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Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel has become associated with “genocide” among American students, warning that the country’s image in the United States has sharply deteriorated.
“For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel, among the American public, Israel has become a negative brand,” Bennett said in a recent interview.
“If you ask an American student, ‘Israel—what comes to mind?’ They say genocide. That’s the situation,” he said.
Drawing a comparison with how countries are commonly associated with symbols, Bennett added: “You say Italy—‘pasta, spaghetti.’ You say Israel—‘baby killers.’”
Bennett rejected that perception, saying: “Obviously, that isn’t true and it isn’t fair, but that is the situation.”
He also blamed part of the shift in public opinion on what he described as Qatar’s influence in the United States.
“Part of this is because we allowed Qatar to operate and build influence for 25 years,” Bennett said.
The remarks come as Israel faces growing international criticism over its war on Gaza and the worsening humanitarian situation in the enclave.
A U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect in the Gaza Strip last October.
Since then, repeated Israeli truce violations have killed more than 1,300 Palestinians across the enclave and left more than 4,300 others injured.
Hundreds of bodies of slain Palestinians have also been pulled from under the rubble of destroyed infrastructure.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its genocidal war on the coastal strip in October 2023.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also been wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
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