Hillary Clinton is facing a deluge of criticism after stating that young Americans’ growing support for Palestinians is influenced by “totally made-up” videos on TikTok and suggesting that American youth - including young Jews - “don’t know history and don’t understand” Israel’s war on Gaza.
Speaking on Tuesday at a summit hosted by the right-wing Israeli paper Israel Hayom in New York City, the former Democratic presidential candidate expressed her concerns that “smart, well-educated young people” in America and around the world are getting a lot of their information, including about Israel and Palestine, from social media platforms like TikTok.
The former US secretary of state described it as “serious problem for democracy”, remarking that when she attempted to have “reasonable discussions” with young people, it was challenging because “they did not know history, they had very little context, and what they were being told on social media was not just one-sided, it was pure propaganda".
I spent two years in college studying the history of the Middle East and specifically the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I have never been on TikTok. Then where the fuck did my pro-Palestine views come from? I know the history very well and Israel has been unreasonable assholes from the beginning. Yes, Hamas and Palestine need to stop leading with violence, but when you’re fighting for your country’s literal existence it’s a bit of a moral grey area. The whole situation is a shit show and it infuriates me that Israel has so much support from the US. Without the 800lb gorilla backing them I feel like they’d have been forced to negotiate a reasonable solution long ago. Instead, here we are with a wildly disproportionate response that is 2 years long and the US has effectively cheered them on.
Hilary and her entire generation of politicians can get fucked.