Netanyahu says Israel has ‘work’ to do to win over Gen Z

Israel has “work” to do in winning over young people in the West as polls show collapsing support, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to a UK-based podcast in an interview aired Wednesday.

Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have become increasingly common in capitals across the West, attracting large numbers of young people.

A recent Gallup poll also showed only six percent of 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States had a favorable opinion of Netanyahu and just nine percent approved of Israel’s military action in Gaza.

On the “Triggernometry” podcast, Netanyahu was asked whether Israel could lose the backing of Western governments once “Gen Z” – those born between around 1997 and 2012 – assumes power.

“If you’re telling me that there’s work to be done on Gen Z and across the West, yes,” he responded.

But he said opposition to Israel among Gen Z stemmed from a wider campaign against the West and repeated his unproven claim of an orchestrated plot against Israel and the West, without saying who was behind it.

Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has offered Israel ironclad support.

Netanyahu told the podcast, which bills itself as promoting free speech with “open, fact-based discussion of important and controversial issues,” that Trump “has proven an exceptional, exceptional friend of Israel, an exceptional leader.”

“I think we’ve been very fortunate to have a leader in the United States who doesn’t act like the European leaders, who doesn’t succumb to this stuff,” he added, referring to countries including France and the UK that have vowed to recognize a Palestinian state.