Rep. Brad Sherman, one of Israel's most steadfast Democratic allies in Congress, issued a stark warning to Israel over the weekend. He said shifting American public opinion puts at risk far more than U.S. military aid.
"Every Israeli official and every Israeli voter should watch this clip, which should be translated into Hebrew," Sherman wrote on X, sharing a CNN segment on American attitudes toward Israel. "Yesterday I spoke with the Israeli ambassador. I don't think he, or most Israelis, understand what is at stake."
Sherman argued that the stakes go beyond the annual aid package. "It's not just $3.8 billion of traditional annual aid," he wrote. "It's access to US weapons and diplomatic support."
The California Democrat also criticized the Israeli government directly. He said Israel has failed to invest adequately in its Foreign Ministry and its standing abroad, and he raised settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He singled out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
"Ben-Gvir in the cabinet is an existential threat. Israel cannot survive with no friends in the world," Sherman said.
This is not the first time Sherman has targeted Ben-Gvir. Ahead of Israel's 2022 election, he urged Israeli political leaders to ostracize politicians he described as extremists, and warned that they could damage U.S.-Israel ties.
A 67-point swing
The CNN segment Sherman shared first aired in July. In it, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten presented aggregate polling showing that Israel's average net favorability among Americans had fallen from +51 points in 2018, during President Donald Trump's first term, to -16 points today.
Israel's net favorability was negative in each of the four recent national polls Enten cited: -10 in Ipsos, -11 in Fox News, -20 in the Marquette University Law School poll, and -23 in Pew Research Center findings.
Enten also cited a Washington Post/Ipsos poll in which 55% of Americans supported reducing or ending military assistance to Israel. He argued the shift now extends beyond the Democratic base. "We're not just talking about the Democratic base anymore. We're talking about the general electorate as well," he said.
Among Democrats alone, the drop has been steeper. A separate CNN analysis found Israel's net favorability among Democratic voters fell from +35 in 2018 to -51 in 2026.
Sherman's warning comes weeks before Israel's October 27 Knesset elections. Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party submitted its candidate list to the Central Elections Committee earlier this month.
