60% of American Jews in new poll hope Netanyahu is voted out
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to take the UN General Assembly stage on Thursday amid what the Guardian described as growing isolation during his decades-long political career, with three ongoing conflicts, international sanctions pressure, and a sharp drop in American public support all weighing on the visit. The trip is expected to last under 24 hours, and Netanyahu’s delegation failed to secure a meeting with President Donald Trump during the stay, according to a Trump administration official.
Netanyahu arrives in New York facing active conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and a growing campaign of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. The Guardian reported that he faces his toughest re-election challenge in a political career spanning decades. Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said “Netanyahu is coming to New York amid a political environment that has made it crystal clear that he is not welcome here.” She described a “mainstreaming” of public opinion in which “Americans do not want to be supporting Israel’s genocide. We do not want to be supporting Israel’s apartheid. We do not want to be arming Israel or supporting Israel.”
The international response has hardened in recent weeks. The United Kingdom, France and Canada are planning to sanction Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has accused Israeli settlers of committing ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities. Senate Democrats are introducing a bill Wednesday to sanction facilitators of new settlement construction, and Senator Chris Coons, a co-sponsor, said in a statement that “as Palestinian civilians face a campaign of devastation and fear from violent extremist settlers, the United States must send a strong message that this behaviour is unacceptable.”
American public opinion has shifted alongside the diplomatic pressure. A Pew Research poll in July found 62% of respondents hold a negative opinion of Netanyahu’s government, and a separate poll released this week shows 60% of American Jews hope he is voted out in Israel’s October elections. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, attributed the polling shift to a “wave of misinformation” rather than policy choices, and said in a telephone interview before the speech that Netanyahu would use the address to “highlight Israel’s achievements” and lay out “what still should be done, and how should we verify that we actually achieve the goals of the war?”
The White House and US policymakers will be listening as they calibrate their message to voters — and to the backlash of public anger — ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, the Guardian reported.
On New York’s streets, multiple protests are planned for Thursday, including a march from Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan to the UN headquarters in Turtle Bay organized to “reject war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocidal Zionist project.” Already on Wednesday, members of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter rallied at John F. Kennedy International Airport to protest weapons and explosive materials destined for the Israeli military being shipped on commercial aircraft. Aber Kawas, who in November is slated to become the first Palestinian-American elected official in New York state, told reporters: “Thousands of people are against his presence in our city,” adding that “the fact that he is coming shows he continues to have a sense of entitlement to be centred on the world stage while being the head architect of a genocide.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who earlier promised to arrest Netanyahu as a war criminal, has tempered that pledge, telling demonstrators this week he would protect their “right to [protest] in this city.”
Palestinian representatives have called on diplomatic missions to bring staff for a planned walkout of Netanyahu’s speech “to send a clear message to Netanyahu and his government that no one is willing to aid, abet, or be complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation, which all peace-loving states and peoples demand must come to an end.”
Danon defended the Netanyahu government’s record in a telephone interview before the speech. “We are aware of the fact that we had a very challenging three years since October 7,” Danon said. “We accomplished a lot, but we were criticised. We were under the spotlight, and for us, I think, we are proud of our achievements.” He added: “At the same time, we will work harder to improve the image of Israel, and we know there’s a campaign against us.”
Trump and top US officials are not expected to meet with Netanyahu during the visit. Trump will be in Washington to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and Netanyahu has cited Israel’s electoral campaign and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot as his reason to return home quickly after the speech. There are also no plans to meet congressional leaders, Danon said.
The absence of high-level US meetings underscores a broader cooling in the bilateral relationship. Vice President JD Vance and leading Democratic presidential contenders have criticized Netanyahu, raising the prospect that Israel could face a 2028 campaign with two candidates who no longer support arms sales to Israel or the broad diplomatic support it has historically enjoyed. Miller said fractures are visible “even within the Maga base,” with “more and more people who don’t really want to be sending our tax dollars to support the Israeli government.”
Multiple flashpoints have drawn anger from both US political parties as well as the international community, the Guardian reported: dire humanitarian concerns and the lack of reconstruction in Gaza, the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and continued conflicts in Lebanon and Iran, where the US has found itself mired in a conflict that has driven up global energy prices.
Israel is in the midst of a $2.8 billion (£2.1 billion) US arms sale, which critics have characterized as a signal that Israel is preparing to resume its offensive in Gaza. Asked about the sale, Danon said Israel “hopes that we will see [Hamas’s] disarmament without our involvement,” nodding to efforts by the Trump-backed Board of Peace. But he said Israel “will do it ourselves” if that does not change, adding: “We can not leave it forever like that.”
On the West Bank, Danon said Israel would not be swayed by recent UK-led criticism of plans to expand settlements including E1, a planned construction that would sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. “I think that we are still sharing the same values, and that’s why I’m sure that we will continue to have the support from the US,” Danon said.
Miller said Netanyahu is using the speech “to demonstrate to the Israeli populace that he still maintains some level of control over the situation,” and that he is “trying to speak to a rightwing audience and a Trump-Maga audience in this country to try to rile up the hatred and Islamophobia.”