Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes Americans' shifting sentiment on Israel isn't due to the country's indiscriminate and yearslong slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, it's because of the social media Americans are using to bear witness.
Netanyahu's Interview with CNN
Netanyahu told CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday that Israel monitors American polls, and was 'obviously' concerned by a February survey by Gallup that found more Americans now sympathize with Palestinians in the Middle East (41%) than with the Israelis (36%). It's the first time in 25 years of polling by the survey company that Palestinians have been viewed more sympathetically.
Denial of Gaza War Correlation
But Netanyahu denied there's any correlation between the war in Gaza and a shift in sentiment, because American support for Israel was falling even before the war began. 'You see the decline in support for Israel … and it's years before, several years before the Gaza war took place, OK?' Netanyahu said.
'And you ask, why did that happen?' he continued. 'Well, the one correlation you see, which is almost a perfect correlation, is the penetration of TikTok and other social media in the United States, and as the penetration increases, the support for Israel decreases.'
Linking Israel and US Sentiment
The prime minister then tried to link Israel and the U.S. together by also blaming social media for souring Americans' perceptions of the U.S. itself: 'I think that what has happened here is that there's several countries and organizations that have penetrated the social media and abused them by putting in — bot farms and other things — especially directed at young Americans, to not only hate Israel but also to hate America, and you know what? Those who say they hate Israel usually end up hating America. They burn our flag, and they burn your flag as well.'
