The Republican Party is heading toward a crossroads over support for Israel as the next generation of MAGA minions splits with older members of the GOP.
President Donald Trump has been attempting to toe a fine line between supporting Israel and his close ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and not alienating younger Republicans. The president won the 2024 election with the help of a larger share of young voters.
The split over Israel is one of several rifts in the president’s base since he returned to office. The U.S. carrying out strikes in Iran this month supercharged the MAGA civil war, but there was a split over Israel long before that, as war raged in Gaza.
A Quinnipiac poll conducted last week found an overwhelming majority of Republicans supported the U.S. joining Israel in military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. But there was a nearly 20-point gap depending on age. 68 percent of those 18 to 49 supported it, while 87 percent of those 50 and up did.
At the same time, an eye-catching 31 percent of Republicans ages 18 to 49 found the U.S. was too supportive of Israel, while just 7 percent of those said it was too supportive.
Meanwhile, a Pew poll conducted in March found young Republicans have seen a dramatic shift when it comes to holding a negative view of Israel over the past few years.
Republicans under 50 are now as likely to have a negative view of Israel as a positive one, with the split from 50 percent to 48 percent. Back in 2022, the divide was much wider, with 63 percent holding a positive view while only 35 percent had a negative one.
“To be ‘America First,’ the Stars and Stripes must come before the Star of David,” Josiah Neumann, a 20-year-old at Xavier University, told The Washington Post.
He said while the U.S. is giving Israel billions a year, it has not addressed issues at home as well, namely the crime in his hometown of Buffalo, or the fentanyl epidemic, for example. The images of devastation and death on social media also changed his initial views on the war there, and he’s been showing those images to his pro-Israel parents.
Andrew Belcher, a young Republican at Miami University in Ohio, told the Post that the fallout over October 7 “kind of broke that very emotional attachment to Israel.”
The Republican establishment has long been a supporter of Israel and, specifically, its conservative government. When Netanyahu was denied a meeting with President Obama in 2015, he accepted an invitation from Republican congressional leaders to address a joint session of Congress.
As his relationship remained frosty with President Joe Biden, Netanyahu further cozied up to Trump as he ran a third time. More recently, Republican congressional leaders met with Netanyahu at the U.S. Capitol in February in a show of support.
After the U.S. carried out the strikes on Iran, Republicans on Capitol Hill largely rallied behind the president, but some MAGA influencers including Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA focused on young Republicans, fretted over the U.S. getting pulled into another war in the Middle East before Trump announced a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
