To think that this really can't be true about young people's thoughts about Israel?

The government of Israel are not doing the Jewish any favours and I believe it is them that need to be blamed for the rise of anti semitism

Why is this an ok thing to say...?

Surely you wouldn't say ...

The government of Iran are not doing the Muslims any favours and I believe it is them that need to be blamed for the rise of islamophobia..

Doesn't sound great does it....?

Many years ago my sister knew a very lefty student type girl...this girl told me sister she was off on a protest march. Oh, what's the march about? No idea said the girl. These people do exist

Dear oh dear

Great, we’re at the Jews control the media bit of the debate.

I watched a Sky news report from one of the first Pro Palestinian Marches that took part in London Just after the Oct 7th massacre, A young Londoner ( may 19 years old) was asked her thoughts on the massacre, her reply was no, that's a lie that never happened, there was no massacre by Hamas it is false news by Israel, her friend stood beside her told her it did in fact happen, the young woman was shocked but insisted it couldn't be true as she hadn't seen any coverage about it. That sums up the thought process or lack of. Too many young jump on whatever passing band wagon. They have an opinion formed by SM, they truly believe whatever Sm tells them and don't seem to be able to research on their own or understand that their view isn't always right.
Just yesterday a poll showed very few youngsters have a clue about D DAY, many thought it took place in London, some believed it happened in 1970 and that D day was they day Britain was bombed or in one case it was doomsday ! They may all carry a very powerful computer in their pockets but they don't have the ability to use that tool.

Brilliant post.

The strength of the West is also important for the survival of Israel which explains why Iran has spent years using propaganda against Westerners, especially young people. In that light, social media is a Godsend for hostile States such as Iran, China and Russia.

There was a poll recently that showed that 20% of young adults in the US have a positive view of Osama bin Laden. There was that viral tiktok trend of people reading his Letter to America and saying ‘omg he was right about everything’

I read it and it’s the fanatical ramblings of a rabid anti-western, antisemite.

But a bit of tiktok propaganda and the youth think he’s a good guy.

People really should be wary of the proliferation of anti-west propaganda.

I saw something a few weeks ago about how there’s loads of tik toks popping up about how marvellous North Korea is. Might be worth polling young people about that too.

I agree with you 💯 It’s quite scary how some are wholesale rejecting the info from established news sources and are ripe for being influenced by this sort of propaganda.

I wonder how many young people have the ability to think critically about the sources of their information and how to weight its credibility. When random kids on TikTok are being listened to and Professors of History and foreign affairs experts are not, there’s a problem.

Especially if Josh from Idaho or Mariam from Qatar on TikTok aren’t who they seem, and they’re fronts for Sergei in Moscow or the equivalent in Beijing….

Yes, it's a security problem from Israel's perspective given that they have multiple enemies along their borders at various points.

With Iran being at the centre pulling the strings of its proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

This is essentially Israel having to fight and secure its borders plus citizens on SEVEN fronts.

That also means a set of very strong internal security measures is also needed such as restrictions on certain groups, Iron Dome, David's Sling, mandatory military service and so on.

The strength of the West is also important for the survival of Israel which explains why Iran has spent years using propaganda against Westerners, especially young people. In that light, social media is a Godsend for hostile States such as Iran, China and Russia.

Perhaps other countries shouldn’t exist because of the War on Terror response to 9/11?

Perhaps our own country shouldn’t exist?

Or is ‘this country doesn’t have a right to exist’ not a normal response?

Most people just see a poor country being decimated by a much richer one. In retaliation for a terrorist attack. Innocent children dying and dying and dying.

You can get into the nitty gritty of the history all you like, but that's what people see right now.

Forgot to attach this.

Luai Ahmed is from Yemen and his view of Israel changed for the better when he actually visited the country.

The other is a despotic leader who wants to destroy Israel via proxies and destabilise the West, especially the United States.

There is a difference between thinking that what Israel is doing is wrong, and thinking that Israel shouldn’t exist.

