Millennials Less Sympathetic to Israel Than Older Americans

It’s another
destructive, deadly day in Gaza. Twenty-two days into the
current iteration of this conflict, despite the fact that Israel
and the U.S. are snapping
at each other, Israel remains the sympathetic party in the eyes
of many Americans. But millennials are drifting away from that
norm.

The latest Pew Research Center poll, which was published
yesterday,
shows that Americans aged 18 to 29 are pretty divided. When
asked about “Israel’s response to the conflict with Hamas,” 31
percent said it’s been “about right.” Nearly as many, 29 percent,
said that it’s “gone too far.” Tellingly, only 7 percent of young
Americans believe it has “not gone far enough.”

By contrast, in the older age demographics (50-64 and 64+) 16
and 18 percent, respectively, believe that Israel’s use of force
hasn’t gone far enough. Generation Xers are a bit closer to
millennials’ views in some respects; 34 percent say Israel’s
response has been about right, while 30 percent say it’s over the
top. But again, 16 percent believe Israel’s military action should
be more aggressive.

In fact, with the exception of self-described “liberal”
Democrats, 44 percent of whom say the Jewish state has gone too far
while only 7 percent say it’s not enough, every other demographic
polled – whether political independents or Republicans; college
graduates or high school dropouts; blacks, whites, or Hispanics;
men or women – have double digit support for Israel ramping up its
campaign against Hamas.

Notably, general support for Israel in its grappling with
Palestine has been eroding in the last few years, though a hawkish
minority has grown: In January 2009, the percent of Americans
willing to say that Israel’s tactics are “about right” has dropped
15 percentage points from 50 to 35, while those who believe it
should go further has nearly doubled from 7 percent to 15
percent.

Although it’s outside of the scope of Pew’s research at hand,
it’s worth noting that the numbers fit into a trend that
Reason-Rupe’s own polls have been shedding light on: Millennials
are politically unclaimed, but see Democrats as the
less bad option on
some issues such as foreign policy.

Likewise, the drop in general support may reflect what
Reason‘s Jesse Walker noted last week:
the American public doesn’t have much of a stomach for
war.