Former Israeli PM Bennett says Israel is seen as a 'leper state' in US

Middle East Eye

a day ago

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a lengthy post on X on Tuesday that Israel's reputation in the US is 'in collapse'.
Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022 for the New Right Party, launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right Likud Party, accusing them of turning Israel into 'a leper state'.
Bennet said Netanyahu's government has fanned the flames of the worst antisemitism he has seen in the US and is mismanaging public relations for Israel.
His comments come after spending 10 days in the US, including New York and Washington, DC, among other places.
He said Jews were being 'blamed for America's troubles, especially its economic problems' on both sides of the political spectrum, and that he had never seen such a 'murky wave of antisemitism' in his lifetime, adding that Israel had lost support from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
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He cited members of the Make America Great Again movement distancing themselves from Israel, with the country's friends having 'a hard time defending' it in the face of the ongoing starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
Recent data shows that Bennet's assessment of Israel's reputation in the US is correct.
In a dramatic 10 percentage point drop since a poll from September 2024, only 32 percent of Americans said they support Israel's war on Gaza, new Gallup polling results released recently showed.
As of July 2025, 60 percent of Americans said they disapprove of Israel's military action, and 52 percent said they see Netanyahu in a negative light - a significant shift from a year and a half ago.
Netanyahu has also never been viewed this unfavourably in any of its previous polling stretching back to the 1990s, Gallup said, citing a "continued deterioration in his image".
Propaganda machine
Bennet views Israel's reputational damage as a failure of the propaganda machine in Israel, and not the devastating war in Gaza that has killed over 60,000 Palestinians.
'In my opinion, the government still doesn't understand the magnitude of the disaster, which is why for two years (!!) we haven't had an information centre, no answers, nothing,' he said.
Most Americans do not support Israel's war on Gaza, polling shows Read More »
'Our great friends here are begging us to provide them with information, facts, answers, and we're getting nothing. They don't even know who to call.'
He recommended that the current Israeli government 're-establish a fast and synchronized propaganda headquarters' that he said he established when he was premier of the country, which would function 'quickly, strongly, accurately'.
He added that Israel must 'harness" its friends everywhere to continuously convey to them Israel's point of view.
'Israel needs to tell a new, different story,' he urged. 'Of strength and positive action. It has no chance in the current government that is concerned with its own power, honor, and politics, but not with the good of Israel.'
He also launched an attack on the government's office, saying that people in charge of information in Netanyahu's office were receiving money from Qatar.
In April, two of Netanyahu's aides were arrested as part of an investigation into ties between the Israeli prime minister's office and Qatari officials. The aides were arrested on suspicion of contact with a foreign agent, money laundering, accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust.
'Isn't there a single responsible adult here?!'
Bennett also mentioned the parallels being drawn in public discourse between the Holocaust and Israel's war on Gaza, where almost two million people are facing death from starvation. He said that "antisemites" were 'belittling the memory of the Holocaust' by comparing the two.
He dismissed the accusations as part of a greater defamation campaign against Israel.
'The 'starvation' campaign in Gaza has taken on enormous proportions, and in fact, for most of the American public and various influencers, it is almost a fact,' he lamented.
Bennet also took a swipe at government ministers Amichai Eliyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, and Nissim Vaturri, calling them 'barbaric' and saying they had caused Israel 'unimaginable damage with devastating quotes that will haunt our soldiers in the queue for passports in countries around the world'.
'Do you really think that what you say in interviews in Israel isn't absorbed abroad?!' he said.
'Don't you care that you will bring about the prosecution of our soldiers? To tie our hands in war? To boycott our economy, to science?' he continued, mentioning the threats that holders of Israeli passports with a military background may face at international borders.
'Isn't there a single responsible adult here?!'
Once again, he laid Israel's reputational damage at the feet of propagandists, saying, 'If Netanyahu's propagandists were operating against Israel's enemies *from outside* with a tenth of the skill, speed, and dedication with which they operate, the propaganda machine against their political opponents *inside* Israel, our situation would be incredible'.