MOSSAD COMMENTARY OP-ED
1,178 Days: Israel's Awakening Must Begin Now
There are 1,178 days until the next president of the United States takes office.
That countdown should flash like a warning light in every ministry, newsroom, and boardroom in Jerusalem. Because by the time that oath is taken in January 2029, the world Israel depends on will not look the same and America may no longer be the reliable partner it once was.
Donald Trump’s second term has been a pause button, a brief extension of an old order in which U.S. support for Israel was almost reflexive. But beneath the surface, the cultural and political currents are shifting fast. Both the American left and right are walking away, from the idea of America as the West’s moral anchor and, with it, from Israel.
For seventy-five years, Israel symbolized the moral alignment of free nations. That alignment is now fractured.
Among Democrats, sympathy for Israel has fallen to historic lows. On U.S. campuses, “Free Palestine” chants have replaced talk of democracy and human rights. In the 2025 Gallup survey, fewer than half of Democratic voters say they support Israel over the Palestinians; among Americans under 35, the ratio is nearly two-to-one against Israel.
But the surprise comes from the right. The same “America First” movement that once cheered Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem is turning isolationist. Its new heroes, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, see every alliance as a liability. They ask why American tax dollars fund “someone else’s war.” In their populist calculus, Israel is not a sister democracy but a foreign expense.
That convergence, progressive guilt on one side, nationalist fatigue on the other, creates something new: bipartisan indifference.
America has reached a breaking point. After two decades of wars, pandemics, and culture battles, the public has lost the emotional energy to lead.
“Why are we funding wars?” has become a mantra that flattens moral distinctions. It doesn’t hate Israel; it simply refuses to care.
But history punishes indifference. The United States tried isolationism before, after World War I,and the result was World War II. On September 11, 2001, it learned again that ignoring jihadist ideology doesn’t make it disappear. Yet today, a generation too young to remember 9/11 is reposting Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” on TikTok as if it were a philosophy lecture. That viral moment revealed something deeper than ignorance: a moral drift.
When a civilization forgets what it stands for, it begins to sympathize with those who stand against it.
Israel already feels the consequences.
During the 2024–25 war with Hamas and Iranian proxies, commercial flights stopped, shipping routes froze, and weapons deliveries slowed as Congress argued over whether Israel “deserved” defensive munitions. Even Iron Dome replenishment, once automatic, became a partisan vote.
No Western country cut ties; they simply hesitated. But hesitation, in wartime, is abandonment by another name.
The message is unmistakable: Israel must prepare to stand alone.
That is not a slogan; it is a survival plan. Dependence on U.S. supply chains, European trade routes, and moral validation has become a strategic liability. The next war, whether with Hezbollah, Iran, or a coalition of both, may erupt in a world where sympathy is replaced by self-interest.
Many Israelis comfort themselves with the idea that if Democrats drift left, Republicans will step in. But the American system offers no neutral ground. Each party’s base now views foreign policy through a domestic lens, oppression versus nationalism, identity versus sovereignty.
Cont. below
1,178 Days: Israel's Awakening Must Begin Now
There are 1,178 days until the next president of the United States takes office.
That countdown should flash like a warning light in every ministry, newsroom, and boardroom in Jerusalem. Because by the time that oath is taken in January 2029, the world Israel depends on will not look the same and America may no longer be the reliable partner it once was.
Donald Trump’s second term has been a pause button, a brief extension of an old order in which U.S. support for Israel was almost reflexive. But beneath the surface, the cultural and political currents are shifting fast. Both the American left and right are walking away, from the idea of America as the West’s moral anchor and, with it, from Israel.
For seventy-five years, Israel symbolized the moral alignment of free nations. That alignment is now fractured.
Among Democrats, sympathy for Israel has fallen to historic lows. On U.S. campuses, “Free Palestine” chants have replaced talk of democracy and human rights. In the 2025 Gallup survey, fewer than half of Democratic voters say they support Israel over the Palestinians; among Americans under 35, the ratio is nearly two-to-one against Israel.
