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

[Another2Cats]

So, I just read an article where they say they have done a poll of young people and, of those under 25, 54% said that they agree with the statement "the state of Israel should not exist". Just 21% disagreed.

Did the polling company manage to just randomly pick a bunch of people that feel this way, or is this genuinely how many young people feel?

IABU to think that this can't really be true? (I am quite prepared to accept that IABU and that this really is what a majority of young people believe)

The link is here:

https://unherd.com/newsroom/majority-of-young-britons-think-israel-should-not-exist/

and this is the text of the article:

A majority of Britain’s young people do not believe Israel should exist, a new UnHerd poll has revealed.

A preliminary finding of an exclusive survey of 1,012 voters about foreign policy, conducted by Focaldata and due to be released tomorrow on UnHerd, found that a striking 54% of 18-24-year-olds agreed with the statement that “the state of Israel should not exist.” Just 21% disagreed.

This finding dovetails with other UnHerd polling on the same issue. In a separate question, young respondents were asked who was more to blame for the war in Gaza. Half blamed the Israeli government, while a quarter answered Hamas. Only 19% responded “all equally”.

The war’s high degree of exposure online and on social media appears to have fuelled interest among Britain’s young. An AI-generated “all eyes on Rafah” graphic was shared more than 44 million times on Instagram recently, with pro-Palestine content also proliferating on TikTok. Critics have argued that the Chinese social media platform has deliberately promoted anti-Israel content, which TikTok has denied, citing the existing attitudes of its young user base.

These attitudes are reflected in further UnHerd polling, which asked young Britons about their level of interest in wars around the world. It found that Britons aged 18-24 are far more interested in the war in Gaza than they are in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or in US-China tensions. Among this group, 38% were very interested in Gaza and 28% were somewhat interested, compared with 19% and 44% who were very or somewhat interested in the war in Ukraine, respectively.

As the Israeli war enters its eighth month, public opinion has slowly shifted in Palestine’s favour. Historic polling shows that popular support for Israel was at its highest shortly after the 7 October attacks at 21%, but this figure has since fallen. Although young people were most sceptical of Israel before the attack, the overall level of support for the Jewish state over the same time frame has plummeted to 16%, according to YouGov figures.

As of this week, a new ceasefire proposal is on the table, and the US is pushing Israel to accept it. The deal would involve the exchange of prisoners for hostages and would pave the way for negotiations. A ceasefire has strong majority support in the UK.

i can completely believe young people feeling like this. They have been able to take an objective view of how Isreal was created and why, and what the consequences of that have been. They can see the way Isreal is behaving now and how they seem determined to destroy Palestinian existence, so why should they think this is a country deserving of so much protection and support from the west? It doesn’t make sense, and no matter how many excuses are made there is no justification for the illegal expansion of Israel and the occupation of Palestine, nor for the bombardment of Gaza.

It’s not difficult for most people to see right from wrong when they are presented with two sides to an issue.

They can see the way Isreal is behaving now and how they seem determined to destroy Palestinian existence, so why should they think this is a country deserving of so much protection and support from the west?

Do you understand the difference between 'we shouldn't send arms to Israel' (or whatever) and 'Israel shouldn't exist as a country'?

The history is complex and I don’t think young people do complexity tbh, I certainly didn’t as a young person. I was surprised by the number of people not sure which river and which sea or were seemingly oblivious about 7th October. If you want me to chant something, I’d make damn sure I know what I’m saying and what exactly I was supporting by doing so, but then I’m old and grown out of my communist phase.

Yet when they view videos of Hamas raping and murdering Jews they claim it's IDF propaganda, funny that!

Since Israel was founded, every surrounding Middle Eastern country has essentially exported (or more accurately, driven out) their Jews to Israel. 850,000 Jews across MENA are estimated to have fled to Israel to take advantage of their safe haven policies. There used to be 50,000 Jews in Yemen, there is now 1 man.

If Israel is in some way peacefully disbanded (highly unlikely), where do these people go? They have no links to Europe and I highly doubt they'd be willing to return to countries they left a generation back. Any question on the supposed morality of the existence of Israel seems to completely sidestep the fact that the country already exists and the only way to undo this is to wipe out the country. It is not a neutral proposition.

The student on the radio suggested that Jews could just live peacefully in Palestine (from the river to the sea) and this would be fine because they could simply tackle antisemitism when it arose.

I don't think they've read any history.

Yes I do. I don’t think young people see why it seems so important for religions to have their own state. As pp said, young people are often quite simplistic in their thinking and most of them would prefer modern civilised states to be secular where people of all faiths should be safe. All this destruction and suffering just so that there’s a country with a Jewish government understandably doesn’t look like it makes sense.

