When Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that "mistakes were made in the past" and "Israel's bipartisan standing was hurt," what he really meant was that it was Netanyahu who had alienated the Democrats.
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While there is no such thing as a flawless leader, what Lapid does not understand is that the alienation is the result of a change within the Democratic Party that is beyond our control.
In the 1990s, only 15% of Democratic voters defined themselves as "liberals." By 2021, that number has risen to more than 50%. In the past, Jewish voters had a much bigger say in the election, because the party did not have such a strong pro-Palestinian view as it does now.
The Democratic outlook on many matters has shifted significantly. In some cases, it became the exact opposite. A decade ago, Democrats supported the police and considered the crime control in the 1990s, including recruiting more than 100,000 police officers, a great success. By 2021, it no longer supports law enforcement and is calling on reducing its budget.
Its views flipped in a similar way when it comes to abortion, racism, illegal immigration, and the values of family and parenting.
The Democratic Party is regressing, and its hostile approach to Israel is only a part of it. A decade ago, Democrats considered the US-Israel relations 'special' and viewed the Jewish state as a key ally in the Middle East. They supported the two-state solution because it was perceived as beneficial to Israel, whereas now they consider it an undisputed Palestinian right.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who used to say that he was a "protector of Israel," no longer expresses his stance just as firmly. He was very skeptical of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and was critical of former President Barack Obama when he pressured Jerusalem into political concessions.
In 2009, he refused to appear at J Street, an organization that works hard to besmirch the Jewish state, and spoke out against those who compared Israel to Hamas.
By 2015, however, he did not use his influence to oppose the Iranian nuclear deal, and a year later, he supported an antisemitic candidate to be the Democratic Party's director-general. In 2020, he even appeared at J Street, and finally, in 2021, he did not stand by Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls in the Gaza Strip.
The Democratic Party has changed, and it is not easy for us to accept it. And it's not that the situation cannot be fixed. It can. The problem is that for the sake of this fix, the new government might sacrifice some of Israel's most vital interests.
