NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot for Israel’s national election, yet he’s a dominant
factor for many American Jews as they assess the high stakes of Tuesday’s balloting.
At its core, the election is a judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has won the post four
times but now faces corruption charges. In his battle for political survival, Netanyahu has aligned
closely with Trump — a troubling tactic for the roughly 75% of American Jewish voters who lean
Democratic.
"The world has come to understand that Netanyahu is essentially the political twin of Donald
Trump," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal pro-Israel group J Street. "Unlike his
previous elections, there is a much deeper antagonism toward Netanyahu because of that close affiliation
between him and Trump and the Republican Party."
Netanyahu featured Trump in a recent campaign video, while Trump has made a series of policy moves viewed
as strengthening Netanyahu in the eyes of Israeli voters, including relocating the U.S. Embassy to
Jerusalem, withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and officially recognizing the Golan Heights as
Israeli territory.
"It’s troubling," said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of
America. "The U.S.-Israel relationship should not be about any two leaders or any two parties. The
American Jewish community wants the relationship to remain on a bipartisan basis."
Though it leans Democratic overall, the American Jewish community — numbering 5.5 million to 6 million —
is not monolithic. Most older Jews remain supportive of Israel’s current Middle East policies, as does
the roughly 10% of the Jewish population that is Orthodox. Jewish billionaire casino mogul Sheldon
Adelson has been a staunch financial supporter of Trump and the GOP.
Trump extended his personal thanks to Adelson on Saturday in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition
in Las Vegas. The president also boasted extensively about his Israel-related policy moves.
"Unlike other presidents, I keep my promises," he said, referring to the embassy relocation.

Trump mentioned Netanyahu only briefly in his speech, predicting the election would be close and
describing both the prime minister and his main challenger, former army chief of staff Benny Gantz, as
"good people."
Divisions among U.S. Jews have been exacerbated by recent allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the
Democrats’ two Muslim congresswomen — Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Seizing on the controversy, Trump
tweeted his support for a purported "Jexodus" movement that would encourage Jews to leave the
Democratic Party.
"Republicans are waiting with open arms," Trump tweeted on March 15.
Morton Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, predicts such an exodus will
take place because of the Democrats’ decision to avoid explicit condemnation of the congresswomen.
Ben-Ami scoffed at the notion, suggesting that Jexodus was a fantasy of pro-Trump operatives.
"I’ve yet to meet an actual Obama/Clinton voter who’s said publicly they’re switching to vote for
Donald Trump," he said. "This is not real. It’s completely made up."
New York-based journalist Jane Eisner, former editor of The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, said many
American Jews have "Netanyahu fatigue" — even some who supported him in past.
Among liberal Jews, Eisner said, there are strong worries that Netanyahu will push Israel’s government
even further to the right if he wins, perhaps moving to annex some land in the occupied West Bank with
confidence that the Trump administration will not object.
Morton Klein conceded that some Jews have grown weary of Netanyahu, but predicted he would prevail.
"People would be nervous if he’s not there," Klein said.
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress, said any surge in Netanyahu fatigue should not be
interpreted as a weakening of American Jews’ support for Israeli.
"There is a sense of fatigue having one leader for 10 years," Rosen said. "Just as we’ve
had Clinton fatigue and Bush fatigue."
Among liberal and centrist American Jews, dismay with Netanyahu extends beyond his alliance with Trump.
Some say he’s been too harsh in his treatment of migrants, and they bemoan his backtracking on a promise
to allow mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall. Perhaps most disturbing has been Netanyahu’s alliance
with an ultranationalist political party linked to a movement previously banned for anti-Arab racism and
incitement.
That political alliance was assailed as "repugnant" by Eric Yoffie, a rabbi from Westfield, New
Jersey, in a March 27 op-ed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Yoffie also decried Netanyahu’s
"excessive enthusiasm" for Trump.
"Cordial relations are essential," wrote Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform
Judaism. "But the sycophantic buddy movie that Bibi has produced with America’s unbalanced and
unpredictable president is something else altogether … Bibi’s egregious and unnecessary embrace of
everything Trump will cost Israel dearly."
In Israel, a prevalent view, at least in pro-Netanyahu ranks, is that the prime minister’s friendship
with Trump is paying unprecedented dividends. There is widespread sentiment that liberal American Jews,
as a constituency, are dissipating due to intermarriage, and that the evangelical Christian community in
the U.S. is a more dependable ally for Israel.
At last year’s ceremony in Jerusalem celebrating the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv,
evangelical Christian pastors allied with Trump delivered the opening and closing blessings.
Netanyahu’s main challenger in the election is popular in Israel but has a relatively low profile in the
United States. American Jews who dislike Netanyahu view Gantz as preferable, due in part to a less
combative personality, but liberals note with frustration that the platform of Gantz’s Blue and White
party makes no mention of Palestinian statehood, and says that Israel will maintain control of parts of
the West Bank.
Emily Mayer of IfNotNow, a group of youthful American Jewish activists opposed to Israel’s treatment of
Palestinians, is dismayed at how that issue has been marginalized in the Israeli election campaign.
"Regardless of the winner, the utter erasure of Palestinian humanity from this election cycle and
the normalization of an undemocratic and immoral military occupation should alarm any Jew who cares
about freedom and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians," Mayer said in an email.
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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.