. Remember those gigantic 2019 Likud billboards, Netanyahu and Trump shaking hands under the slogan “Netanyahu, in a league of his own”?

The problem wasn’t simply putting all our eggs in the Republican basket. Netanyahu was putting them in Donald Trump’s basket.

Trump is a man who demands absolute personal loyalty and gives it to nobody. His own interests come first. Always. Everything is a transaction, everything is personal, and yesterday’s favorite can become today’s enemy in a heartbeat. None of this was hidden from Netanyahu. He knew Trump, and he’d already learned what that friendship was worth.
After the 2020 election, Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on his victory. It was the most mundane and obvious gesture imaginable for a foreign leader. Trump took it as a betrayal. Later, speaking to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, he said of Netanyahu: “Fuck him.”

That wasn’t a warning light. It was a flashing red siren. And still Netanyahu went on selling his special relationship with Trump as if it were some reliable national security asset. The ultimate winning card.

And Then There Was Joe Biden
Biden wasn’t merely another Democratic president who supported Israel. He was a lifelong, deeply committed self-described Zionist. His commitment to Israel was political and strategic, certainly, but it was also personal and emotional.

And who can forget October 18, 2023? Just eleven days after the Hamas massacre, when our country was shattered, grieving and frightened, Biden came to Israel in the middle of a war. He embraced Israelis who had suffered unimaginable losses and told us: “You are not alone.” At one of the darkest moments in our history, that visit meant the world to us.

So did the weapons, the military deployments, the diplomatic backing and the American help in defending Israel against Iran’s massive missile and drone attack in April 2024.

And yet Netanyahu managed to turn even this relationship into another public fight. Of course Biden and Netanyahu disagreed over Gaza, Israel’s conduct of the war and how to release the hostages. But in June 2024 Netanyahu chose to accuse the administration publicly, in English, of withholding weapons from Israel. The White House angrily disputed his sweeping allegation, saying almost all military assistance was continuing.

Two Democratic presidents. Two presidents who delivered extraordinary support for Israel’s security. And two relationships Netanyahu chose to turn into bitter public confrontations. The pattern is impossible to miss.

And Now the Republicans, Too
Which brings us to November 2026.

On Election Day, Trump announced that the U.S. would stop providing Israel with nearly $4 billion a year in military aid after 2026. Yes, the very assistance framework Obama had signed ten years earlier. The agreement actually runs through 2028, and stopping it early is not something Trump can simply accomplish with a few words on television. Netanyahu, Trump claimed, had agreed to the change.

But the most shocking part was Trump’s explanation. He talked about aid to Israel as a political burden for Republicans, a “bad talking point.”

“The greatest friend Israel has ever had,” the president whose face Netanyahu plastered across Israeli billboards, was talking about American military aid to Israel as a political liability.

Then the Republicans suffered their midterm defeat. The next day, Vice President JD Vance explained what, according to a pollster he cited, would bring defecting Trump voters back. Among their demands: end the Iran war, put America first and “change our relationship to Israel.”

This is ridiculous. Does anyone seriously believe that U.S.–Israel relations were a major reason Hispanic, Asian American and other demographic groups, whose dramatic shift toward Trump helped define the 2024 election, swung so decisively back toward the Democrats in 2026? Come on. The idea that Israel was a driving force behind this enormous political reversal is absurd. But it makes for a very convenient scapegoat.

For years we’ve watched support for Israel crumble among Democrats. Now the warning is coming from the very political movement Netanyahu embraced as Israel’s salvation. That is the deep significance for Israel of this week’s elections. The Republican Party is no longer a safe harbor we can take for granted.

We have, largely, lost America.

On the aforementioned Unholy podcast, Yonit Levi quoted a seasoned diplomat: “Netanyahu succeeded in uniting America. The Democrats can’t stand him; the Republicans will never forgive him.”

Ten years ago, in September 2016, Barack Obama, the president so many Israelis had been encouraged to distrust and even revile, signed the $38 billion military aid agreement. Ten years later, Donald Trump, Israel’s supposed greatest friend, announced he would end it early because supporting Israel had become politically costly.

For decades Netanyahu sold us the idea that his American experience, his connections and his special access made him uniquely capable of protecting this relationship, and therefore of keeping Israel safe. Instead, he burned bridges with Democratic presidents, tied Israel’s fortunes to Trump and failed to see the danger growing inside the Republican coalition itself.
Netanyahu knew the players. He knew the language. He knew how to get applause in Washington. He was the America Whisperer.

But he got America wrong, and now Israel is paying for it.