A generation gap in attitudes could be undermining support for Israel in the West

For many years now, Israelis have been told that the biggest threat to the survival of the Jewish state is Iran's quest to obtain nuclear weapons.

But another long-term trend could be eroding the foundations of Israel's security: a generational decline in western voters' support and sympathy for the Jewish state.

Public attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have seen dramatic swings following dramatic events. A Gallup poll conducted for Newsweek in 1982, just days after the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps of Beirut, registered a 17 per cent crash in Americans' support for Israel.

Likewise, polls taken after the October 7 Hamas massacre, in which Israeli civilians were the main victims, showed U.S. voters' support for military aid to Israel had increased to the highest level recorded in years.

Those swings tend to be short-lived; opinion soon reverts back to norm. But the long-term trends in public attitudes toward the conflict offer a warning for Israel.

Polls conducted both before and after October 7 show that Canadians under age 30 tend to hold views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dramatically different from those of Canadians aged 55 or over. (There is also a smaller gender split, with men on average more supportive of Israel.)

People involved in Israeli advocacy admit to being shocked at the size of pro-Palestinian protests across the West, and their ability to mobilize far greater numbers of people than have come out in support of Israel.

"I don't think it's limited to campuses," said Shimon Fogel, of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Advocacy in Ottawa. "I think that they've taken to the streets and cities across Canada and it's really a phenomenon that's touched all of Europe and the U.S. as well."

The tone at some of the protests has been "vitriolic," Fogel told CBC News.

"I'm stunned by the level of support being expressed for Hamas," he added.

James Kafieh, vice-president of the Palestinian Canadian Congress, said it's wrong to suggest that more than a small fraction of those taking part in these protests support what Hamas did on October 7.

"There are thousands of people who are coming out to these demonstrations in Canada, in the United Kingdom, in London, hundreds of thousands of people," he said.

"That someone might show up and express some sympathy for Hamas or what it did is really a distraction. I think that people focusing on that is an attempt to distract from the essential message of the demonstration, that it is time to recognize Palestinian human and national rights."

Jewish communities across Europe and North America have reported a growing fear of being identified as Jewish in public.