A hair-rising finding by a national poll: only 41% of those questioned who were between the ages of 18 and 29 support Israel’s right to exist. More on this depressing result can be found here: “Majority of Young Americans Unsure Whether Israel Should Exist: Poll,” by Corey Walker, Algemeiner, October 13, 2026:
A majority of young American voters are unwilling to affirm that Israel should continue to exist as an independent country, according to a new national poll that reveals a stark generational divide over the Jewish state — even as Americans overall overwhelmingly recognize Israel’s right to defend its citizens against armed attacks.
The survey, conducted by Republican-aligned polling firm Cygnal from Oct. 7–10 among 1,500 likely 2026 midterm voters, found that just 41 percent of respondents ages 18–29 support Israel’s right to exist. Among all voters, support stands at 67 percent, with 16 percent opposed and 17 percent unsure.
The results offer a snapshot of the challenge facing Israel and its American supporters as younger generations grow increasingly detached from the bipartisan consensus that has historically defined the US-Israel relationship. The poll does not establish why younger voters hold these views, but it documents a substantial generational divide over a fundamental question of Israel’s legitimacy….
Younger voters are likely to be less well-informed than their elders, not just about Israel and its enemies, but about all sorts of matters. They do not remember any of the three wars Israel was forced to fight for its own survival, in 1948, 1967, and 1973; the Second Intifada for them may be a dim memory; they may not have devoted the mental energy necessary to grasp how the propaganda war against Israel works; above all, these are the people who have seen the anti-Israel protests on campuses and, in lemming-like fashion, have joined in, repeating chants about apartheid, genocide, and why Israel must be destroyed in order to be supplanted by a 23rd Arab state, expressed in the slogan “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free.” Anti-Israel animus is all the rage, in every sense, and is all over the Internet, most notoriously on Wikipedia, which is where the American young now seek most of their information; for them, history books are so… yesterday.
Among voters ages 18–29, the gap is considerably starker. Approximately 91 percent say Ukraine was justified in defending itself, while 67 percent, far less, affirm Israel’s right to defend its civilians. That 24-point difference raises questions about whether younger Americans apply the same principles of national self-defense to Israel that they apply to other countries facing armed aggression.
The answer, obviously, is no. Israel is held to a far higher standard of conduct in its war-making than any other country. It has made tremendous efforts to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza, but most of the world not only ignores this, but insists on calling the IDF’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.”
Here’s the good part:
In the same poll, 95% of Americans of all ages believe a country — presumably including Israel — has a right to defend itself. 51% believe Hamas should have no role in Gaza, and only 6% believe Hamas should be allowed to govern Gaza.
And here’s the bad:
Only 41% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that the Jewish state has a right to exist.
Clearly the fashionable expression of anti-Israel animus has had a malignant effect on young minds. Israel needs to devote much more of its time and money to its human resources, finding the most articulate spokesmen (ideally fluent speakers of English) who have been properly trained in verbal combat.
Everything has to be challenged: when an interviewer mentions “West Bank,” don’t leave that unanswered, but express surprise that a toponym that was used first in 1950 should have been allowed to supplant other far more ancient toponyms — Judea and Samaria — that have been in continuous use for the past 3000 years.
When the phrase “two-state solution” is used, don’t ever let it pass unremarked, but point out that calling something a “solution” does not make it so. And then explain that “when people use that formulation, they mean that Israel must be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines, that were never recognized boundaries, and that would leave Israel with a nine-mile-wide waist from Qalqilya to the sea. Within such lines, an invading force from the east could cut Israel in two before the country’s reservists could be called up.” That is not a “solution,” but a death warrant for the only Jewish state.
Remind your audience of the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, which was always meant to include all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and which in time would become the Jewish state. While Jordan seized Judea and Samaria in 1949, and held onto that area until 1967, it never had a legal claim to it. In 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, Israel was at last able to exercise its pre-existing claim to Judea and Samaria. Israeli hasbara need only hew to the truth, and to keep repeating that truth every time enemy spokesmen, or poorly-informed members of the Western media and public, offer up a steaming heap of falsehoods.
ploome says
Why does that question even exist?
Why doesn’t everyone ask if Jordan has the right to exist?
Why are the Hashemites, relocated from the Hejaz have the right to exist and rule that part of Mandate Palestine, trans Jordan just because the British gave it to them?
Or Iraq have the right to exist?
Simply asking that question over and over, makes people doubt/
Stop asking if Israel has the right to exist, and maybe assert that after the Ottomans abandoned their holdings the Middle East, the victorious allies, divided the territory and recreated national borders in that area.
Beans🫘 says
Yea I get your sentiment. But it had to do with Muslims. That changes things completely. If a land is ever once taken by Muslims or Muslims move in mass, it is forever considered Islamic land by them.
Our youth are much more pro Islamic, and with the Islamist world view in general, the Islamist geopolitical strategy, and they are moving away from pro western outlooks.
somehistory says
Parden me, young person, but do you have the right to exist?
These may be the same people who would deny that unborn children have a right to *exist*….which means they probably favor ending the lives of millions of unborn babies.
James Lincoln says
It appears that the leftist / islamic brainwashing of our youth is happening in real time.