The Kids Aren't Alright: The American Generational Divide on Israel

Why our "best and brightest" took a break from bemoaning microaggressions to stage Hitler Youth Rallies across the country

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The Kids Aren't All Right

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What seems top of mind for our community right now is understanding what the hell happened to this younger generation of kids and why they now celebrate Islamofascism. Seemingly overnight, terror groups like Hamas, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and even Al-Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden have become heroes on the left.

Let’s start with the obvious, the disconnect is both along party lines and generational as shown in the chart below. It seems like a symptom of the American left moving away from ideals like color blindness and meritocracy in an effort to lump everyone into two categories, oppressors or oppressed. Unfortunately, the world is much more nuanced, and much like your favorite George RR Martin Game of Thrones book, morality is often gray as hell.

To give just one example about why details matter when discussing these complicated topics, let’s take the debate about apartheid. Right now, there are roughly 2MM Arabs living in Israel within the green line, which represents 20% of the population. Arabs living in Israel outside of Gaza and the West Bank (or what Israelis call Judea and Samaria) have full voting rights, freedom of movement, and are represented in government. Is it perfect? Certainly not, but as the only democracy in the Middle East, Arabs living in Israel have more upwards mobility and higher standards of living then in neighboring countries and most Israeli Arabs say they prefer living in Israel.

What about the Arabs living in areas controlled by Hamas (in Gaza) and Fatah (in the West Bank) that do not have the ability to vote or move freely? The question of if this constitutes apartheid requires a detailed understanding of the history of Israel (how it formed, the wars fought, and the peace treaties that were signed defining how these areas would be treated) that you can’t learn in a 15 second Instagram Reel. I’d argue this is certainly not apartheid, but it took me hours of research and listening to experts and firsthand experience living there to reach that conclusion. For college students to not only have opinions on these types of matters without any context, but to actually try to influence policy based on a half dozen TikTok’s they saw on the toilet is beyond stupid and arrogant.

What about the Jews who are protesting against Israel? Shouldn’t they be educated about these topics and know better? Again, as you can see below, the disconnect we see is age. This topic frankly enrages me. I can tolerate antisemitism on the far right and the far left (in large part because I expect it), but to have Jews discrediting Israel’s right to exist and defend herself is infuriating. So why are they doing it?

I have two primary theories.

Theory #1 Standing up for marginalized groups is a huge part of our religion, even when it’s uncomfortable. Jews have been at the forefront of almost every major civil rights battle in America, from women’s suffrage, to Black civil rights, and gay and trans equality. While those were obviously crucial endeavors, some Jews have clearly been captured by the simplistic narrative that the weaker groups must always be oppressed and strength must always mean oppression. Let’s ignore for now that there’s a strong case to be made that Israel is David and not Goliath as Jews make up only 0.2% of the world population, and roughly only 47% of those live in Israel. It seems some anti-Israel Jews have drunk the infinite victim mentality Kool-Aid that leads them, and our broader society, to do immense harm while believing they are doing the right thing.

Theory #2 There are really not many of these anti-Zionist Jews, and the few (<5% who are being very vocal) are being tokenized by the left. Some believe that many of these Jews are JINOs (Jews in name only) and never grew up with a strong connection to Judaism, Israel, or our traditions that have kept us alive for thousands of years. I’d also add that they are probably scared and crave acceptance from their peers, who are rabid Jew haters. We live in a time where the number one job people want is to be an influencer, so I’d imagine for young people being unpopular is tough.

But wait, do young people really care about this at all?

When you listen to the kids talk at these rallies it doesn’t take long before you hear them veer off on anti-capitalist, and anti-western rants. They basically want to burn down the current system and replace it with…. something better they can’t articulate. According to Newsweek polls, Americans 18 to 29 care most this election cycle about inflation, health care and housing costs, and gun violence. Out of 16 issues on the poll, the war in Gaza ranked 15th with only 34% of respondents choosing it as a top concern.

So why are we seeing massive protests on elite campuses like American students were just called to be drafted and head over to Gaza and Northern Lebanon to fight? Qatar has been funneling money into these universities and putting teachers in place who push their agenda and false narratives. It’s no wonder the teachers aren’t trying to lower the temperature, they’re a huge part of the problem.

It’s not helping that foreign governments like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have their fingers on the scale to manipulate the media young people are seeing. The result is a powder keg of manufactured ignorance and naivete that not only undermines the safety of Jews in the diaspora, but is also designed to weaken Western institutions by undermining patriotism and national cohesion.

So how does it end?

Well, we’re not even past the gaslighting phase yet. News outlets are still claiming these are peaceful protests protected under the first amendment, when in reality we see with our eyes and ears people calling for the genocide of Jews, Jews being physically attacked, Jews whose movements are being obstructed on campuses. The leader of the protest on Columbia’s campus, Khymani James, brazenly called for murdering Zionists in his academic hearing (video below), and yet has only been banned from campus thus far and not expelled. Unless the federal and state governments are willing to take serious actions to protect Jews (this is a Civil Rights issue) this will not end quickly.

While it pains me to see predominantly marginalized groups Jews have advocated for in the past leading the charge against us now, we should not allow that betrayal to sully our values going forward. We need to be strong in our convictions to continue supporting equality, but we can no longer neglect defending our own rights while doing so.

Sources:

Campus protest are antisemitic and violent https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/business/antisemitism-college-harvard-upenn/index.html

Khymani James - Zionists don’t deserve to live https://www.yahoo.com/news/columbia-bans-student-protest-leader-035836160.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall and

25% of Jews (mostly younger) think Israel is an apartheid state https://mondoweiss.net/2021/07/new-poll-25-of-u-s-jews-think-israel-is-apartheid-state/

Arab citizens living in Israel and population demographics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(Israel)#:~:text=The%20Green%20Line%20or%201949%20Armistice%20border%20is,Lebanon%20and%20Syria%29%20after%20the%201948%20Arab%E2%80%93Israeli%20War.

Most Arabs prefer living in Israel according to polls https://www.timesofisrael.com/arabs-prefer-living-in-israel-sampling-shows/

Breakdown of support for Israel by political party https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-online/2021/06/23/poll-many-democrats-want-more-us-support-for-palestinians

Plot twist, young people actually don’t care at all https://www.newsweek.com/harvard-youth-poll-young-voters-israel-gaza-hamas-war-inflation-economy-1894352

Osama is cool now? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/technology/videos-bin-laden-letter-tiktok.html

Drag Queen Story Hour Free Palestine Edition https://nypost.com/2024/04/25/us-news/outrage-as-drag-queen-leads-kids-in-free-palestine-chant/

Qatar Funneling Crap Ton of Money into Washing and Elite Universities https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/politics-current-affairs/2022/06/qatar-is-funneling-billions-into-washington-and-elite-universities/

Radical Antisemitism takes over campuses https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-anti-israel-encampment-at-columbia-endures-jewish-students-lament-judenrein-campus/