With the apparently semi-catastrophic end of the Iran war having arrived, people are once again writing Benjamin Netanyahu’s political obituary, including, I must admit, myself. Whether we are right or wrong remains to be seen, given that the Israeli prime minister is a genius politician and should never be counted out until he is out. Nonetheless, his electoral prospects are, for the moment, not promising.

If Netanyahu does fall, however, there is no doubt as to what the reaction will be. There will be much lamentation among those who compose his base—who are fiercely loyal to the man—and just as much rejoicing among his detractors, including, perhaps, the majority of American Jews.

There are numerous reasons people dislike Netanyahu, and just as many hopes for what may follow him. Putting all these considerations aside, however, there is one question that stands out: Will Netanyahu’s fall raise support for Israel internationally, and especially, in the United States?

This is not an idle question. There can be no doubt that Israel’s international support is at a low point, if not its nadir. Global support is not necessarily particularly relevant to Israel’s security or well-being, but American support for Israel is, and that support has been profoundly damaged, with polls indicating that, for the first time, more Americans support the Palestinians than Israel.

Part of this, of course, is the decades of defamation and violence against Israel’s supporters and Zionists in general. Moreover, there is the infiltration, conquest and colonization of the Democratic Party by professional racist anti-Zionists, aided and abetted by politicians who ought to know better. On the right, xenophobic and classically antisemitic forces are driving the movement’s growing alienation from the Jewish state. There are also social and demographic factors at work, with a young generation glued to TikTok and easily duped by misinformation, demonization and the sadistic pleasures of racial hatred.

Nonetheless, a great many in both Israel and the United States at least partially blame Netanyahu for the collapse in Israel’s international reputation, particularly in regard to American public opinion. The argument holds that, beginning with the Obama administration, Netanyahu systematically antagonized and alienated the Democratic Party. At the same time, he brought increasingly extreme right-wing figures into the government, alienating American Jews and other liberals, culminating in Netanyahu’s current coalition that includes a Kahanist party.

The prime minister allegedly compounded this by engaging in unacceptable rhetoric toward Israeli Arabs and other groups, and refusing to countenance the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, it is said, Netanyahu has also thoroughly alienated the right by “dragging” the United States into an unwanted war.

In doing all this, he acted like a kind of media kamikaze, single-handedly detonating Israel’s international image and destroying its American support.

It is only fair to say that there is something in all of this. Netanyahu certainly has deliberately jettisoned Democratic Party support for Israel over the years; his government coalition-building with extremist parties was bound to cause a serious rift with U.S. Jews and liberals; and he must have known that the isolationist wing of the Republican Party would be apoplectic over the Iran war.

The question, then, is whether—if and when Netanyahu leaves the scene—support for Israel will improve. The answer is likely that, in certain circles, it will; but, in general, Netanyahu’s departure will make no difference whatsoever.

The reason is a simple one: Israel is not facing opposition because of one man or the machinations of a single politician. It is facing a social phenomenon, a mass movement driven by dark forces well beyond transient everyday politics, the news cycle or social-media trends.

This movement currently has no real name, but it could simply be referred to as “neo-antisemitism.”

This term, however, fails to capture the vastness and violence of its ideological hatred. This is a movement that is openly genocidal and bitterly racist, rooted in classic antisemitic conspiracy theories and their modern iterations first introduced by the Soviet Union and long-dead Palestinian nationalists. It employs tactics of defamation, intimidation, violence and infiltration to invade public and private spaces—conquer and colonize them, and ultimately purge them of all Jews and supporters of Israel who might stand in its way.

Its short-term goal is to achieve political and cultural hegemony in the United States and seize the presidency for itself.

Its avowed purpose is to annihilate Israel and its Jewish citizens, and if its slogan “globalize the intifada” is sincere—and it is—all Jews worldwide. It has already committed innumerable hate crimes and acts of terrorism and murder, all while meeting with considerable electoral success. It encompasses both the political left and the political right, is particularly popular among the young, and at the moment, shows no signs of abating.

None of this can be put down to Netanyahu. It is the result of much larger and more powerful historical forces, rooted in the ancient hatreds of traditional Christianity and Islam, compounded by the pathologies of modern totalitarianism. Netanyahu, his policies and his rhetoric may, at times, have fed the beast, but he could hardly have avoided this because the beast feeds on everything.

After all, neo-antisemites do not care who leads the state they wish—with every fiber of their being—to destroy. Another Israeli prime minister would simply be another absolute enemy, another obstacle, another target of their constant defamation and incitement. Another, as the antisemitic mayor of New York recently said of AIPAC, “monster.”

It is conceivable that Netanyahu’s departure, brought about by his own errors and miscalculations, many of them catastrophic, will undercut the appeal of neo-antisemitism. It is not impossible. But Israel shouldn’t bank on the possibility.

Instead, Israel should recognize neo-antisemitism and the movement it has spawned as a genuine strategic threat, and act to neutralize it as best it can. This, with Netanyahu or without him, is the Sisyphean task now facing the Jewish state.