By moving quickly to express support for the U.S. bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear sites, major Jewish groups have broken with the Democratic Party’s leadership and most of the party’s voting base. 

The large organizations of the pro-Israel lobby, including AIPAC and American Jewish Committee, issued statements lauding President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy U.S. bombers and cruise missiles to destroy the nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. AJC’s head, Ted Deutch, thanked “President Trump and the brave US service members” who executed the strikes, and hailed an “historic moment for the United States, Israel and the World.” The Jewish community’s largest communal organization, the Jewish Federations of North America, expressed similarly-worded praise. “We could not be prouder to have the United States join together with the State of Israel in defense of the free world.”  

The Jewish establishment’s support for the U.S. attack on Iran contrasts sharply with statements issued by leading congressional Democrats. “No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as a war with erratic threats and no strategy,” wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “The American public is overwhelmingly opposed to the US waging war on Iran,” wrote Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), while demanding a congressional vote on what he called a “third idiotic Middle East war.” 

In recent weeks, large majorities of Democratic voters have also expressed opposition to U.S. intervention in the Israel-Iran war. Following the U.S. strikes on Saturday evening, a flash survey by YouGov reported that 70% of Democratic voters opposed Trump’s decision to attack the Iranian nuclear sites. In contrast, 68% of Republicans expressed support for the bombing campaign. 

These findings track with surveys by major polling groups showing rising disdain for Israel among Democratic voters. According to a Pew Research Center survey published in April, 69% of Democratic voters hold an unfavorable opinion of Israel, up 16 points compared to 2022. In a Gallup survey published in March, 59% of Democratic voters said they sympathized more with Palestinians compared to 21% who sympathized more with Israelis. The Democratic Party has been the political home of American Jews for nearly a century. In the 2024 presidential election, about two-thirds of American Jews voted for Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The Jewish establishment’s break with the Democratic establishment is sharper than previous episodes. In 2015, most mainstream organizations opposed the JCPOA (the “Iran nuclear deal”) with AIPAC leading the campaign against the accord on Capitol Hill. But several prominent Jewish organizations at the time, including JFNA, refrained from taking a position on the deal, which had been championed by President Barack Obama who had broad support among Jewish voters.  

The broad-based support for Trump’s decision to join the Iran war is also remarkable given the surging fears of antisemitism. Israel launched the war just weeks after the terror attack against hostage solidarity marchers in Boulder, Colo., and following the killing in Washington of Israel Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Last year, according to data from the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic attacks skyrocketed to nearly four times the levels reported a few years ago. For the first time, a majority of reported incidents were related to Israel. 

The Trump administration’s aggressive policies against antisemitism have generated widespread concern about possible backlash. In a survey last month by the Jewish Voter Resource Project, 61% of Jewish respondents said the Trump administration’s policy of arresting and deporting pro-Palestinian activists was likely to increase antisemitism, compared to just 20% who thought the policy would reduce antisemitism. 

These fears will now be amplified by concern that American Jews will be held responsible for a new Middle East war. That scenario is hardly far-fetched given the “horseshoe” consensus between the MAGA right and progressive left that blames the Israel lobby (in some versions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) for the disastrous Iraq War.  

The leaders of American Jewry’s largest organizations have thrown their support behind Trump, despite these palpable fears. We will need to wait for surveys of Jewish public opinion to find out whether the leadership is out of step with the rank and file. More likely, we’ll discover that American Jews are increasingly out of step with the political party they had long called home.  

Ted Sasson is a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University and a professor of Jewish Studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of The New American Zionism.