'They're Rooting For The Powerless': Political Scientist Explains Gen Z's Support For Palestinians

7 months ago

Political scientist and founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss why Gen Z tends to sympathize with Palestinian cause.

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Transcript

00:00I think in your speech too you did a really good job of a not coming across

00:05as condescending in the slightest but be saying hey this conflict has been

00:09happening now for decades and where this conversation is entering it is not at

00:14the beginning it has been years and years before and on social media you

00:18wrote this to the class that you quote appreciate your passion your respect and

00:22your willingness to listen and engage even on the most difficult topics when

00:26you think about the protests on campuses over the past few months the past few

00:30weeks especially when they've reached a boiling point how do you think college

00:33students have been engaging I think that the the vast majority of college

00:41students for them this is not their top issue they've been asked recently in

00:47polls some 13% think the Middle East is a top issue for the election far more of

00:53them talk about immigration and abortion and the economy and their loans

00:57and all of these more prosaic things than Gaza but you know all it takes is a

01:05couple of students to say something idiotic right I mean to like you know

01:11show fealty to Hamas to say something anti-semitic against Jews and all and

01:19then you've got someone with their with their phone running and they grab that

01:22clip and they promote it out there and then you've got a whole bunch of

01:27political entrepreneurs taking advantage you know in a performative way for

01:33themselves and suddenly people think that that's what these students are all

01:38about and that's not what these students are about at all look I think that what

01:41the students are really about is that you know for you and I and me more me

01:47than you who you know spent a lot of time in the in the Cold War period you

01:56know Israel was the underdog Israel was the small country the country that the

02:02Americans the Europeans supported after the Holocaust and never again meant that

02:08we had an obligation to make sure that an entire group of people could not be

02:13identified and killed by virtue of something they had no control over by

02:19an accident of birth by a cultural a religious signifier never again but

02:25young people today don't have that experience young people today see Israel

02:31as the most powerful country in the Middle East militarily offensively and

02:38defensively and intelligence collection with the support of the United States

02:42and with diplomatic relations with countries in the region they see the

02:46Palestinians as the dispossessed as the little guy and like many young people

02:53all over the world they're rooting for the powerless they're rooting for the

02:58disenfranchised and you know it's kind of like an America does that a lot I

03:02mean March Madness we all love to see that 16 seed you know get into the final

03:08four that excites us and I think for a lot of the students that's what it's

03:11about it's about wait a second I thought that we were supposed to

03:14support the dispossessed I thought like the Statue of Liberty I thought we're

03:17supposed to welcome those people and and suddenly for a lot of young people the

03:23United States doesn't look like the good guy for a lot of young people the United

03:28States looks like they're on the side of the villains they're on the side of the

03:33oppressors they're willing to support repression and death just because we

03:38happen to be allied with this one country that's friendly not the reality

03:43is like so many things in the world that the truth is much more complicated than

03:48that the reality is that people have given the Palestinians the short end of

03:53the stick for decades now and not just the Americans the Gulf states who didn't

03:57care who did the Abraham Accords irrespective of the fact that the

04:01Palestinians were getting nothing right and the fact that the Palestinians

04:05themselves had opportunities for a two-state solution and their own

04:08government failed them too kleptocratic too incapable too unwilling to take

04:15risks and so the Americans after years and years of trying to be not an honest

04:20broker because you can't be an honest broker if you're on one side but

04:23facilitating a deal the Americans basically said okay enough everybody

04:27said enough and of course that given the state of play for what it means to be a

04:34Palestinian without any opportunities for education any opportunities for

04:40proper health care any opportunities to develop a life for yourself and your

04:44children they got increasingly desperate and people that become increasingly

04:49desperate increasingly are willing to do things that the rest of us find wholly

04:53unacceptable

'They're Rooting For The Powerless': Political Scientist Explains Gen Z's Support For Palestinians

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