The close relationship between the U.S. and Israel has become foreboding for both nations.

That’s evident in a Pew Research Center poll, a month into President Donald Trump’s unprovoked war in alliance with Israel, which has led to an alarming shift in U.S. public opinion.

Sixty percent of U.S. adults view Israel unfavorably, compared to 53% last year. Almost as many have no confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Eight in 10 Democrats and independents now disapprove of Israel, leaving Republicans, Jewish Americans and white evangelical Protestants as the only blocs still in support.

Republicans under age 50 disfavor Israel by 57%, compared to 50% last year.

Antisemitism on the rise

These trends don’t just portend Israel’s strongest ally eventually turning hostile. They also embody an upsurge in antisemitism in the U.S. The Pew poll didn’t factor that in, but it is well documented elsewhere.

Florida’s campaign for governor is infected. James Fishback, who conspicuously lacks any qualifications or accomplishments, wages an openly antisemitic campaign. He’s polling as well among Republicans as the lieutenant governor and better than a former Speaker of the Florida House.

This can’t be said enough: There are legitimate reasons having nothing to do with antisemitism to object to Israel’s conduct.

As in Gaza, the recent bombing of Lebanon has been indiscriminate, with unforgivable civilian casualties. Its creeping annexation of the West Bank is a massive affront to human rights.

The Knesset recently legalized the death penalty for Arabs who murder Jews, but not for the hoodlum Israeli settlers who have been killing West Bank residents to seize their land.

Even among Jews in America, the Pew poll found lukewarm 64% approval of Israel.

How war became inevitable

Yet Netanyahu shows no concern for how Israel’s excesses are fueling antisemitism in what has been Israel’s only dependable ally.

He counts on U.S. support for his warfare with heavy ordnance in Gaza and Lebanon, American forces in Iran and a reliable UN veto. The one nation that could restrain his worst impulses — us — enables them instead.

As for the U.S., the origin of the current war was in Trump’s calamitous decision in his first term to scrap the international pact that had restrained Iran’s nuclear program and provided for regular inspections.

As Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a foreign policy expert, remarked, “If you make diplomacy impossible, you make war inevitable.”

It’s widely assumed that Trump blew up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action because of his contempt for former President Barack Obama, who negotiated it. That was likely a motive, but it’s also a fact that Netanyahu wheedled him to do it. Netanyahu had opposed the deal from the outset.

It’s bad for the world if Iran builds a nuclear weapon, but Netanyahu’s designs appear to go further. He seems to want to eliminate conventional warmaking power that Iran has flaunted with surrogates in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.

The regime change fantasy

Netanyahu tempted Trump with fantastical visions of regime change in Iran if our two nations could just do enough damage there. That’s no way to win hearts and minds, and besides, it is failing.

Iran’s ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guards have dug in deeper and show surprising power to hold major enemies at bay. They learned the lesson of Vietnam, which is that the weaker power doesn’t need to win a war. It prevails simply by not losing it.

The liberal Jewish organization J Street deplored Iran’s behavior, but emphasized there was no imminent threat to justify a preventive assault. It went on to warn of lasting consequences to the U.S. from hubris by Trump.

“He could have pursued a more vigorous diplomatic strategy aimed at preventing further progress on Iran’s nuclear program through realistic proposals rather than absolutist positions that were bound to be rejected,” J Street said. “Instead, he is intoxicated with military power — launching strikes impulsively and boxing himself and the United States into a choice between total capitulation from Iran or major military conflict.”

Congress failed again to rein in Trump and his fanatic religious warrior at the Pentagon, but there’s a fast-approaching automatic deadline of May 1.

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires presidents to withdraw after 60 days from any fighting that Congress has not authorized. The president could obtain a 30-day extension, but he would have to comply or continue a clearly illegal war that benefits neither the U.S. nor Israel.

A record 36 Senate Democrats voted against selling more 1,000-pound bombs to Israel and 40 of 47 opposed selling bulldozers that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said could be used to demolish Palestinian homes. Sanders and four others who opposed the bombs are Jewish.

“The people of Israel, like all people throughout the region, deserve long-term security and peace,” said Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. “But being pro-Israel today is not about simply supporting the political or military agenda of Prime Minister Netanyahu, just like being pro-American should not be equated with loyalty to President Trump.”

She spoke the truth.

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