Historically, the United States has been largely in agreement on one issue: the support of our greatest ally, Israel.
In 1995, the Senate passed the Israeli Embassy Act, which would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Senate passed the bill with a vote of 93 to 5. After 23 years of inaction, Donald Trump has finally made the move, but the next generation of young Americans do not seem as adamant on their support for Israel, as previous generations do.
A recent Pew Research poll found that young people are 19 percent less likely to support Israel over the Palestinian Authority than the rest of the population. Only 32 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds say that they feel more sympathy toward Israel. This is in contrast to the 56 percent of those 50 and older, as well as 42 percent of those who are 30 to 49, who sympathize more with Israel.
The reason we see this downward trend of support for Israel through generations is because of the way in which the Palestinians present themselves to the world. They try to show that they are the fragile, innocent underdogs being oppressed by the strong, powerful country of Israel. This, is at the same time when Hamas is putting their own people in harm’s way, only in an attempt to diminish the image of Israel. Unfortunately, this strategy works, especially with younger Americans.
Young people today are a part of the sound-bite generation, and that is why the way that the Palestinians market themselves is attractive to younger audiences. They do not want to look deeper into the real cause of an event, rather, they look at a headline, they hear a five second clip, and they make their judgment. For example, in the most recent riots on the Israeli-Gaza border, the Israel Defense Forces was fully obligated to take the actions that they did, but you would not know that by reading a headline that simply gives the death count without context.
The culture that young people are a part of is dangerous for the future of America. When people aren’t informed, it creates a pathway for people who say appealing things without merit to win in the end. This is the very reason the Palestinians are starting to win the favor of young Americans.
Most Americans root for the underdog, and many young people think it important to fight for social justice. They believe Palestinians are the underdog, and the ones in need of fighting for. In reality, they are neither. Everything that the Palestinian Authority is presenting itself to be is false, but the reason many young people believe it is because they refuse to dig deeper. Instead, they accept the propaganda campaign.
Although there is a problem with young people not informing themselves to the best of their abilities, all of the responsibility does not fall on the average viewer, but the media as well. Political commentator Ben Shapiro attributes the reason many people have turned against Israel is because of a “moral equivalence” that has been drawn between Israel and Hamas, and as a result, people believe Israel is in the wrong.
To pretend the reason for the anti-Israel attitudes of young people are just a result of the sound bite culture would be foolish, just as saying the attitudes are just a result of media bias would be foolish. The key is that when you couple these two things together, young people in particular fall victim to becoming misinformed. Seeing media that draws an equivalence between the two sides, as well as never looking deeper, will clearly result in a bias toward one narrative.
Even though overall opinion has not been swayed, we are on a dangerous path to overwhelming sympathy for the Palestinian Authority, when in reality, everything they are trying to sell is a lie.
