A widening distance has opened between the United States government's formal allegiance to Israel and the sentiments of the American people, and those tasked with bridging that gap are reaching for explanations. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, speaking from a position of deep theological conviction, has located the source of eroding public support not in documented events but in spiritual and epistemic failure — in propaganda absorbed, scripture unread, and God unacknowledged. The diagnosis reveals as much about the diagnostician as it does about the public, raising the older question of whether
Huckabee attributes Israel support decline to 'biblical illiteracy' amid shifting US opinion
You add all that together, I guess you just want to be mad at Israel
Mark
So Huckabee is saying the problem is that Americans don't know the Bible well enough. Does that hold up?
Mimi
It's one lens. He's arguing that biblical literacy would lead to stronger support for Israel. But the polling shows something more textured—evangelicals do support Israel strongly, at 65 percent, while the general population is at 40 percent favorable. So education or religious knowledge might matter, but it's not the only variable.
Luke
Right, and we should be careful here. Huckabee is offering a diagnosis, but the source doesn't give us evidence that biblical illiteracy is actually driving the shift. It's his interpretation. What we know is that 60 percent of Americans view Israel unfavorably. We don't know why each of those people holds that view.
Mark
The genocide question seems central though. The AP-NORC poll says more Americans believe Israel committed genocide than don't. Doesn't that suggest people have looked at evidence and formed a conclusion?
Mimi
That's the tension. Huckabee says people need to "look at the truth." But a plurality of Americans have looked and concluded genocide occurred. Half don't know enough to say. So the disagreement isn't about access to information—it's about interpretation of the same events.
Luke
And we should note: the source doesn't give us independent verification of whether genocide occurred. It reports that Huckabee says the accusations are false, and it reports that Americans believe they're true. Those are two different things.
Mark
What about Mamdani? Is his election really a sign of shifting American opinion, or is it just New York being New York?
Mimi
It's significant enough that Netanyahu mentioned it at the UN. That suggests Israeli leadership sees it as emblematic of something larger. But one mayoral election in one city isn't proof of a national trend. The polling is the clearer indicator.
Luke
Exactly. Mamdani's election is a concrete political event. The polls are the broader pattern. Both matter, but they're different kinds of evidence. And Mamdani himself has walked back the warrant idea—he said the city doesn't have legal authority. So his actual power to challenge Netanyahu is limited.
Mark
So where does this leave us? Is American support for Israel actually declining, or is it just becoming more complicated?
Mimi
The polling is clear: it's declining. Sixty percent unfavorable is a significant shift from historical levels. But the reasons are contested. Huckabee has one explanation. The people who changed their minds probably have others.
Luke
And Netanyahu's own approval has dropped too. That's worth noting. It's not just Israel as an abstraction—it's also about trust in its leadership.
El Pulso
- Six in ten Americans now view Israel unfavorably, a figure that places the US government's unconditional support increasingly at odds with the people it represents.
- Rather than engaging the documented record of events in Gaza, Ambassador Huckabee frames dissent as a product of ignorance, foreign manipulation, and hostility to religious faith — a rhetorical move that forecloses rather than invites scrutiny.
- A separate AP-NORC poll found more Americans believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza than do not, suggesting the public is drawing conclusions from what it has witnessed, not merely absorbing disinformation.
- The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor — a vocal critic of Israeli policy — alarmed Israeli leadership enough that Netanyahu addressed it directly at the United Nations General Assembly, signaling how seriously the political ground is shifting.
- Netanyahu himself has lost the trust of more than half of Americans on world affairs, a fracture that Huckabee's biblical-literacy framework cannot easily explain away.
A widening distance has opened between the United States government's formal allegiance to Israel and the sentiments of the American people, and those tasked with bridging that gap are reaching for explanations. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, speaking from a position of deep theological conviction, has located the source of eroding public support not in documented events but in spiritual and epistemic failure — in propaganda absorbed, scripture unread, and God unacknowledged. The diagnosis reveals as much about the diagnostician as it does about the public, raising the older question of whether a nation's foreign commitments can long outlast the consent of those who fund and legitimate them.
In April, a Pew Research poll found that six in ten Americans held an unfavorable view of Israel — a number that sits uncomfortably against the US government's sustained commitment to the country. US Ambassador Mike Huckabee recently offered his explanation for the gap. In a television interview, he identified three causes: foreign propaganda and disinformation, cultural hostility toward religious belief, and what he called biblical illiteracy — Americans not knowing scripture well enough to grasp Israel's theological significance. Accusations of genocide and apartheid, he said, were simply false, and better-informed Americans would see things differently.
