Do the attitudes we express on this site reflect a general American trend? Absolutely. Chemi Shalev in Haaretz writes that Israel’s image is swiftly changing among young cultural leaders, so fast it may not be possible to convince Americans to like Israel anymore. Note his analysis of the new generation of Americans who know Israel as the butcher of Gaza. And he calls American support for Israel that country’s number one asset. Oh the entitlement issues of the bully with a rich uncle.
Shalev begins by citing polling, then moves on to the inevitable disaffection with Israel among young liberal Democrats.
older, conservative and Republican Americans tend to prefer Israel over the Palestinians by overwhelming numbers, while younger, liberal and Democratic Americans are more ambivalent…. Thus, while Israel’s continues to enjoy substantial overall support in the American public, its weakest links are to be found among the groups that are now on the ascendant on most domestic and social issues of the day…
It is tempting, for example, to comfort oneself with the assumption that support for Israel comes with age, that young liberals who are now equivocating about the Jewish state will evolve over the years and become strong Israel-supporters, just like their elders. But that intuitive theory is rebuffed in a paper published earlier this year by Israel’s Institute of National Strategic Studies (INSS)…
“Generations seem to develop views toward Israel that guide their opinions throughout their lifetime,” the authors note. If that is true, then the so-called Millenials born after 1980, will maintain their tepid support for Israel throughout the coming decades as the Israel-backing Silent Generation and Baby Boomers slowly leave the stage…
…one cannot ignore the general global trend of liberal-leftist criticism of Israel – which, at its extreme, translates into a negation of its very right to exist. This is a trend that started after the Six Day War, was exacerbated during times of wars and intifadas, and is becoming permanently entrenched the longer that occupation and political stalemate continue. American Democrats, in fact, are far more supportive of Israel than most leftist or social democratic parties throughout the world, with the exception, perhaps, of Australia’s Labor Party.
…Nonetheless, most current Israeli decision makers tend to view America’s intellectual and liberal elites – which include many American Jews – with same kind of distrust and disdain that they show toward Israelis of the same ilk. They increasingly respond to liberal criticisms with outright hostility that far-too-often and far-too-quickly degenerates into accusations of anti-Semitism. This dialogue of the deaf drives an ever-deepening wedge between Israel and the driving forces behind the liberal wave that seems to sweeping America in ever increasing intensity on issues ranging from gay marriage to legalization of marijuana. Ultimately, it may lead to a realignment of American attitudes toward Israel as well…
No one should be under any illusion, however, that the distance between Israel and the increasingly gay-backing, gun-hating, grass-smoking American population is anything less than a dangerous threat to its number one strategic asset, relations with the U.S. Given the speed in which American attitudes are changing on other issues, this danger may be lurking just around the corner.
I find Shalev’s bumptious tone in this piece amusing. Like, Oh those fickle Americans. Annie Robbins points out, in sending this piece along, “What’s driving this change is… the ideology of apartheid. Israel’s descent is in direct proportion to the rise of the internet; the more people know, the worse it gets.”
so liberal america is a dangerous threat to israel’s number one asset, its relations with the u.s?
& said “danger” may be just around the corner?
justice for palestine?
right on time
Chemi Shalev in Haaretz writes that Israel’s image is swiftly changing among young cultural leaders, so fast it may not be possible to convince Americans to like Israel anymore.
I agree. In my own circle of acquaintances there has been genuine shock expressed, time and again, over the racist tone of run-of-the-mill news coverage of events by the Israeli press. That’s even true of outlets like Haaretz and Ynet who sanitize or tone down their English editions. The virulently racist public opinions expressed by average Israelis in talkback posts or in news interviews have convinced most of my friends and younger family members that they don’t like Israel anymore and that there aren’t any shared values or traditions worth maintaining the status quo.
Unfortunately as we have seen in the UC system in California on BDS votes, the evolution is not fast enough. Young leaders don’t have the stamina to withstand the withering assault that the organized lobby brings to bear against them. By the time the marriage breaks up the kids will have been grown and gone and nothing will be left
This seems like a pretty shaky comparison. Gay marriage fits with a general trend toward what might be called lifestyle politics. Liberalizing drug laws, mentioned in the quoted passage, tends to fit in with that trend as well. In my view, there is a frightening degree of disengagement (among millennials) on issues of foreign policy, economics (particularly economic issues most relevant to the recent financial crisis/crises), and civil liberties. I admit this is based on personal impressions. I don’t have any hard statistics (if they ever are hard) to back up this observation. Also, the traditional signifiers of gay male sub-culture are usually FUN just like America’s hyper-extroverted culture is FUN FUN FUN. Palestinians are less immediately and obviously fun. Obviously they can be, but it’s not close to being the first thing associated with them in American popular culture.
While in some way I find the rapid change in attitudes on gay marriage to be dizzying, it has also been a long time coming. Before gay acceptance hit the mass media, there was a history of openly gay figures in high culture unapologetically asserting their identity. I feel that I have some perspective on this thanks to having been seriously interested in poetry in my youth, which, on the side, gave me a bit of a capsule history of the struggle for gay rights. I don’t see any corresponding long-term high culture movement or drift on the issue of Palestinian rights. (Reading lots of modern/contemporary American poetry left me as ignorant as I was otherwise on this particular issue.)
But I agree that if a major shift on Israel-Palestine has occurred on the part of opinion makers, then at some point that could lead to a surprisingly swift change in public opinion. Also, no doubt the internet has made it easier to get out facts and analyses which otherwise would have gone unheard. It’s still new enough that one can’t predict what further changes it will lead to, though, again anecdotally, I don’t observe many of the young people around me taking much advantage of the internet as a source for alternative information. I see a lot of them glued to Facebook and more interested in watching videos of people eating live tarantulas. Or Glee episodes.
But I hope INSS’s worries are justified!
(As an aside, I am not pleased that public opinion is so easily pushed around by the mass media.
And apologies for so much half-assed social commentary in this post.)
Annie’s on the ball: “”What’s driving this change is… the ideology of apartheid. Israel’s descent is in direct proportion to the rise of the internet; the more people know, the worse it gets.”
Nothing like YouTube clips of actual footage of Israelis in daily action and, for more intellectual youth, some delving into the history of the state of Israel and Zionism, and America’s part in rubber-stamping it all, nothing like the internet to get beyond institutional propaganda, whether Israel’s or the US government’s, or US main Media’s, or US Universities’, over the years.
Not only will Israel get its comeuppance, but so, eventually will international banking.
The times, they are a-changing….
Who can look at that famous painting of Custer’s Last Stand today and not chuckle? (BTW, most of the troopers were very poor, young immigrant guys from Ireland, weren’t they?) When I was a kid, that painting moved many a young (ignorant) heart. Israel has been busy turning Anne Frank into nothing, and it’s no secret Israel’s treatment of what’s left of actual Shoah survivors remains dismal.