The second of those things very much puts you in agreement with Hamas, and other terrorist organisations.

Normally peace movements look for regime change, not wiping a country off the map.

Why is it different in this case?

People point to how Israel was created but lots of countries were created through violence and upheaval. People then point to how Israel is committing atrocities, but lots of countries commit terrible atrocities.

Why is Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, the country that doesn’t deserve to exist?

Who's keeping quiet? Have you been in London on a Saturday?

The only people who are being forced to be quiet are Jews who are worried for their safety.

Yes, we all know that there's a huge history of conflict between both parties. But recent events escalated due to a mass murder of young innocent people, masterminded by Palestinian terrorists. Israel are being expected to coexist next to a community who wants them dead and gone. That's the reality. That why there won't be peace. There can't be whilst Israel remains at risk.

Because thread is discussing why a majority of young people think Israel doesn’t have the right to exist.

It’s not (yet another) thread to discuss how awful what Israel is doing.

So if you’re talking about how awful what Israel is doing, it’s not unreasonable to be asked about it in the context of the thread.

Correct! Just look at Iran's recent "congratulations" to young Americans - they're better at propaganda than many realise. Iran is a State that has several terrorist groups around Israel's borders as their proxies.

This is fundamentally not a conflict between Gaza & Israel, Palestinians & Israelis, but all that plus Iran, Hezbollah and even the Houthis in Yemen.

This aspect is often entirely missing from most people's points of view.

Social media is also regarded as one of the threats to Western democracy due to the PsyOps efforts of rogue States such as China, Russia and Iran. It is significant.

What do you suggest Israel do?

-Not kill 1000s of children.

What would you want if your teenager was stabbed to death while enjoying a concert?

-Not for 1000s of children to be killed in her name, and other mothers also left bereft.

I do not agree there needs to be “retribution” if it means killing 1000s of children. So far it hasn’t incentivised the return of the hostages (because I don’t think Hamas care about the children either). My view is every other step that can be taken should be taken to get the hostages returned other than killing children.

They want their hostages back. The hostages who have been gone from their families for over half a year now.

The hostages that no one thinks of.

There's lots of (deserved) sympathy for civilian Palestinians, especially children, but no sympathy left for the young people taken from the festival in October, having seen their community slaughtered in front of their eyes and god knows what's happened to them since.

It's trendy to support the underdog. The "victim". Israel is under threat constantly. It's now been attacked and all the world is bothered about is whether or not it should defend itself.

Israel can't win. Much of the British public are absolute hypocrites.

In 1857 Indian soldiers attacked British people killing 6000 and raping women. In the US indigenous people slit the throats of many 1000s of European settlers and kidnapped children and raped women. The British and Europeans fought back so massively that assymetric war fare on an indigenous population has come to be recognised as a sign of colonial conquest. This is what's happening right now. You can talk about the savagery of the attacks- you won't be alone in doing this. Every leading newspaper in the UK condemned the savagery and amorality of attacks on settlers in America, India, Australia etc. The outrage much like your outrage led to the biggest massacres of human beings on the planet- in Delhi, India and America.

Neither do Israelis. They want the hostages back and Hamas hide amongst the population.

What do you suggest Israel should do? What would you want if your teenager was stabbed to death whilst having fun at a concert?

I don't celebrate the deaths, there should never be any killings and I wish the whole thing didn't happen. But equally, Hamas tortured, killed and kidnapped hundreds of young Israeli's, there needs to be retribution against those involved. A deterrent for future attrocities and an incentive for Hamas to return those innocent people.

Well why did you suggest as a response to the comment that the horrors of October 7 don’t justify the killing of 1000s of children “so Israel should be wiped off the map?”

It’s not being silly to wish a country would stop brutally killing children.

I saw this claim one on MN before, by a poster whose username I haven't seen in a while...

I wonder if it's just a mix up or some kind of bizarre new conspiracy theory.