The record backs him up. As Hamas' presence continued to divide the Palestinian leadership, he allowed Hamas to take control of Gaza and allowed Qatar to finance the group. No one will demand that Prime Minister Netanyahu accept a Palestinian state as long as it is ruled by Hamas. This is his strategy, he and his advisors said.
In the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed settlers to run wild and neutralized Hamas's rival al-Fatah. The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority had been cooperating day in and day out with Israel on security matters, but instead of promoting Al Fatah as a negotiating partner, it humiliated it. Prime Minister Netanyahu subcontracted al-Fatah to Israeli control and gave nothing to the Palestinians. Instead, he allowed the colonists to keep what little they had. It is no coincidence that the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority was crumbling even before the October 7 Hamas attack.
In recent months, like many American Jews, I have been thinking about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus. And I've been thinking about polls showing that support for Israel in America spans generations. Take a look at the age breakdown in the December Times Siena poll.
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When asked whether they identify with Israelis or Palestinians, 63 percent of Americans 65 and older said they identify with Israelis. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 27% felt more sympathy for Israelis.
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70% of those 65 and older supported additional aid to Israel. 55% of 18- to 29-year-olds opposed it.
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When asked whether Israel should stop military operations to save civilians, even if Hamas has not been completely eliminated, 67% of 18-29 year olds said it should. Only 30% of people over 65 agreed.
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When asked if Israel was seriously interested in peace, 54% of people over 65 said they were. Fifty-nine percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said they disagree.
Broadly speaking, I believe there are approximately three generations of American sentiment toward Israel. There are older Americans who knew Israel in its youth. They remember the impossibility and wonder of its creation. They remember the wars that neighboring countries started to exterminate it, and what seemed like a miracle for its survival and everything it built afterward. This generation still feels Israel's vulnerability. They still feel it's possible. This is Joe Biden's generation. Impossibly, it is a great gift to Israel that it still dominates American politics.
Then there's what I think of as the straddle generation. This is my generation. Until now, all we knew was that Israel was the strongest military power in the region. Israel with nuclear weapons. Israel has occupied Palestinian territory, sometimes brutally. But we also knew Israel, which seemed to be seeking a path to peace and coexistence. We knew the Israel of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. We saw the collapse of the Camp David summit in 2000 be met not by years of counterattacks, but by years of suicide bombings, the Second Intifada. We have also seen Israel build settlements across the West Bank, creating a one-state reality even as it speaks of a two-state solution. The poll shows, as expected, that our views on Israel are more mixed.
Then there are young Americans. They only know Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel. After all, he has served as prime minister almost continuously since 2009. They know that Israel is by far the strongest country in the region. They know of Israel, where messianic ethnic nationalists are in the cabinet. They know that Israel is trying to control and maintain control over the lives and lands of the Palestinian people. They see it more simply as an oppressor country and an oppressed people. They're not entirely right – Palestinians are offered too little agency in this story – but they're not entirely wrong either.