Recent polling suggests a significant difference of opinion between younger Americans and their elders on a range of topics and raises bright red flags of caution regarding Gen Z attitudes toward Jews and Israel.
For example, a recent Economist/YouGov poll found that 28% of Americans under the age of 30 agreed that “Jews have too much power in America” (versus 16% of Americans as a whole), while 23% agreed that “the Holocaust has been exaggerated” (versus 9% of Americans overall). Similarly, a new poll from Harvard/Harris found that 67% of 18-24-year-olds believe that “Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors;” 31% believe that Israel has no right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people; and 60% said that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack could be “justified by the grievances of Palestinians.” When asked whether they support Israel or Hamas in the current conflict, those ages 18-24 were split 50-50.
Before you go searching for your passport and packing your bags, the overall survey results (which include all age categories) are much more palatable, with findings that 81% of Americans support Israel over Hamas; 86% think Israel has a right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people; and 73% reject the idea that Jews are oppressors.
But why are younger Americans expressing such hostility toward Jews and Israel?
Some suggest that younger Americans have been schooled in an ideology where combating “white supremacy” and “deconstructing whiteness” is a moral imperative, and Jews are condemned because they are “white oppressors.” (This view is supported by the survey finding that 79% of young voters agree that “white people are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors.”)
But that explanation — even if correct — only goes so far. It doesn’t explain what drives young Americans in the formulation of their views and whether it is fair to dismiss their conclusions on the theory that they were brainwashed.
This brings us to a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll, which reports that in the highly anticipated 2024 presidential elections, voters favor Trump over Biden by two percentage points; that 67% of voters 18-29 disapprove of how Biden is handling the Gaza conflict; and that they would vote for Trump over Biden by 49%-43% — representing a dramatic 13% shift in young American voters for Trump over Biden since July. According to the survey, few young voters believe that Israel is genuinely interested in peace. Nearly half say Israel is intentionally killing civilians in Gaza. And more than half oppose any additional U.S. aid to Israel.
A major driver of the generation gap seems to be social media, especially TikTok, where viewers are provided a steady diet of pro-Palestinian material, including brutal images of dead Palestinians. According to reports, 35% of young voters get their news primarily from social media and 44% use TikTok “often.” In the past 30 days, the #FreePalestine hashtag appeared globally in 1 million videos that were viewed 4 billion times. By contrast, during the same 30 days, the hashtag #standwithIsrael appeared in 13,000 videos and was viewed 109 million times.
The impact of anti-Israel bias baked into social media may explain, at least in part, why 46% of young voters sympathize with the Palestinians, versus 27% who favor Israel. One takeaway from the polling: Pro-Israel advocates urgently need to up their game in the social media sphere.