The polling tells a more layered story. Support for Israel remains strong among white evangelicals — the demographic Huckabee himself represents — at 65 percent. But a separate AP-NORC survey found that more Americans believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza than do not, even as roughly half said they lacked enough information to be certain. The American public, in other words, is not uniformly credulous or uninformed; significant numbers have reached conclusions that directly contradict the ambassador's framing.
The political consequences of this shift are becoming visible. Zohran Mamdani, a prominent critic of Israeli policy, won election as New York City mayor — a development Netanyahu found significant enough to address in his United Nations General Assembly speech, claiming Jewish New Yorkers no longer felt safe. Mamdani, who has spoken against antisemitism, initially pledged to enforce an ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu should he visit the city, before concluding the city lacked the legal authority to do so. His election nonetheless marks the arrival of political figures willing to openly challenge both Israeli conduct and the reflexive American support that has long accompanied it.
Netanyahu's own standing has eroded alongside Israel's: the same Pew poll found a majority of Americans do not trust him to act responsibly in world affairs. Huckabee's explanation — that Americans are spiritually and scripturally unprepared to understand Israel — may reassure those who share his convictions. But it leaves unanswered why trust in Israeli leadership has fractured so broadly, and why the largest American city has chosen a mayor who treats that fracture as a mandate.
In April, a Pew Research poll found that six in ten Americans held an unfavorable view of Israel. That number sits at the center of a widening gap between the United States government's stated commitment to the country and the actual sentiment of the American public—a gap that US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee recently tried to explain away.
In a Thursday interview with NewsNation, Huckabee offered his diagnosis for why support has eroded. He identified three culprits: disinformation and foreign propaganda circulating in American media; a cultural hostility toward people who hold religious beliefs and see God as the source of moral authority; and what he called biblical illiteracy—Americans simply not knowing the scriptures well enough to understand Israel's historical and theological significance. "You add all that together, I guess you just want to be mad at Israel and blame them for everything," he said.
Huckabee went further, characterizing accusations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and that it operates as an apartheid state as outright false. He suggested that if Americans would simply "look at the truth," their views of Israel would improve. The framing is revealing: in Huckabee's account, unfavorable opinion is not a rational response to documented events but rather a failure of knowledge, a susceptibility to lies, or a spiritual emptiness.
The polling data, however, tells a more complicated story. The same Pew survey that found 60 percent of Americans viewing Israel unfavorably also showed that support remains robust among white evangelicals like Huckabee himself, at 65 percent. The divide is not random. A separate AP-NORC poll from July found that more Americans believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza than did not—though roughly half of respondents said they lacked sufficient information to form a judgment. The question of what happened in Gaza, in other words, is not settled in the American mind, and significant numbers of people have reached conclusions that contradict Huckabee's framing.
For Israeli leadership, the shift in American public opinion has begun to carry real political weight. Zohran Mamdani, a prominent critic of Israel, won election as New York City mayor—a development significant enough that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu devoted part of his United Nations General Assembly speech to attacking him. Netanyahu claimed that Jewish residents of New York had told him they no longer feel safe in the city, a statement that carried an implicit accusation: that Mamdani's election represented a threat to Jewish security.
Mamdani has stated his opposition to hatred and bigotry, including antisemitism. He also initially promised to enforce an International Criminal Court warrant for Netanyahu's arrest on war crimes charges should the Israeli leader visit New York. That position shifted when Mamdani concluded the city lacked the legal authority to carry out such an arrest. Still, his election symbolizes something Netanyahu and Huckabee are grappling with: the emergence of political figures willing to openly challenge Israel's actions and, by extension, the reflexive American support that has long accompanied them.
Netanyahu himself has not escaped the erosion of American confidence. The same Pew poll showing majority unfavorable views of Israel also found that more than half of Americans do not trust Netanyahu to do the right thing in matters of world affairs. The ambassador's explanation—that Americans simply lack biblical knowledge and are susceptible to propaganda—may be comforting to those who share his worldview. But it does not account for why trust in Israeli leadership has fractured so visibly, or why voters in America's largest city chose a candidate willing to challenge it.
Citas Notables
Huckabee attributed declining support to disinformation, foreign propaganda, anti-religious sentiment, and lack of biblical knowledge, saying Americans would view Israel more favorably if they would 'look at the truth.'— Mike Huckabee, US Ambassador to Israel
Netanyahu claimed that Jewish residents of New York told him they no longer feel safe in the city, in response to Mamdani's election as mayor.— Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
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