Judging by a poll released on Friday, hours before explosions began to ring out in Tehran, the future of the US-Israel relationship looked pretty dim. 

For decades, vastly more Americans sympathized with Israel than with the Palestinians. Just eight years ago — with Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in the White House — 64 percent of Americans said their sympathies lay more with the Israelis, versus just 19% with the Palestinians. Israelis commanded the sympathies of most Republicans and independents, and nearly half of Democrats. 

How times have changed. 

The graph of sympathy for Israelis now looks like an Olympic ski slope. The latest figures represent the first time in at least a quarter century that more Americans sided with the Palestinians (41%) than the Israelis (36%). Among Democrats, Palestinians command a huge majority: 65% to 17%. Even among Republicans, where sympathy for Israelis remains high, the gap has narrowed somewhat. 

Then, shortly after the poll went online, came a sign that, in fact, the US-Israel relationship is stronger than ever: US and Israeli planes embarked on an unprecedented joint mission to topple, or at least expedite the demise of, the Iranian regime from the air. 

The US has long backed Israel’s fights against its enemies, but this is different: fighting, together, at a scale that appears unmatched in the history of the alliance, to cut down the chief Middle Eastern adversary of both countries. No daylight. Total lockstep. And now Iran’s supreme leader, and much of the Islamic Republic’s top brass, is dead. 

So which is it? Is the US-Israel relationship going terribly, or is it going great? The answer is both. 

The US-Israel alliance, often termed a “special relationship,” has always operated on two planes: values and........

© The Times of Israel