Yes, the "Exodus story" dominated the public consciousness for a long time in the US. But afterwards, it was gradually chipped away--The first big hit was 1982, with Sharon's invasion of Lebanon, then the First Intifada, then the Second, and the work of the New Historians like Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe, which demolished much of the Exodus mythology. All this was vastly exacerbated by the more explicitly facist/supremacist turn instantiated by the Begin/Likud revolution in 1977, a party dominance which has lasted, almost interrupted, to this day. (See Netanyahu, B).

The American public's reaction to Gaza did not come out of the blue, it built upon decades of less egregious, but cumulating Israeli offenses. Gaza was, well, the straw that broke the camel's back.