Firstly, you totally misread my intentions. I'm not into oppression olympics either, but having said that, you are doing a great job of invalidating our lived experience. I, on the other hand, was relying on you having yours to give you some perspective on what we're going through. My bad, I guess?
The fact that you think Jews are safe and living harmoniously demonstrates a wide disconnect between how you perceive our place in the world, and how we perceive our place in the world. The fact that you don't recognize that we are dealing with a literal attempt at genocide by those seeking to create an Islamic State is a cause for concern, but no matter. We've seen how the world responded to the massacre on October 7th. We see how the world responds to us defending ourselves. You can choose to play the equivocation game if you want; you're obviously a smart guy, you're perfectly capable of rationalizing whatever and however you choose.
> But I think the best way to do that is to work with the Palestinian people.
The above shows a complete lack of understanding for the situation in Israel and Gaza. There is no way to work with the Palestinian people unless Hamas is out of the picture. Anyone who doesn't support Hamas has been completely and thoroughly subjugated, they have no voice. The Palestinians who are suffering the most know exactly what's happening, and they know exactly why it's happening, even if you and the rest of the world don't.
Even so, a lot is going to have to go into shifting the ideological backdrop of the situation, on both sides. Of course we have to change our approach - you're preaching to the choir. But please understand: it's very hard to change your approach in real time when you're on defense; I have yet to hear a single suggestion of what we should be doing that we haven't already tried.
As I've written in that article I linked to, I'm actually feeling optimistic for the first time since the second intifada broke out that we have real potential for change right now. Both based on how we Israelis are talking collectively - there's generally broad consensus rejecting our government and its policies for the first time in many decades - and Palestinians that are starting to come out (even if they can only do so anonymously right now) to tell stories that suggest that change is coming.
You can justify the unreasonable scrutiny for and judgement of Israel's activities however you like, you have an internet full of misrepresentations and ignorant nonsense at your disposal. At the end of the day, I guess opinions of people outside of our region who don't understand the reality on the ground don't matter quite as much as we worry they do.
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Having said all that... I think, in spite of the points we've been arguing, that we agree on the fundamentals that matter the most. I believe your intentions are good, and I do appreciate that you're not simply regurgitating everyone else's talking points. Thanks for trying to balanced, that's a brave stance in the current climate.
