Shift in Public Opinion Towards Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza?

I have noticed something in my discussion with neighbors and friends about how they are reacting to the news about Gaza. It’s anecdotal but still, I believe it’s a trend and it corresponds to growing public opinion polls showing greater sympathy for the Palestinians, more critical stances towards Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the continued erosion of what has been called the “Zionist Narrative”.

That this has not been translated into national policy (U.S. demanding Israel end the genocide, stop arming, financing and political supporting Israel) is due to the Trump Administration’s total support for the crimes that Israel, in the end no more than a U.S. proxy, is commiting in Gaza.

With a number of people I am in contact with socially – if the question of the genocide taking place in Gaza was mentioned – and most of the time it has been Nancy or myself that has had to raise it if it has been raised at all – the discussion ALWAYS centered around the role of Hamas on October 7. But in the past few days, something has shifted on 3 completely unrelated occasions. Now it is our friends that our friends, contacts that initiate the discusisons… and with NO MENTION OF HAMAS – or if there is, it has lost much of its emotional appeal; instead, in reference to the killing fields in Gaza, it is “Why is Israel killing women and children in Gaza?” “How is that human beings do such horrible things?” This indicates a complete shift in tone, and in emotional solidarity suggesting that after 600,000 deaths (read murders), the myth of Israeli victimhood is eroding as the mainstream media, ever so gingerly, reveals the horrors of Gaza.

I note this at a moment when
1. the United Nations – still, even if not respected in this country very much – is still the world’s conscience and the standard of international law. It has come out with a General Assembly report defining what Israel is doing in Gaza as genocide.

2. A few – admittedly a precious few – members of Congress are taking an openly critical stance on U.S.’s greenlighting the Gaza genocide. I am hearing reports that many members of Congress are privately abhorred by Israeli’s slaughter in Gaza, that they “wish they could say so publicly” (but f-ing cowards can’t)

3. A number of European countries – and others – including U.S. allies are talking about recognizing the state of Palestine

4. Here in Colorado a number of liberal Zionists are having growing angst about Gaza and expressing it publicly

5. The worn argument that “Israel has a right to defend itself” is wearing thin.

Support, admiration for Israel globally is at a longtime low, so much so that Netanyahu has had to admit as much, noting that Israel has go into a “Sparta mode” … meaning it is increasingly isolated worldwide

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