Last month, as demonstrations across Israel convulsed politics in the Jewish state, Jewish Democrats in the House who have made up the bulwark of Israel’s support on their side of the aisle met privately with the country’s ambassador.
Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, a self-described progressive, was particularly blunt.
In meetings with liberal groups on and off Capitol Hill, where support for Israel has grown more tenuous by the month, he had always fallen back on what he called the shared democratic values of Israel and the United States, Mr. Cicilline told the ambassador, Michael Herzog.
But the new far-right government in Jerusalem, with its efforts to undermine Israel’s independent judiciary and its inclusion of extremist politicians, was making even that plea “much, much more difficult,” Mr. Cicilline recounted in an interview.
In the ensuing weeks, the strains between Israel and the Democratic Party, and particularly an American Jewish community that remains predominantly liberal, have only grown worse.