How come young Americans support Palestinians, not Israel’s violence against Palestinians; whereas in contrast most older Americans support Israel’s violence against Palestinians?
The answer to this question—to a large extent at least—is that young Americans don’t know about the Holocaust but older ones do. Why this is important is explained below.
The Times of Israel reports on American public opinion:
In contrast, the Times of Israel article also reports on American public opinion:
“The monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found continuing support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas among every age demographic but 18- to 24-year-olds.”
I think the explanation for this difference between young and older Americans is due to what NBCNEWS reports:
“Survey finds 'shocking' lack of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z
“Sixty-three percent of those surveyed did not know 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Over half of those thought the toll was under 2 million….
“A nationwide survey released Wednesday shows a "worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge" among adults under 40, including over 1 in 10 respondents who did not recall ever having heard the word "Holocaust" before.
“The survey, touted as the first 50-state survey of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z, showed that many respondents were unclear about the basic facts of the genocide. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed did not know that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and over half of those thought the death toll was fewer than 2 million. Over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos were established during World War II, but nearly half of U.S. respondents could not name a single one.”
The Reason Knowledge of the Holocaust Leads to Support for Israel, and Ignorance of the Holocaust Leads to Support of Palestinians
The reason knowledge of the Holocaust leads to support for Israel is because people wrongly believe the Zionist lie that says Israel’s violence against Palestinians (seven decades of violent ethnic cleansing) has been, and is, for the purpose of making Israeli Jews safe. This is a widely-believed LIE. I prove it is a lie in my article, “Israel’s Government Attacks Ordinary Jews As Well As Palestinians” and I show that this lie is widely believed because—sadly and alarmingly!—the anti-Zionism movement does not refute it. (More evidence that the anti-Zionism leaders do not refute the Zionist lie is here.)
People who know about the horror of the Holocaust are naturally—to their credit!—very sympathetic towards ordinary Jews and are hence loathe to take the side of the Palestinians because they (wrongly) believe that the Israeli violence that the pro-Palestinian side opposes is for the purpose of making ordinary Israeli Jews safe.
In contrast, people who do not know about the Holocaust have no reason to feel particularly sympathetic to ordinary Israeli Jews, so when they see the undeniably horrible genocidal Israeli violence against Palestinians in Gaza nothing prevents their natural horror at that violence from being expressed as support for the Palestinians.
What this Means for the Anti-Zionism Movement
Since older Americans DO know about the Holocaust (as they should!) the only way to persuade the vast majority of Americans—including of course these older Americans—to support Palestinians in their NON-TERRORIST struggle against Zionist oppression is to educate Americans about the true anti-working-class purpose of Zionist violence against Palestinians, as I explain in the above-linked article also linked here. To do this requires explaining that Hamas terrorist violence against non-combatant Israeli Jews is not part of the Palestinian struggle against Zionism but rather is part of Israel’s strategy for turning world opinion against the Palestinians, as I prove in my “Israel’s Government Funds Hamas and Works to Keep It in Power.”
Please share this if you want the anti-Zionism movement to win the support of the vast majority of Americans and not just the young ones who don’t know about the Holocaust.
h/t to Ron F. for asking me the question that this article tries to answer. If you, dear reader, ask me any similar interesting question I will try to answer it here.
I just posted this to my substack readers: I think John Spritzler is accurately diagnosing and describing many of the deeper issues of the Israel / Palestine conflict and thus he is giving us important insights concerning several key challenge that we are confronting worldwide. Thus I highly recommend you subscribe to his substack.