But the surprise comes from the right. The same “America First” movement that once cheered Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem is turning isolationist. Its new heroes, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, see every alliance as a liability. They ask why American tax dollars fund “someone else’s war.” In their populist calculus, Israel is not a sister democracy but a foreign expense.
That convergence, progressive guilt on one side, nationalist fatigue on the other, creates something new: bipartisan indifference.
America has reached a breaking point. After two decades of wars, pandemics, and culture battles, the public has lost the emotional energy to lead.
“Why are we funding wars?” has become a mantra that flattens moral distinctions. It doesn’t hate Israel; it simply refuses to care.
But history punishes indifference. The United States tried isolationism before, after World War I,and the result was World War II. On September 11, 2001, it learned again that ignoring jihadist ideology doesn’t make it disappear. Yet today, a generation too young to remember 9/11 is reposting Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” on TikTok as if it were a philosophy lecture. That viral moment revealed something deeper than ignorance: a moral drift.
When a civilization forgets what it stands for, it begins to sympathize with those who stand against it.
Israel already feels the consequences.
During the 2024–25 war with Hamas and Iranian proxies, commercial flights stopped, shipping routes froze, and weapons deliveries slowed as Congress argued over whether Israel “deserved” defensive munitions. Even Iron Dome replenishment, once automatic, became a partisan vote.
No Western country cut ties; they simply hesitated. But hesitation, in wartime, is abandonment by another name.
The message is unmistakable: Israel must prepare to stand alone.
That is not a slogan; it is a survival plan. Dependence on U.S. supply chains, European trade routes, and moral validation has become a strategic liability. The next war, whether with Hezbollah, Iran, or a coalition of both, may erupt in a world where sympathy is replaced by self-interest.
Many Israelis comfort themselves with the idea that if Democrats drift left, Republicans will step in. But the American system offers no neutral ground. Each party’s base now views foreign policy through a domestic lens, oppression versus nationalism, identity versus sovereignty.
Cont. below
Even Trump’s would-be successors reflect that fatigue. JD Vance speaks the language of restraint, not conviction. He sees alliances as transactions, not covenants. His version of conservatism is polite isolationism, America as fortress, not lighthouse.
The emotional bond that once joined evangelical America to Zion has weakened. The next Republican may still call Israel an ally but will treat it as an optional one.
The deeper crisis is cultural. Across the West, the vocabulary of moral clarity has eroded. The same societies that once defeated fascism now hesitate to define terrorism. Media outlets describe murderers as “militants.” Universities condemn “Islamophobia” more readily than they condemn jihad. Citizens self-censor because truth has become reputationally expensive.
This corrosion matters because every war Israel fights is also a war of perception. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Tehran understand that the battlefield is only half the fight; the other half is fought in headlines and hashtags. And in that theater, Israel’s enemies are winning, not because their message is true, but because the West no longer believes in truth.
Picture a treadmill. When it’s running, you must move forward to stay upright. Stop, and you’re thrown backward. Western civilization is on that treadmill. Its progress, scientific, moral, and spiritual, depended on motion. But now, weary of controversy, the West has chosen stillness. It wants peace without engagement, security without risk, virtue without confrontation.
That posture is fatal. The threats it refuses to confront will not stay overseas. As 9/11 proved, they board planes. They enter classrooms. They move into the void left by retreat.
If America’s era of guardianship is ending, Israel’s era of self-reliance must begin. That means a revolution in mindset as much as in policy:
• Defense independence: full domestic production of critical weapons and ammunition.
• Economic redundancy: diversified trade routes and local manufacturing to survive isolation.
• Diplomatic depth: strong alliances across Africa, Asia, and Latin America where moral clarity is less fragile.
• Cultural resilience: education and media that articulate why Israel exists, not as apology, but as destiny.
