Are US millenials turning away from Israel?

[n2doc]

Young Americans are showing far less fervent support for Israel than older generations, but almost no-one can agree on why the change is happening, how permanent it is likely to be, or what it all means.

Observers offer a laundry list of possibilities.

They say millenials are more likely than their elders to be liberal and Israel’s actions — particularly in the current offensive in Gaza — increasingly meet with vigorous criticism in left-of-center circles.

Millenials are also much more avid consumers of social media, on which different narratives explaining the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians are more readily available — as are especially gruesome images of the human toll extracted by Israeli missile strikes.



Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/international/214756-are-us-millenials-turning-away-from-israel

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. They seem to be turning away from blatant atrocities whoever commits them.

And, turning away from the pathetic excuse that the victims made them commit atrocities.

[Jefferson23]

8. That is part of it, yes. n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Answer: yes

As a teacher I have also been struck in recent years by a sea-change in the attitude of students. One example among many: Here at New York University I was teaching this past month a class on post-war Europe. I was trying to explain to young Americans the importance of the Spanish Civil War in the political memory of Europeans and why Franco's Spain has such a special place in our moral imagination: as a reminder of lost struggles, a symbol of oppression in an age of liberalism and freedom, and a land of shame that people boycotted for its crimes and repression. I cannot think, I told the students, of any country that occupies such a pejorative space in democratic public consciousness today. You are wrong, one young woman replied: What about Israel? To my great surprise most of the class - including many of the sizable Jewish contingent - nodded approval.

http://www.haaretz.com/general/the-country-that-wouldn-t-grow-up-1.186721

That trip deepened my conviction that as an American Jew, I could no longer in good conscience offer Israel unquestioning support. I’m not alone. Polling of young American Jews shows that with the exception of the Orthodox, many of us feel less attached to Israel than do our baby boomer parents, who came of age during the era of the 1967 and 1973 wars, when Israel was less of an aggressor and more a victim. A 2007 poll by Steven Cohen of Hebrew Union College and Ari Kelman of the University of California at Davis found that although the majority of American Jews of all ages continue to identify as “pro-Israel,” those under 35 are less likely to identify as “Zionist.” Over 40% of American Jews under 35 believe that “Israel occupies land belonging to someone else,” and over 30% report sometimes feeling “ashamed” of Israel’s actions.

http://ideas.time.com/2011/09/29/why-fewer-young-american-jews-share-their-parents-view-of-israel/

[oberliner]

5. Not really

They are just less interested. If you look at the survey, the number of people who closely followed events in Gaza reach their low point among that age group.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. If you'd observe the sources I cited?

They weren't that Gallup poll. (Declining support for Israel among young liberal American Jews and university students in a class on European history is more significant as those are precisely the people one would expect to have an interest in the issue and some awareness of what's going on.)

[oberliner]

9. The Hebrew Union College poll cited in your second link

I believe this is that poll:

http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=712

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. And...

it's a fundamental mistake to presume that one can extrapolate from a poll of the general population to a poll of a more specific subgroup of that population and expect that the results will map onto one another (especially when the first set of polls divides by age group and not religious affiliation).

[oberliner]

12. It indicates both lower levels of support and a lower degree of interest

I'm not sure which is the more salient of the two.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. And it's a different survey:

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/faith-matters/2007/09/06/so-whats-their-problem-with-israel

[pinto]

3. I think the framing of this article is simplistic. Media supports either/or divisions.

Makes for a good, short headline. And then sets the discussion in that framework.

[Fred Sanders]

4. Social media is creating individualized messengers for everyone connected. No wonder

corporations so not like net neutrality, they want to keep control of the genie now getting out of the bottle.

[NightWatcher]

6. When a person with no predjudice is told the facts surrounding this, they oft don't side with Israel

So, The UN just created the country of Israel out of thin air where a bunch of people already lived?

Maybe more Millenials are not siding with Israel because they did not get the memo that god chose the Israelis and that we have to side with them whatever they may do, so that in the Last Days they will be forced to accept Jesus as God's son or be cast into the Lake of Eternal Fire...

I dunno, just spitballin here.

[4now]

10. The young people I have talked too are outraged at Israel

and don't even understand how we can support the indiscriminate murder of Palestinian civilians.
They are really shocked at how many children that the IDF have casually murdered.