Newsweek is reporting that several polls are showing Republicans, many of them younger, are not as strong as older Republicans on the nation of Israel.
Support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, financial and military support, support for the war in Gaza -- all are down for Millennials.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries says the polls are probably right, and the decline in support is not about a political party.
“I have no doubt that the survey is absolutely correct. There is a kind of generational divide, not just in the Republican Party, but I think in the conservative movement.”
The party, though, has a responsibility. Pritchard says the more strident antisemitic voices like Nick Fuentes need to be strongly condemned and thrown out of the big tent.
“We have to face the fact that there is a strain of antisemitism in America, inside the conservative movement that has reared its ugly head in the last couple of years. The antisemitism part of it, that's got to be exposed, and it's got to somehow be rooted out of the conservative movement.”
As for the rest of the America First crowd that is growing cool on the Israeli government and military, Pritchard has a reminder.
“From 1948 until now, America has had no better friend in the Middle East than the nation of Israel.”
Part of the continuing support from older Republicans comes from their familiarity with history.
“The older generation remembers what the Jewish people have been through and certainly (has) memories of what happened during World War II.”
