By Steve BermanA Gallup poll taken a few weeks ago asked “Thinking about the war between Israel and Hamas, should the U.S. government _____?” Overall, 65 percent of Americans agreed that the government should publicly support Israel, which later President Biden made abundantly clear by his speech and actions. But the breakdown of those numbers is troubling.
Among Gen Z/millennials, support for Israel in the war with Hamas was at 48%, with 37% wanting to say nothing, and 12% for public criticism of Israel. This stands in stark contrast with the Silent/Greatest generation, where criticism is a nearly non-existent opinion, and Baby Boomers, 83% of whom say the government should publicly support Israel, with only 3% favoring public criticism. Among Gen Xers, 63% agree with our government publicly supporting Israel, and 10% are for public criticism.
The trend is definitely that the younger generations have less support for Israel, and I would agree as to the reason, with (of all people) Yaseen al-Sheikh, a Palestinian-American writing in Foreign Policy online.
Part of this is because Israel, once a bipartisan cause, has now become strongly associated with the right. Years of mutual infatuation between the U.S. Republican Party and Israel’s far-right Likud party culminated in the Trump administration’s internationally condemned decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem. In turn, the recent rise of a progressive flank within the Democratic Party has produced politicians such as Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Pramila Jayapal, who are both willing to openly criticize the nature of the Israeli state.
The embassy move was, in my opinion, decades overdue, since Congress mandated it on November 5, 1995. But the State Department’s hive of diplomatic officers and analysts, buttressed by pundits who always believe a hellstorm will follow such “provocations” (yes, scare-quotes), kept successive presidents from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama renewing the delay provision built in to the law. It took Trump, who cared not what anyone said (his entire presidency was a middle-finger to anyone who tried to tell him anything), to allow the law to take effect. Israelis were delighted, while Palestinians were, in fact, provoked.
Netanyahu is a divisive figure, both in Israel and in the U.S. He single-handedly brought U.S.-style political campaigning to Israel. And his political survivorship has led to the most extreme religious fringe government in Israel’s history. al-Sheikh wrote his piece in July, 2023, before the 10/7 horrific bloodlust by Hamas.
Now, Israel’s politics have coalesced around dealing with Hamas and defanging Gaza. The political divisions around Netanyahu’s government have dissolved into an emergency unity government. After the war, Israeli voters will deal with Netanyahu and his fringe, which rule not by majority but by chicanery in a deeply divided Knesset and polity. I think Israel will fix that, when things settle down.
But the attitudes of young Americans going into this war were decidedly with the perceived underdogs, regardless of their motivations, intentions, or their own racist, homophobic, misogynistic policies. Hamas, if it were ruling more than a 26-mile long, 6-mile wide strip of Mediterranean coastland, would apply its principles of government (total control) to all who lived under its jackboot. I suppose then you’d see the “intersectional” crowd yearn for Israel, where gay marriage, LGBT rights, and women’s rights are part of the fabric of society and law.
I wanted to find out whether the young always supported the Palestinian cause because youth generally root for the underdog. But over time, I see that support for Israel since 1967 has grown, not decreased, according to figures published by the Virtual Jewish Library. It’s only since 2016—Trump’s ascension—that support for Palestinians started to really increase, mostly among the younger generations. This, to me, means that these Americans identified supporting Israel with the Christian evangelical, MAGA-loving group, and therefore #resistance demanded that Israel not be supported.
Online, students lament that their generation “hates Jews.”
A new axis of evil—Big Tech, social media companies, and China—has taken the once-fringe position that Jews are undeserving of a homeland, and is now pushing the idea of their mass slaughter via shoddy animation and beautiful women hosting “explainer” videos. And it’s trickling down onto t-shirts and “cute” laptop stickers.
It’s cool to promote hate.
Now that goes for both sides—MAGAs are not known for being friendly to foreigners. But the current bogeyman for much of the young, cool, very-online left is to hate Israel and anyone who loves Israel. This conveniently encompasses both evangelical MAGAs and most Jews.
Just like the MAGAs put up with Nick Fuentes and tiki-torch carrying neo-Nazis shouting “Jews will not replace us!” young college kids put up with baby-beheading Hamas terrorists because they don’t want to think through the consequences of a Palestine “from the river to the sea.” It means “without Jews,” or in the end, a “final solution” to deal with the people who have been living in that land for 4,000 unbroken years. It ultimately means what some have posted online: ovens.
Does this mean that Millennials and Gen-Z people want a return to ovens (disregard those who are avowed Holocaust-deniers)? Heavens. no! It does mean that our divisions have led to an absence of critical thought, and a reduction to reaction to the “other side,” or the strawmen and caricatures of who people think are the other side.
Certainly, there is suffering in Gaza. But until the Gazans—Palestinians—decide to throw out their current government, with or without help from the Israelis, that will continue. Israel will right its political ship, because most Israeli voters have been shaken awake by 10/7.
America, however, is left as divided as ever. And as always, a non-trivial percentage of us blame the Jews.
Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.
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