Wish congratulations to the four million American college students who graduated this summer from thousands of universities and colleges across the country. Soon they will begin new careers at prestigious law firms, on Wall Street, in Hollywood and on Broadway, as well as at Google, Microsoft and the world's other leading technology companies. These talented young men and women in their 20s will go on to lead the economy, science, culture and politics in the United States and beyond. They are America's future, and it is worth asking now what that future will mean for Israel.
Since October 7, and against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement has established itself on American campuses and in the hearts of many students who see themselves as passionate and courageous activists. The instinctive response to this loud and visible activism is often one of contempt and disgust toward idealistic young people who are, at best, naïve and, at worst, ignorant. They are manipulated by progressive opinion leaders, financed by Qatar and know nothing about the Middle East conflict or its history.
The pro-Palestinian movement has established itself on American campuses and in the hearts of many students who see themselves as passionate and courageous activists
(Photo: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images / AFP)
That condescending view may be justified. Or it may not. Either way, it does nothing to solve the existential crisis now facing Israel as a growing share of the American public distances itself from the country and the support Israel has long enjoyed from members of the administration and Congress begins to erode. Today, most Americans support ending U.S. military aid funded by their tax dollars.
America's growing aversion to Israel and its increasing treatment as an international pariah extend far beyond chants of "Free Palestine" on college campuses. Recent polling points to a dramatic collapse in the value of the Israel brand in the United States. The situation is especially severe among young Americans. Seventy-five percent of those ages 18 to 29 now hold an unfavorable view of the ally on the other side of the world that for decades enjoyed the status of America's favored partner.
In Jerusalem, of course, there are those who believe the exact opposite, as though the eyes of the entire world are fixed on Israel as a light unto the nations. Perhaps that was once true, at least among Jews in the Diaspora, who showered Israel with love, support and generous financial contributions. Their beloved nation-state was Jewish and democratic.
A weakening bond
America's diverse Jewish communities still feel a strong connection to Israel, but that bond is weakening. Older generations of Zionists look back nostalgically on the Israel of pioneering young men and women who made the desert bloom and sought to realize the liberal ideals of the Zionist movement while remaining open to the world. Their Israel is a nation that longs for peace, fights for its survival and always aspires to integrate into its region.
According to that increasingly outdated image, the failure to achieve peace rests with the Palestinians and the Arab world. October 7 seemed to provide conclusive proof of that belief. So how did the date of that horrific massacre become, for many, a day commemorating the mass killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children?
The horrors of the war in Gaza and the attacks carried out by extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank have transformed how the younger generation views Israel. Older Jews may cling to nostalgia, but their sons and daughters are turning away from the country. As Israelis like to say, they have "woken up."
Those students, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who marched in the streets chanting "Not in our name," set up tent encampments at Columbia University and voted for Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City were born about two decades ago. The Israel they know is Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel: right-wing, nationalist, brutal, dismissive of the Palestinians and committed to preserving the occupation through a policy of maintaining the status quo.
They were around 8 years old the last time Israeli and Palestinian Authority representatives met for political negotiations in 2014, talks that largely took place under pressure from the White House and produced little of substance. Some of them had not yet been born when Israel withdrew from Gaza. Others were not even conceived during the Oslo peace process in the 1990s.
Many Israelis were astonished that actress Odeya Pinto did not live through the Yitzhak Rabin era. Well, Americans her age belong to a generation that never knew Joseph, or Rabin, but knows Netanyahu. In their eyes, he is a murderous war criminal, Israel's equivalent of Vladimir Putin.
The immediate response from many Israelis is to dismiss these young people as antisemites or, in the case of Jews, self-hating Jews. Some undoubtedly fit those descriptions, perhaps even many of them. But among them are also brilliant scholars, knowledgeable people and thoughtful minds. As noted, they are disillusioned. Their understanding of reality is more complex and certainly more current than that of their parents, perhaps even more so than that of many Israelis who remain convinced there is no occupation, deny the existence of the Palestinians and ignore the collapse of Israel's standing in international public opinion.
This is a fundamental crisis, not a failure of public diplomacy. Young Americans are perceptive. They see through propaganda and reject forced sympathy or obligatory loyalty while listening carefully to what Israel's current government says openly. Once, Israel argued that the turbulent Middle East was not Switzerland. Today, its leaders proudly declare they have no interest in being Switzerland: peaceful, liberal and prosperous.
Not only has Israel failed to resolve its conflict with the Palestinians, over the past decade it has made clear that it has no desire to pursue a peace agreement. In the name of preserving the diplomatic status quo, the Palestinian Authority has been branded a burden while Hamas has been treated as an asset.
Amir BogenFor Netanyahu's Israel, the occupation is not the problem. The problem, in its view, is the way the world portrays the occupation as a problem. But it is not that the world has forgotten Israel. Israel has forgotten the world.
The truth is that Israel cannot exist without it. Not everything depends on Israel alone. International public opinion has become increasingly hostile, but the country's existential threat stems not from the hatred of outsiders but from excessive self-love: complacency, arrogance, national pride and an unshakable belief in the righteousness of its cause.
It is the narcissistic drift of the Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich government, which shapes policy as though it can bypass reality on the road to messianic redemption. It prefers deliberate blindness in the present over recognizing the trends unfolding in the real, practical world that point toward the future.
And when today's students become tomorrow's leaders, they may turn their backs on an Israel that has already turned its back on the better Israel their parents once believed in. Once.