Overall, Israel, like all countries, has committed some crimes and many mistakes. But it has offered more opportunities to the Palestinians than the Palestinian leaders have. And it has proven less tyrannical than any of its Arab neighbors would be if they’d had the same military might and were subjected to the same 75 years of constant existential... See more
Poll conducted in West Bank and Gaza finds 75% support for October 7, including 60% extremely support, versus 12% against.
88% feel favorably toward Hamas, 10% unfavorable.
78% support a Palestinian state from "the river to the sea."
Nice people.... See more
Either side can easily be portrayed as the underdog, because victimhood is limited only by imagination. So we must consider the question not in terms of who is most oppressed, but who is most reasonable? Who is most willing to compromise, and whose goals will, overall, benefit Israelis and Palestinians most?
So it’s useful to ask what absolute power would reveal about Israel and Hamas. In other words, what would each side do if it had nukes and its enemies didn’t? Based on Hamas’s history, and its charter, which calls for the total obliteration of Israel, we can be confident they’d nuke Tel Aviv. And yet, if Israel had nukes, they wouldn’t nuke... See more
People ask me all the time if I am "pro-Israel" because I am a Jew who has lived in Israel, and my answer is that being "pro-Israel" or being "pro-Palestine" or being a "Zionist" does not properly capture the nuance of thought most people do or should have about this issue. It certainly doesn't capture mine.
I have a... See more
When I was a clueless young leftist I too believed Israel was the oppressor and Palestinians were the oppressed, because that’s what everyone around me was saying, and my empty mind was a vacuum that sucked it all up. Once I escaped my echo-chamber, and began to objectively assess the facts, I realized just how unfairly Israel has been demeaned —... See more
The genius marketing of Hamas
Gaza operates as an independent state, whose leader has a stated goal to commit genocide against its neighbor
Naturally, Israel has a strict border with this neighbor - what people call a "blockade"
And, Hamas has branded this... See more
A similar homology applies to the term “terrorism.” During the period of Jewish struggle against the British military in Palestine, “terrorist” had a positive connotation. In the late 1940s, American newspapers ran an advertisement with the headline, “Letter to the Terrorists of Palestine,” wherein the Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht wrote, “My... See more