Young Republicans are fueling the GOP's generational divide on Israel - WaPo

In the months after Oct. 7, 2023, the Miami University College Republicans’ debate nights grew rowdier and more hostile. Disagreement was expected and encouraged among the Ohio college’s 120-member conservative group. But this time, a small yet forceful faction refused to support many members’ position that the United States should financially and militarily back Israel’s war in Gaza, recalled Andrew Belcher, then a Miami University freshman. Belcher, who now chairs the college Republicans club, said two students left the group in anger and never returned.

Almost two years later, many of the club’s members, alongside a broader swath of young Republicans, are growing increasingly frustrated with the Israeli government’s hostilities in Gaza, Lebanon, and most recently, Iran.

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But views on the right are shifting. In March, the Pew Research Center found that Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were more negative toward Israel than in 2022. Most of the shift came from Republicans under age 50. In 2022, 63 percent of Republicans under 50 had a positive view of Israel, and now they are roughly split, with 48 percent positive and 50 percent negative.

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Network exit polls in 2024 found that Trump won 43 percent of voters aged 18 to 29, a seven-point increase from 2020. The support suggests growing approval of his “America First” platform, which promotes a nationalist framework that prioritizes domestic interests over foreign policy. Despite Israel’s lockstep relationship with the United States, young Republicans who spoke to The Washington Post think it’s time for the U.S. to separate its priorities from Israel’s.

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Belcher, the junior at Miami University, said he consumes his news online primarily from figures such as Joe Rogan, Matt Walsh and on platforms such as X. He’s more hesitant to entirely trust institutional media such as Fox News and CNN, thinking they do not tell the entire story on the Israel-Gaza war. Eric Fleury, an associate professor of government and international relations at Connecticut College, says that young Republicans prefer news from sources that present as more authentic and challenge authority. After the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, young Americans grew more distrustful of legacy media.

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Although supportive of Israel’s right to self-defense, Belcher grew skeptical that the nation’s most recent strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were an attempt at a further escalation that would involve prolonged U.S. intervention. But Trump’s push for a recent ceasefire between the nations made him confident that the president prioritized American interests. Young Republicans have also expressed more nuanced views of campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza compared to conservative leaders, who have largely condemned the demonstrations for making Jewish students feel unsafe. According to a May poll conducted by the University of Maryland, more Republicans aged 18 to 34 view campus protests as reflective of Israel’s actions in Gaza rather than stemming from antisemitic attitudes.

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