Did you also explain to your son why Isreal are constantly under attack?

Of the discussions I’ve had or seen with young people, I don’t believe most think Isreal shouldn’t exist. I think the Israeli government, however, has done a fine job of ensuring anti-Isreal sentiment is increases as this ‘war’ continues. To what end, I don’t know.

I also think the youngsters are also far more aware of the history than the average adult, as they’ve been privy to more material and conversations from both sides of the fence that at any other time. They are also capable of looking at this in a more detached (possibly objective) way than us older folks.

Idk how many students access this on SM but it will inform views

HRTQueen · Today 20:31
I think people are more informed about the conflict than they ever were
**
They are also able to view footage of what is actually happening not something that has gone through media/government agency’s”

This.

Under Netanyahu and his right wing nutters, Israel is an oppressive, colonial power.

YABU, social media trends as well as clear turn outs at protests/sit-in show the youth are very much pro-palestine.

In your statment you say 'opinion has shifted slowly away from Israel' this is nonsense, social opinion has always been anti-Israel.

Ah, of course, living safely in Palestine. Presumably ruled by Hamas who in their founding document states that they are fighting for the Day of Judgement where Muslims will rise up to fight and kill the Jews. Sounds like a really likely solution.

A small survey that asked leading questions to certain groups is not a good indicator.

What this is being used to do is discredit the people campaigning against the Israeli government's actions and this can be seen clearly from a lot of the comments here.

Many young people I know are hugely clued up about all this stuff, and know all about the Balfour declaration, the reasons it was made, and the history of the area. I've never met one that says Israel shouldn't exist.

"Ah, of course, living safely in Palestine. Presumably ruled by Hamas who in their founding document states that they are fighting for the Day of Judgement where Muslims will rise up to fight and kill the Jews. Sounds like a really likely solution"

Strawmanning hard here eh?

Iv not read the article but was the poll before the hostages were taken and the conflict erupted?

the reason I’m asking is because I wonder if most answering would have felt that or even had a strong opinion about it before.

I know most young people I know didn’t have that strong of an opinion on either Russia/ukraine or Palestine/israel before current events had taken place. Although it’s difficult because obviously there weren’t many conversations as current events hadn’t happened yet.

They think we should have modern secular states....? Why on earth aren't they busy protesting against Islamic countries if they feel so strongly about that issue?

Oh and i see the passive aggressive spellers are out in force tonight

Yes, but this view as you have expressed it does not express two sides to the issue, does it?

That has happened to some extent- the Manchester Arena bombing (appreciate death toll was lower but still a horrific attack with child victims). If Hashem Abedi had kidnapped people and hid amongst locals of this or some other country, whilst I think it would be seen as imperative to find and imprison him and save the hostages I do not think anyone would feel it justified brutally killing 1000s of children in a similar manner to those he had killed.

I would be surprised if most people couldn’t care less about the October attack, it was horrific. What I would not be surprised by is if many people do not agree that the October attack and the endeavour to find the attackers justifies killing 1000s of children.

Is that the view of all young people that have strong feelings against the Israeli government

I know people of my age (50’s) who claim that Palestinians agreed with how the state of Israel came about they are absolutely adamant that this was an agreement with the people that they willing left their homes and livelihood

but many people my age also know that isn’t what happened

Because it’s just one of those things that’s accepted until it causes a problem. But if they were going to start campaigning for secularism, it would be a bit weird for them to complain about other people’s Muslim countries before complaining about their own Christian one.

Yes, I gave him a book to read about antisemitism.

If the issue is young people not seeing why religions should have states, one should ask why it is the only Jewish one that they are fixated on?

Why should a nation that was founded to give Jewish people across the world a right of return while denying the same right to 750,000 people that it expelled in order to create a majority Jewish nation have a right to exist? It's blatantly a colonial exercise. As such it should not exist. This is not complicated. There are not two sides to this. A nation full of Jews, Muslims and Christians with equal rights should exist. Saying otherwise is an exercise in colonial apologia and arrogance ie 'sorry we can't live as equals because this set of indigenous people are so brutal they'll kill the Jews etc'. Every single colonial project in history was justified in exactly the same way inc South Africa- 'the blacks will rape and kill all the whites etc if they are free'. Anyone with any experience of colonialism and the young who have studied it understand this with crystal clarity.

The UK isn't governed by religious law, unlike some other countries round the world. We are a Christian country in a very very loose sense.

Does make you wonder though why Israel is such a focus for so many....

Hmmmm...what a puzzle.