Friends, today I bring you the result of a very interesting Harvard-Harris poll. Now, as always, the nature of the questions asked can skew the result, and a small sample size (especially for the different age cohorts) means we should take that result with an extra large grain of salt, BUT it appears that different generations of Americans have a wildly different perspective on the Israel-Hamas conflict, and who's committing "genocide" against whom. Now, I don't have an agenda to push here myself. Frankly, depending on whether you bombard people with images of Israeli suffering, or Arab suffering, it's pretty easy to build a narrative that favors one side or the other. It's a complex and long-running conflict, open to many interpretations. The fact is, though, that young Americans have such a different take on it than their elders that we really have to question how this came to be. The article blames TikTok...without evidence, of course. Personally, I think the worldview of youngsters is unlikely to be preprogrammed by Chinese app developers. It's a rich tapestry, but Hollywood, the K-12 public education system and higher ed, and the mainstream media all must play a part. What's interesting is that, on this issue, youngsters are way out of step with the American establishment (right?), but on others they fall slavishly in line. Go figure. I would also like to point out that a substantial number of Americans, in effect, support the expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine, or Jews from Israel, and in either case that would be ethnic cleansing, at best, and genocide, at worst. So...maybe we don't object to genocide as much as we thought?
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Much like an accident victim must undergo rehabilitation to regain lost fundamental physical skills, much of our country would benefit from reaffirmation of lost verities like common sense. It is, despite all fashionable counterintuition, still certain that the aged are wiser than the young. That, I think accounts for so much of youth actually advocating Israel's destruction, a stat which insolently diminishes with age. Understandably, so many of the young see justice and injustice in Manichaen terms lacking any nuance. America made the terrible decision to drop the Abomb because the alternative was a massacre of young Americans in an invasion made necessary to guarantee the end of murderous Japanese oppression of East Asia and its prospect of unlimited expansion. The bombing of Gaza is a terrible injustice to the innocent but the perpetrators are not the Israelis, they are the Hamas savages who permeate Gaza and have conclusively demonstrated fanatic determination to annihilate Israel. Israel is doing what it has to do , tragic as it is, to save its very life. This reality is lost upon those many among the young culturally incapable of informed opinion on this war.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I know, we can get Hillary to "deprogram" 18-24 year olds who would casually turn out the lights in Israel. I mean, when "the smartest woman in the world" urges that procedure, albeit on us, it must be the bees' knees yes? But then, she may have her troubles with the "f ing Jews" she is said to have denounced so in her high rage so she would probably daintily demur.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Perhaps in their wish for a reprise of the Holocaust (and handy at that because there is no need to wander all over Europe looking for Jews to extinguish) those 18-24 year olds so inclined are actually in concert with some of the established powers that be in our country. I'm sure the squad floats their boat and how the dem party obsequiously kisses their rings!
ReplyDeleteFROM RAY
ReplyDeleteWhat does The Pope think about all this?
Hmm. Is "common sense", once lost, so easily regained? Was it ever that common to begin with? Jack, you can draw some solace from the fact that, if youngsters might want us to cut ties with Israel, certainly no one in the halls of power in D.C. is listening. The aid will keep flowing -- in fact, it will double and redouble! Of course, the price may be a quick end to offensive operations in Gaza. But that may even be in Israel's interest. It has bigger fish to fry, arguably, then a few fanatic holdouts hiding underground. It has a future to build for itself and for its Palestinian charges. It has relationships with countries all over the world that are fraying. It cannot afford to use any more, or any less, force than is necessary, in the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteRay, Pope Francis seems to be taking a pro-Gaza but anti-Hamas line, as you might expect: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pope-israelis-palestinians-face-christmas-of-pain-mourning-2023-12-19/