Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/MAGA Is Turning Against Israel
By Andrew Stanton
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MAGA leaders like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon are ramping up critiques of the Israeli government, breaking from decades-long Republican support of the U.S. ally.
Newsweek reached out to Greene and Bannon for comment via email.
Why It Matters
U.S. support for Israel has been a cornerstone of GOP foreign policy for decades, but the relationship between U.S. and Israel is under increasing pressure amid its military operation in Gaza.
Read More on Politics
On October 7, 2023, Hamas led an attack against Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 251. Israel has said 58 hostages remain in Gaza, and that only 21 of them are believed to be alive. Israel has since launched an offensive on Gaza, killing more than 60,000 people, according to The Associated Press, citing Gaza's Health Ministry. Critics have sounded the alarm on Israel's military operation, raising concerns about the number of civilians killed or displaced.
While many Republicans remain supportive of Israel, the anti-intervention wing of the party has become increasingly skeptical about conditions in Gaza and concerns about whether U.S. aid to Israel is really benefiting Americans or its interests abroad. Israel is becoming a new dividing line among Republicans, with some allies close to President Donald Trump breaking with the party's longtime approach.
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What To Know
Greene, a Georgia conservative and close Trump ally in the House, this week became the first Republican elected official to refer to Israel's actions in Gaza as a "genocide."
"It's the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza," Greene wrote on X.
Earlier in July, she also introduced an amendment to pull funding from Israel's missile defense system, though it failed with only six members of Congress voting in favor.
Conservatives like Greene have raised concerns about whether military aid for Israel and other countries abroad is in line with the "America First" foreign policy embraced by some on the right. They have suggested that funding could instead be spent at home to tackle issues like the national debt or border security.
Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, has raised similar concerns about Israel. In remarks to Politico on Tuesday, he predicted that support for Israel could become more tenuous after Trump voiced concerns about reports of civilian starvation in Gaza.
"Now President Trump's public repudiation of one of the central tenets of [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi's [Netanyahu's] Gaza strategy—'starving' Palestinians—will only hasten a collapse of support," Bannon said.
Bannon in June said that he supports Israel as a sovereign nation but said that it should not "make decisions based on the assumption that America is going to come in, not just for defense, but for offense."
"We have to make decisions to put America first. This has to be thought through," he said.
Tucker Carlson, a popular conservative commentator and former Fox News host, has criticized Israel's tactics.
"They're not allowed to use my tax dollars to bomb churches," he said in a recent conversation with Ana Kasparian, co-host of The Young Turks. "I'll put up with a lot of stuff, but I don't understand how any Christian leader in the United States can sit by and not say something about that."
Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly warned that Israel is "losing its standing with the rest of the world" during an interview with Piers Morgan this week, adding that she remains skeptical that photographs out of Gaza could be manipulated by Hamas.
"Israel, whether it realizes or not, has made itself the villain of the world in letting this thing go on so long. They have lost support among its dearest friends," she said. "Even the entire Democrat Party here in the United States has turned against them, and they're losing Republicans by the day here in America, which is their most important ally."
She said that she does not believe Israel's response to October 7 needs to be "proportionate," but that it is time to "wrap it up."
The shift in rhetoric on Israel could be because Republicans are "reading the tea leaves in terms of public opinion" on the conflict, Costas Panagopoulos, a political scientist at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.
"I think part of what might be happening is that these legislators are getting pressure from constituencies about what's going on in Gaza and to hold Israel in account," he said, adding that some long-held support for Israel could be "fraying" amid more reports of humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Republicans have long held generally pro-Israel views on the basis of religious connections but also because of Israel's history of electing center-right or conservative governments, Panagopoulos said.
Chandler James, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon, told Newsweek that many of these Republicans have distinguished between support for Israel as a state versus their concerns about what its government is doing in Gaza.
Republicans may be more inclined to voice their criticisms of Israel now because there is a "different pressure among Republicans to solve this issue" now that there is not a Democrat in the White House, he said.
"The justification for the excessive use of force that Israel has applied and its tactics within Gaza—the pretense, the justification for that is declining," he said. "It's been a longer amount of time, and there's increasing suffering, so I think that a lot of people are just like, 'Something needs to be done.'"
If the GOP base continues to turn on Israel, that could cause some changes in the Trump administration's approach to the conflict, as the president is "sensitive to public opinion," James said.
Trump could apply more pressure on Israel to improve conditions in Gaza, James said. However, he is doubtful there would be more "radical changes" in the administration, given Trump's long-standing support for Israel.
Israel's American Support Dwindles In Polling
Recent polls suggest that American support for Israel has fallen amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. A new Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Israel's actions in Gaza.
However, it found that Republican support for Israel's actions has increased to 71 percent, compared to 66 percent in September 2024. It surveyed 1,002 adults from July 7-21 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year found that negative views of Israel have risen across the board. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they viewed Israel unfavorably, up from 42 percent in 2022.
Among Republicans, only 37 percent had negative views of Israel, though it marked an increase from 27 percent in 2022.
The poll also found an age gap among Republican support for Israel. Among Republicans younger than 50 years old, 50 percent viewed Israel negatively, while only 23 percent of Republicans older than 50 views it negatively.
It surveyed 3,605 adults from March 24-30.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, addressing starvation concerns in Gaza in remarks to reporters this week: "I see it, and you can't fake that."
Vice President JD Vance told NBC News: "We've also got to make sure that Hamas gets the hell out of Gaza and lets the food come into that terrible, terrible situation—because I don't know if you've all seen these images, you've got some really, really heartbreaking cases. You've got little kids who are clearly starving to death. Israel's got to do more to let that aid in, and we've also got to wage war on Hamas so that those folks stop preventing food from coming into this territory."
What Happens Next
The extent to which the growing backlash over Gaza affects the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is yet to be seen, but the administration may continue facing pressure from its base over the issue.
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