Israel’s war on Gaza, which soon enters its sixth month, has done untold damage to the enclave and its people, more than 32,000 of whom have been killed and millions of whom have been displaced. But the damage also extends to Israel’s global reputation—one that its closest allies fear could become permanent.
Such, at least, was the conclusion of the Biden administration, which in a recent State Department memo obtained by NPR warned that Israelis are “facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation” as a result of its military’s conduct in Gaza—comments that echoed Biden’s December warning that Israel was losing support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of the Strip.
There is very little that Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree on. But the former President (and presumptive Republican presidential nominee) expressed similar concerns in a recent interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, during which he warned that Israel is “losing a lot of support” over its handling of the war in Gaza. “I think Israel made a very big mistake,” Trump said, adding that the images of bombardment coming out of the Strip create “a very bad picture for the world.”
These kinds of concerns have been voiced ad nauseum by analysts and observers for months. That they are now being echoed by past and present—and, depending on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November, future—leaders of Israel’s most important ally, each of whom has staunchly defended the country’s right to retaliate against Hamas over the group’s Oct. 7 massacre, suggests that the tide of public opinion is turning faster than perhaps they or their Israeli counterparts anticipated.
Read More: ‘It’s Not Just a One-Off Incident:’ What the World Central Kitchen Deaths Reveal
There were signs. The chasm between Israel’s western allies and the rest of the world became apparent in the early months of the war, during which time Israel’s net favorability in places such as Brazil, China, Mexico, and South Africa flipped from positive to negative, according to survey data by the decision intelligence company Morning Consult. In countries that already held net negative views of Israel, such as Japan, South Korea, and the U.K., perceptions declined even further. By December, the U.S. was the only major developed market in which public sentiment toward Israel remained solidly positive.
This chasm has been perhaps most apparent at the U.N., where multiple ceasefire resolutions put forward by Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Algeria and backed by most other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (barring the U.K., which mostly abstained) were repeatedly quashed by the U.S., citing insufficient language condemning Hamas or demanding the simultaneous release of Israeli hostages. When the U.S. put forward its own ceasefire resolution last month, Russia and China were the ones to veto it, along with Algeria. A breakthrough finally came on Mar. 25, when a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages was passed with a sole U.S. abstention. While U.N. Security Council resolutions are legally binding (Washington claims otherwise in this case), it has yet to be enforced.
But as the war has ground on, and as increasingly dire reports of death, destruction, and man-made famine have made their way out of the Strip, even countries where support for Israel’s military offensive has been highest now appears to be diminishing. According to a March survey by the pollster Gallup, American support for Israel’s war in Gaza has flipped from a narrow majority in favor (50% approved and 45% disapproved in November) to a majority against (36% approve and 55% disapprove in March). While disapproval is highest among Democrats, Republicans and Independents also saw declines in support.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a leading Democratic lawmaker on the Senate Foreign Relations…
This article was originally published by a time.com . Read the Original article here. .