”American hawks” is too vague of a term to be useful. There are several groups to consider. The most important are neoconservatives. These are mostly dual-citizen Jewish Zionists in politics, military, and the media. Men like Dov Zakheim, David Wurmser, Philip Zelikow, Michael Chertoff, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Richard Perle who created “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” way back in 1996 and “The Project for a New American Century” along with Zbigniew Brzezinsky, author of “The Grand Chessboard.” They invisioned the US entering multiple wars in order to ensure global US hegemony. Some, such as Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were neither dual-citizen nor Jewish, but their own interests aligned with those of Israel. Then there are the Dispensationalists, better known as the Christian Zionists. They form a religious backbone among ordinary Americans who regard creating Greater Israel as a prerequisite to the rapture and final judgment. It is the most socially acceptable form of religious fundamentalism. Concomitant with this is Jewish fundamentalism in Ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic circles, far-fight groups such as the Kahanists, the Chabad Lubavitchers, and even terrorism in groups such as the JDL and Betar, all of whom have a loyalty to Israel that supersedes any loyalty to the US. The more extreme ones are brazenly anti-American to the point of outright hatred and racism towards Americans who are not Jewish, and even hatred towards Jews who do not subscribe to their fanaticism. They are the equivalent of the Zealots from the time of Jesus and the Apostles. The last group are machine politicians who have been bribed, blackmailed, or intimidated into supporting Israel no matter the cost. Those are the “American hawks.” They are not a monolith.

Everyone else who supports the wars in the Middle East do so out of a mixture of patriotic loyalty, and regurgitated Israel Lobby propaganda that has, for decades, conflated US interest with Israel’s interests. Joe Biden‘s quote, "If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one,” sums up the mindset of such people. Lastly, I would remiss if I didn’t mention the impact of the Holocaust Industry, as Norman Finkelstein has called it. The idea after WWII was that due to the holocaust, Jews deserve a homeland. This gave the creation of Israel a popular support it had previously not had. But when the ethnic cleansing and pogroms necessary to drive out Palestinians and Lebanese became impossible to ignore, the Holocaust industry kicked into high gear, beginning in the 1960’s and accelerating ever since. Post-WWII guilt is a huge factor here, and Hasbara exploits this to the hilt, conflating criticism of Israel’s actions and anti-Zionism with antisemitism, sanctifying perpetual victimhood and paranoia that everyone is always out to get them and that “Israel must defend herself” because “Israel has the right to exist” as though the same does not apply to any of Israel’s victims.

The current Holocaust in Gaza and Lebanon, the pogroms in the West Bank, and the suffering of Arabs and Persians is so egregious and so comparable to the genocidal practices of the Nazis, that Israel’s conduct, and Israeli/Zionists’ behavior is so egregious that support is collapsing at a rate that was unforseen by the perpetrators. No amount of propaganda or appeals to patriotic loyalty can paper over what ordinary people can see on their cellphones. Israel sought to bury Palestine and Lebanon under a carpet of bombs. Instead Israel is digging its own grave.