“Israel may be winning the war, but it is losing the PR battle.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s words capture a truth that has become inescapable in the modern age: military power, no matter how overwhelming, is no longer enough to secure victory.
Trump’s observation was not only about today’s war. He went further, underscoring the dramatic decline of the once-all-powerful Israel lobby in Washington: “Israel was the strongest lobby I had ever seen in Congress – stronger than any organization, body, company or state. They had complete control. Today, that power is gone. In the past, you couldn’t dream of becoming a politician if you spoke critically of Israel. But now ... things have really changed.”
These are not minor remarks. They reveal how wars today are waged not only on battlefields, but also on screens, across social media and inside the apps that dominate our daily lives.
The numbers are telling. On TikTok and Instagram, content sympathetic to Palestinians dwarfs the Israeli narrative by hundreds of billions of interactions. This is not the product of an organized lobbying effort, but rather the spontaneous force of millions of young users sharing and reshaping reality in real time.
The shift is seismic. For decades, Americans were raised on the mantra of “unconditional support for Israel.” Today, they are just as likely to form their views by watching raw, unfiltered footage on their phones – the well-funded, carefully cultivated machinery of traditional lobbying struggles to compete with the immediacy of digital storytelling.
Politics, too, is being remade in this digital arena. Take the city of New York: a candidate, such as the Democratic Party's Zohran Mamdani, once dismissed by both parties at the start of the year, used little more than sharp, consistent messaging on social media to build his own voter base. Against all odds, he went on to secure his party’s nomination with record turnout.
This transformation carries profound implications for American politics. First, a new generation of Democrats is entering Congress with greater empathy for Palestinians, signaling the slow decline of Israel’s once unquestioned bipartisan support. Second, even within the Republican Party, criticism of Israel is no longer taboo. The fact that candidates now boast of never taking money from the AIPAC would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
The common thread is generational. Voters shaped by TikTok, Instagram and digital activism are increasingly unwilling to accept scripted talking points. Their expectations are reshaping the incentives of American politicians.
The road from TikTok to Congress may once have seemed far-fetched. Today, it is not only plausible – it is already being paved before our eyes.
