I am a proud American Gen Z-er, but sometimes I want to grab my generation by the shoulders and scream, “Wake up!”
We are the most progressive generation to reach adulthood in the United States, yet swaths of us are fangirling over one of the most backward, sexist, homophobic, and violent regimes on earth: The Islamic Republic of Iran, and their barbaric proxy Hamas. Our longing for a worthy cause to champion mixed with Islamic Regime propaganda has clouded our collective judgment.
Hamas knows this, and they are mastermind gaslighters who manipulate people my age online into believing that they are victims and “freedom fighters.”
Since the start of the current hostage deal, Hamas has produced videos showing young female hostages being paraded around on stage in front of a jeering crowd of armed men, and being escorted into vans while men scream at them and bang on the cars.
While this footage made me feel sick, there are already people claiming that the women look well-fed and taken care of. Hamas made sure to dress them up in mock IDF uniforms (they were kidnapped in their pajamas), hand them “goodie” bags, and have them smile and wave at the crowd.
People are already forgetting, or purposely omitting, how these women looked when they were first kidnapped by Hamas: covered in blood, limping, and being pulled by the hair, while terrorists called them “dogs” and “sex slaves.”
While these hostages coming home is cause for celebration, we cannot allow the world to forget or rewrite the history of what happened to these women on October 7. We also cannot stop advocating for the release of the rest of the hostages. There are three living American hostages, and every American should be shouting from the rooftops for their release.
We need to support Israel and spread awareness about the hostages while improving at spreading the pro-Israel message effectively.
The release of the American hostages should be framed as an issue of patriotism.
Hamas’s treatment of women is a feminist issue, and we are finally starting to see more people, including celebrities, such as Gwyneth Paltrow speak out.
The hostage issue is a human issue that everyone should care about. However, the reality is that Hamas and Iran are winning the media war. Pro-Israel activists need to be strategic about framing the issues in ways that speak to different audiences.
The opinions of Gen Z heavily influence today’s social media tone, so winning the war of disseminating information is key.
The morally correct victim
THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN issue is currently being framed as a David and Goliath situation.
The Palestinians are viewed as the smaller, weaker, underdog hero, a David, against Israel as the stronger, bigger, and evil Goliath. The current line of thinking with 20-somethings seems to be that strong and powerful is, by definition, bad. The weak team is automatically the morally correct victim.
This skewed perception of right and wrong is made worse by the fact that with the David and Goliath situation in the Middle East, the parallel is not between Israel and the Palestinians but between Israel and Iran and its many proxies.
Spoiler alert: Israel is not Goliath.
Israel is not at war with a tiny, struggling, ragtag group of resistant fighters who are oppressed.
The tiny Jewish State the size of New Jersey is fighting for survival in its indigenous and ancestral homeland while surrounded by Muslim-majority nations, many of whom want to see its complete destruction. There is one Jewish state, but 57 Islamic states worldwide.
Gen Z loves to support minority groups; we need to remind them who that is. Gen Z is also staunchly opposed to imperialism. Iran is a gargantuan, wealthy power player that is arguably the world’s biggest source of state-sponsored terror, with terror proxy groups all over the Middle East, several of which were formed solely to rid the world of its only Jewish state.
To my peers who want to do good: Supporting the Jewish people’s right to sovereignty in its historic national homeland is good. To understand Jewish history is to witness the first successful anti-imperialist movement in returning a people to its aboriginal homeland in modern history.
Supporting Iran and its terror groups is not good; not for Jews, not for Muslims, not for women, not for the LGBTQ+ community, or anyone else.
Gen Z, when someone tells you who they are, believe them.
Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah have told us and showed us who they are. They hate you for your way of life, they openly say that the West and the United States are next, and they will take advantage of your good intentions to push their agenda.
It is undoubtedly trendy to be anti-West at the moment, but trendy does not always equate to moral or just.
My plea to Gen Z-ers is to do a bit of research and come to your own conclusions. You will see that standing with Israel is standing with your worldview and principles. Understanding Israel’s story requires a little more work and context. Nevertheless, it is worth it, because the wider the lens, the clearer it becomes who is on the side of right and justice.
Israel’s opponents know that one line, a single image, or a soundbite can affect a lifetime of opinion. Gen Z-ers, please don’t automatically accept the assumptions of a slew of Instagram posts.
Learn the story, the history, the facts, and the context. It is worth it because if you do, you can stand proudly with the Jewish state, in line with your values and ideals.
The writer is an alumna of Passages, a Christian organization dedicated to taking Christian students to Israel and mobilizing young people to support the Jewish state on campuses and in communities across the US, and to stand up against antisemitism.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1730128020581377’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
