From: MK O'Sullivan, Victoria Street, Allerton Bywater, Castleford.

For many decades American support for Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces has been almost universal, but now it seems that opposing views are coming out and loudly too.

Chris Van Hollen, a Senator from Maryland, wrote recently in The New York Times 'The American people do not want to be complicit in ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, or what human rights organisations have determined to be genocide in Gaza'.

Strong words and true. Illinois state governor J B. Pritzker, whose Jewish family owns the Hyatt hotel chain, and former Jewish mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, have distanced themselves from the actions of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike at Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. PIC: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

placeholder image — Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike at Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. PIC: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

In April, 40 of 47 Democratic party senators backed a call from Senator Bernie Sanders to block the transfer of military bulldozers to Israel, like those used to flatten towns in Gaza and in Lebanon.

In April, a Pew Research Centre poll found that 6 in 10 Americans hold an adverse opinion on Israel. Among voters under 50 opposition to Israeli actions in the Democratic Party stood at 84 per cent and with Republicans it was 57 per cent.

In the US there is a movement Aipac (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) strongly resistant to any slackening in American support for Israel, funding or weapons. In 2024 Aipac meddled in US politics, boasting that 98 per cent of candidates they backed won election seats.

Thirty or forty years ago you could not say the word Palestine in Columbia University, it was toxic. Now the words Israel and Aipac are toxic. Rashid Khalid Emeritus professor of history has said this.

The Israeli government claims the Israeli Defence Forces is 'the most moral army in the world’. Listen to what three ministers in the Netanyahu government cabinet say on Gaza and the West Bank, I refer to Israel Katz Defence Minister and to Itamer Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, they make it clear, as clear can be, that they want expulsion of Palestinians by force if necessary.

With evidence that support for the atrocities of the IDF in America is falling, it is so depressing that in the Conservative party there seems to be a Trappist vow of silence. In the Daily Telegraph whenever this issue comes up there is almost total support for the Israeli government and IDF in comments from readers.