The Right’s Growing Animus Toward Israel – David M. Drucker

“Israel is this highly controversial state that the U.S. seems to back unendingly,” lamented Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative magazine and noted center-right critic of the Jewish state. Mills, 35, explained likeminded conservatives of his generation single out Israel more than other nations they consider bad actors in part because of the material support the U.S. provides. “We are a military partisan for Israel; we are a diplomatic partisan for Israel,” he said.

While Trump has been steadfast in his defense of Israel—Matt Brooks, chief executive officer of the Republican Jewish Coalition, calls him “the most pro-Israel president, ever, in history”—the grassroots opposition within his own party is coming from the populists and nationalists who are among his biggest supporters. Earlier this month, prominent nationalist conservative Yoram Hazony felt compelled to address the emerging split during remarks at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. 

“Nobody ever said that to be a good nat-con, you had to love Israel. Nobody ever said that to be a good nat-con, you had to love Jews,” said Hazony, an Israeli American who is Jewish. “If you disagree about Israel, fine. Alright? So we disagree on lots of things. But I’ve been pretty amazed by the depth of the slander of Jews as a people that there’s been online the last year and a half. … The left is long gone into a rabbit hole of hating Jews. I didn’t think it would happen on the right. I was mistaken.” 

That opposition is pronounced among Generation Z voters and can be more intense among college students. Regardless of age, men are more often hostile to Israel than women, pollsters, Republican operatives and conservative activists who follow this issue told The Dispatch. Their motivations vary. Some believe the U.S., with a $37.5 trillion debt, can’t afford to provide Israel with military aid, while some believe aid money should be spent to improve the lives of struggling Americans. Some worry Israel will pull the U.S. into another Middle East war, and others are reacting to the carnage in Gaza. (And yes, antisemitism and conspiracy theories sometimes play a role.)

“I could definitely see that in a year or two, particularly for the 2028 election, you could see where particularly a lot of the young men on the right are heading to where the progressive left are,” said Steve Bannon, the Trump confidant and prominent populist who hosts the War Room podcast, in an interview with The Dispatch. “I can tell from our chat rooms.”

A focus group moderated by Charlie Kirk before his assassination reveals these and other views about Israel held by conservative college students. Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, had a keen understanding of the Generation Z psyche and is credited with Trump’s edge over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris among young men in the 2024 election. Of the 25 focus group participants, men appeared to do most of the talking—and were most critical of the Jewish state. 

“There’s rumors going around—maybe Mossad is a part of the Epstein files,” one male student told Kirk. Taxpayers footing the bill for military aid to Israel was also a hot topic. “We’re sending a lot of money over there, not really getting—in my opinion—a huge return on investment,” said a second male student. Added a third: “I feel like this money could have been well spent in supporting an economy that would support our generation being able to afford homes rather than military strikes for Israel.” 

The focus group also illustrates the concerns young conservatives have about Israel’s conduct of the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza, plus complaints about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential organization that lobbies Congress to support pro-Israel policies, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Indeed, Netanyahu’s favorability ratings are underwater not just among Generation Z progressives, but among young conservatives as well, according to tracking data shared with The Dispatch and compiled by pollster John Della Volpe, the polling director at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics who specializes in younger voters.

In Della Volpe’s tracking, which covers June, July, and August, young progressives gave Netanyahu a rating of 14 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable (-17 percent). Israel’s prime minister was in slightly better shape with young conservatives but still viewed negatively, at 17 percent favorable, 21 percent unfavorable (-4 percent). In the same way Democratic strategists blame Netanyahu personally for their party’s hostility to Israel, conservative operatives who focus on Generation Z say the longtime Israeli leader is also becoming politically polarizing on the right.

“You’ve got Bibi Netanyahu saying you can’t be MAGA if you’re not pro-Israel, and it’s like, well, hold on buddy, you can probably be anti-Israel and still be pro-America, actually,” a conservative activist who affiliates with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and concentrates on youth engagement told The Dispatch, requesting anonymity to speak candidly.

The activist offered an additional reason for Israel’s declining support among younger conservatives: online culture.

“Young people’s algorithm is not like their parents’ algorithm,” this individual said. “On Instagram or TikTok, all I see is dead Gaza babies; it’s all I see. Then you have these really loud voices, whether it be Dave Smith, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, that are basically saying: ‘This is all crazy, why do so many people have to die?’”

Meanwhile, Kirk’s influence with young conservatives was so profound, pro-Israel Republicans and anti-Israel center-right populists are now fighting over his legacy, with both sides claiming the slain activist supported their views of the Jewish state. Here’s how Kirk summarized his position on Israel toward the tail end of the focus group:

Trump’s makeover of the Republican Party over the past decade has elevated the conservative nationalists and populists long present in the GOP coalition but historically marginalized. Both of these intertwined factions have been suspicious of Israel—if not outright opposed to the Washington-Jerusalem alliance—for many years. Vice President J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy, the de facto nominee for Ohio governor in 2026, are two prime examples.

Both back U.S. support for Israel, reflecting Trump. But Vance, 41, and Ramaswamy, 40, hail from the GOP’s populist wing and previously suggested the U.S. should cease the robust financial and military support that has been a hallmark of the alliance. Vance did so before Trump selected him as his 2024 running mate; Ramaswamy did so during his brief 2024 bid for the Republican nomination. Should either seek the White House in 2028 or beyond, it’s a position tweak they might deem unnecessary.

A change in the Republican Party’s official position on Israel doesn’t appear on the immediate horizon. The ardently pro-Israel Republican Jewish Coalition remains one of the most powerful groups in GOP politics. And, even among younger, self-identified conservatives and Trump voters, a majority supports the Jewish state and the Washington-Jerusalem alliance, according to an Echelon Insights poll of 18- to 34-year-olds conducted in late August for the Washington Free Beacon. 

However, cracks in that pro-Israel armor are perceptible. In the survey, 53 percent agreed the U.S. should completely or mostly provide strong support to Israel “as an ally,” while almost a third—29 percent—said that should rarely or never be the case. Additionally, 44 percent somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement: “Ending U.S. military aid to Israel would make me feel better about the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Just 38 percent disagreed.

Younger voters are going to participate in elections for decades, and they will carry many opinions they develop at this stage of their lives into the future. Should this detectable Israel skepticism continue to spread among younger conservatives, Republican incumbents and candidates may eventually conclude there are fewer political incentives to greenlight taxpayer-subsidized military aid for the Jewish state—or provide diplomatic cover for Jerusalem in international disputes. 

An example of how this might play out can be found in shrinking support for U.S. military and diplomatic support for Ukraine on the right since the 2022 unprovoked invasion by strongman Vladimir Putin’s Russia, an American adversary. The possibility that Israel could face a similar fate cannot be dismissed, explained Rachel Janfaza, founder of the Up and Up, a qualitative research and media firm focused on Generation Z. 

“One of the reasons young men kept telling me they were voting for Trump in the 2024 election was because they thought he would stop foreign wars and focus on domestic issues, primarily economic concerns,” she said. 

Janfaza said that much of the opposition to Israel percolating among younger voters on the right—and particularly among young men—stems from their attraction to “America first ideology.” But their opinions of Israel are also being shaped by Israel critics whose podcasts and social media feeds are popular with Generation Z voters.

 “There are prominent creators who have been very critical of Israel in that world, and that can’t be ignored,” Janfaza said.

Michael Warren contributed to this report.