The country must assume that the next U.S. administration, whoever leads it, will be more transactional, more cautious, and less emotionally connected. Planning for that reality is not pessimism; it is maturity.
The battle is larger than one alliance. It is about whether the West still believes in its own story.
Across Europe, mobs intimidate citizens into silence. In American cities, people fear that calling out Islamist extremism will label them bigots. The moral inversion is complete: the civilization that invented free speech now apologizes for using it.
Israel, small but stubborn, stands as a reminder of what the West once admired in itself, clarity, conviction, courage. Yet that mirror is cracking. If Israel does not strengthen itself now, its reflection may vanish entirely from the Western imagination.
The clock is ticking, 1,178 days until the next American president places a hand on the Bible and recites the oath of office.
By then, Israel must be ready to stand on its own feet: militarily, economically, spiritually. The era of automatic alignment is ending. The era of deliberate self-reliance must begin.
This awakening is not rooted in fear but in realism. The United States is changing. The West is changing. And Israel, to survive, must change faster.
A nation that understands its solitude is not weak; it is free.
History’s harshest lesson is that no ally, however loyal, can replace a people that fails to prepare.
The countdown has already begun.
The emotional bond that once joined evangelical America to Zion has weakened. The next Republican may still call Israel an ally but will treat it as an optional one.
The deeper crisis is cultural. Across the West, the vocabulary of moral clarity has eroded. The same societies that once defeated fascism now hesitate to define terrorism. Media outlets describe murderers as “militants.” Universities condemn “Islamophobia” more readily than they condemn jihad. Citizens self-censor because truth has become reputationally expensive.
This corrosion matters because every war Israel fights is also a war of perception. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Tehran understand that the battlefield is only half the fight; the other half is fought in headlines and hashtags. And in that theater, Israel’s enemies are winning, not because their message is true, but because the West no longer believes in truth.
Picture a treadmill. When it’s running, you must move forward to stay upright. Stop, and you’re thrown backward. Western civilization is on that treadmill. Its progress, scientific, moral, and spiritual, depended on motion. But now, weary of controversy, the West has chosen stillness. It wants peace without engagement, security without risk, virtue without confrontation.
That posture is fatal. The threats it refuses to confront will not stay overseas. As 9/11 proved, they board planes. They enter classrooms. They move into the void left by retreat.
If America’s era of guardianship is ending, Israel’s era of self-reliance must begin. That means a revolution in mindset as much as in policy:
• Defense independence: full domestic production of critical weapons and ammunition.
• Economic redundancy: diversified trade routes and local manufacturing to survive isolation.
• Diplomatic depth: strong alliances across Africa, Asia, and Latin America where moral clarity is less fragile.
• Cultural resilience: education and media that articulate why Israel exists, not as apology, but as destiny.
The country must assume that the next U.S. administration, whoever leads it, will be more transactional, more cautious, and less emotionally connected. Planning for that reality is not pessimism; it is maturity.
The battle is larger than one alliance. It is about whether the West still believes in its own story.
Across Europe, mobs intimidate citizens into silence. In American cities, people fear that calling out Islamist extremism will label them bigots. The moral inversion is complete: the civilization that invented free speech now apologizes for using it.
Israel, small but stubborn, stands as a reminder of what the West once admired in itself, clarity, conviction, courage. Yet that mirror is cracking. If Israel does not strengthen itself now, its reflection may vanish entirely from the Western imagination.
The clock is ticking, 1,178 days until the next American president places a hand on the Bible and recites the oath of office.
By then, Israel must be ready to stand on its own feet: militarily, economically, spiritually. The era of automatic alignment is ending. The era of deliberate self-reliance must begin.
This awakening is not rooted in fear but in realism. The United States is changing. The West is changing. And Israel, to survive, must change faster.
A nation that understands its solitude is not weak; it is free.
History’s harshest lesson is that no ally, however loyal, can replace a people that fails to prepare.
The countdown has already begun.
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