Israelis are facing the blowback as Netanyahu plunges Israel deeper into crisis

Israel’s conduct in Gaza increasingly risks turning the state into a pariah.

Whereas world leaders initially rallied around Israel after the October 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas militants, the resulting destruction inside the Palestinian enclave has seen the country ever more isolated on the international stage.

In recent weeks, even long-standing allies such as Germany, the UK and Australia have distanced themselves from the Israeli government, notably by pushing for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

As an Israeli scholar of the Middle East working in the US, I have seen how these international currents are affecting Israel’s standing in the world. And while the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stood defiant and unmoved by the hardening stance against it, the blowback against its citizens is certainly being felt.

Images of starvation

The change in attitude toward Israel has been unfolding since soon after the start of the war. It has been driven by Israeli actions that are increasingly seen as disproportionate and indefensible. But it has reached new heights – or lows – in recent months given the increasingly desperate plight of Palestinians being broadcast around the globe.

Horrifying images of starving children and thousands of people skirmishing for scraps of food in what a UN-backed body has called famine are now regularly reported in media outlets around the world and in the US. Even conservative platforms such as Fox News that until recently were...

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