Ro Khanna to Hillary Clinton: Don't ‘Disparage the Intelligence of Young People’ on Israel
Khanna pushed back on Clinton’s claims that Israel’s critics 'don’t know the history' while speaking with three American humanitarians abducted by Israel.
Prem Thakker
Dec 03, 2025
· Paid
Ro Khanna outside the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 18, 2025. Hillary Clinton on Oct. 28, 2025 in New York City. Photos by Heather Diehl/Getty Images; Arturo Holmes/Getty Images.
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna rejects Hillary Clinton’s claims that young people are dramatically misinformed on the issue of Israel and Palestine, and that it’s all TikTok’s fault. Speaking with Zeteo, he counters that young people are actually very educated on the issue, and that it’s the facts of the genocide that shape people’s opposition to it.
“I don’t think that the answer is to disparage the intelligence of young people,” Khanna said.
Khanna was responding to remarks Clinton made at an event Tuesday, where she suggested that young people were misinformed on the “history” and “context” regarding Israel – and that social media was to blame.
Clinton’s argument that Israel is merely struggling with public relations perfectly embodies the political establishment’s views on Israel and Palestine. It’s a view dramatically out of step with public opinion and the reality on the ground – but it’s one that explains why Congress was so eager to ban TikTok in the US, and why Donald Trump has worked to put its US operations in the hands of pro-Israel investors.
The former secretary of state made the remarks as she headlined a far-right pro-Israel summit organized by Israel Hayom, the most widely-distributed newspaper in Israel. Its publisher is Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American billionaire and Trump megadonor.
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“Israel has the worst PR of any group I have ever known,” Clinton said. “The story that needed to be told is not being told effectively, and I think it is only getting worse now.” She complained that students she encountered “did not know history,” and the videos young people would watch on platforms like TikTok are “pure propaganda” or “totally made up.” She said the dynamic impacted “not just the usual suspects,” but also “a lot of young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
The following day, Khanna had a very different afternoon, meeting with three Americans (including two veterans) who were part of the most recent aid flotilla effort seeking to deliver aid to Gaza. Israeli forces intercepted the historic 44-ship flotilla, abducting hundreds of foreign nationals, including dozens of Americans, who were attempting to break Israel’s illegal blockade.
Zeteo was invited to sit in on Khanna’s meeting with the flotilla participants. When Zeteo asked Khanna about Clinton’s comments, the congressman grinned, turning to one of the activists, Jewish-American writer David Adler, and joked: “David, have you been spending too much time on TikTok?”
‘People Saw With Their Own Eyes’
Khanna, a leading progressive voice in the House of Representatives, helped lead efforts to push Israel to release the US citizens on board the flotilla, including bringing together 24 of his colleagues – across the ideological spectrum, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – to sign onto a letter urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ensure the Americans’ safety.
On Clinton’s remarks, Khanna cited John Stuart Mill and “his central argument … that the more sources of information, the better.”
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“What initially was the case, before we had a lot of social media, is that only a few people got to filter the types of information that were coming into the United States. This was a particularly acute problem in Gaza and the West Bank, where journalists have often been banned from going, so the traditional media outlets are not capable of getting all of the perspective. Social media actually cut through that,” Khanna continued. “It actually started to show the killing of children, the starving of children, the bombing of hospitals, which people saw with their own eyes on social media reels.”
Khanna added that the young people he’s talked to “are deeply informed about this issue. They aren’t just watching the videos. They have studied the history. They understand far more about this topic than I did at their age. And so I don’t think that the answer is to disparage the intelligence of young people.”
Khanna speaks with Zue Jernstedt, David Adler, and Greg Stoker. Photo courtesy of the office of Rep. Ro Khanna.
Veteran Greg Stoker, who served four tours in Afghanistan before joining Adler on the flotilla, chimed in, saying Clinton’s remarks reminded him of the quote from George Orwell’s 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Stoker went further, saying that if TikTok was around earlier, he may not have enlisted to deploy in Afghanistan. “I would have had bigger access to know what we were actually doing over there, what we were fighting for. The actual war crimes that were committed by US troops. And then I wouldn’t have done four deployments and spent like, six years in intensive therapy learning how to become a normal member of society again. So I think it’s a good thing personally,” he said. “But I guess I’m just a young millennial.”
Zue Jernstedt, the third activist and second veteran in the meeting, also rejected Clinton’s comments. “I’m not young, but I’m someone who was affected by this, and it landed me in the West Bank because I wanted to see it with my own eyes. And it ended with me getting marched into the woods at gunpoint by an [Israeli] soldier for filming them putting a bag over a Palestinian’s head. It landed me getting thrown off the top of a well in a Palestinian village because I was trying to defend the water,” she said.
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Jernstedt continued, “It landed me at gunpoint in the middle of the ocean, getting marched downstairs, women first, because I was on social media and saw what was happening and wanted to see for myself. I’m a US Army combat veteran – Hillary Clinton can say all she wants that these videos are fake, but this is why we’re going over there and saying, ‘No, this is happening. This is real. You can’t keep saying it’s fake.’”
‘Twin Scandal’
Clinton’s appearance at the pro-Israel summit happened just days after Israel finally released 16-year-old Palestinian-American Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim after nearly 10 months in detention – and as Israel continues to violate Trump’s supposed “ceasefire” agreement, killing hundreds more Palestinians so far.
Ibrahim’s plight, as well as that of the Palestinians, was always central to the flotilla passengers, particularly during and after their time in Israeli detention. On Wednesday, the three activists echoed that message, while also detailing to Khanna the shocking nature of the US’s tepid response to Israel’s treatment of the Americans on the flotilla.
Adler described it as the “twin scandal of the flotilla.” On one side, there’s Israel’s abusive treatment of the American humanitarians, but there’s also the issue of how little the Trump administration did to facilitate their return home – an issue Adler described as “far more scandalous.”
Jernstedt recalled her concern upon seeing flotilla volunteers from other nations all meeting with their consulates, while she hadn’t heard anything from US officials. When the Americans finally did get a call, Jernstedt said, they received no help, despite issues like one of her veteran crewmates suffering from a severe migraine and vision issues. She said the US officials “couldn’t get us an aspirin, they couldn’t get us a bottle of water, and they said they had no leverage; $21.7 billion in military aid should be leverage enough,” she said.
The American volunteers also described a jarring contrast between how other countries received their nationals upon release versus the US.
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Other nations, Adler said, were “urgently beating down the doors” of the detention center to see their citizens, and welcomed them with “hugs and calls and tickets home and accommodation and clothes and cigarettes and coffee” upon their release.
The US, Jernstedt said, operated differently. “Our consulate said she wasn’t our babysitter,” she recounted.
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