I tried to be pro-Palestinian, but they made it impossible.
Far too many Palestinians and their "supporters" choose terror over peace and coexistence, propaganda over truth, and endless sympathy without any accountability.
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Call me crazy, but I believe that sympathy requires a foundation: some recognition of shared humanity, some gesture toward remorse, some desire for peace.
Yet, when an entire population celebrates the murder of innocents, it becomes harder (if not impossible) to empathize. And that’s not just rhetoric.
A poll by The Palestinian Center for Policy and Research indicated that three in four Palestinians believe the October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel was correct, and the ensuing Gaza war has lifted support for the Islamist group both there and in the West Bank.
Read that paragraph again.
Personally, I am one for learning through consequences. So if you are willing to gamble on a war, which the poll shows the majority were, then you also need to accept the consequences if the outcome doesn’t go your way.
I also find it hard to sympathise with people that revel in the suffering of others. We saw first hand, via the terrorists’ own videos, the joy and exaltation enjoyed by both terrorists and non-militant Palestinians during the day of slaughter. One particular video circulated that involved a young man calling his family from a murdered Israeli’s phone, telling his mother: “Mom, I killed 10 Jews with my own hands!”1
Based on the hundreds of videos we have seen from October 7th, I think it naive to believe that these kind of views are not commonly held in Gaza.
We also witnessed the cheering crowds in Gaza — hundreds of people, including women and children, celebrating the kidnapping of alive and dead Israelis, covered in blood, scared to death, the dead with bloody distorted limbs. This joyous occasion was celebrated with the giving out of candy, a common practice by Palestinians after they murder Israelis.
Despite the baseless and absurd accusations, Jews do not take pleasure in the suffering of others — even though, after October, no one could have faulted them if they did. But that’s simply not who they are. Which is why, prior to this war, approximately 100,000 Palestinians (from both Gaza and the West Bank) received treatment in Israel or East Jerusalem hospitals each year.2
How do you think Israeli patients would have fared in Gaza?
Although it is weaponised against Israel by those who specialise in hate, inside the Jewish state thousands of Israelis protest for a ceasefire. Rather than viewing the protests as a sign of a healthy democracy where people share different views and can safely protest against their own government, the anti-Israel mob uses it as ammunition to further throw shade on Israel.
Of the thousands of videos I have watched since October 7th, I have not seen one where a single Palestinian has shown empathy or mercy for the thousands of Israeli victims.
If I found it hard before, it became much harder after the macabre spectacle of the Bibas children stage show: two innocent, red-headed children, stolen from their homes and used as bargaining chips, then strangled to death by monsters and paraded in small child-size black coffins in front of a baying crowd, who clearly felt no shame.
Again, if this was widely condemned by the civilians of Gaza, I certainly didn’t see it. In fact, of the hundreds of thousands of videos and images that have come out of Gaza over the past two years, I have not seen a single one showing empathy for the Bibas boys.
This brings me to the supporters of the “pro-Palestine” movement, many of whom appear to also glean joy from the misery of Israelis. Drawing swastikas on posters of kidnapped Israelis is not normal, it’s not ok, and this kind of untethered hate against Jews and Israel has not been isolated. I see it every day, in my social feeds and in comments on my writings. This hate has become normalised, even accepted.
Many social media “influencers” believe that almost the entire population of Israel deserves to die, because they have mandatory military service, without any mention of the continuous and ongoing threats from there Islamic neighbours who force them to either create a strong army, or be annihilated.
A sickness has permeated into Western societies, one where it has become morally acceptable to call for the death of an entire nation of people. And not only will you not be vilified for doing so, you will be lauded, supported, and included by the cool kids. You know the drill by now: “From the River to the Sea!”
Way too many “pro-Palestinian” supporters have expressed an inability or unwillingness to engage in a nuanced discussion on this issue, which effectively means that there is never any thoughtful debate. Believe me, I have tried many times. How do you argue with someone who still believes that the IDF trained dogs to rape Palestinians?
The problem is, we are not competing on an even playing field. The deck is stacked against Israel. Israelis are not only fighting a seven-front war against Islamic terror; they are fighting against a deliberate war of lies and misinformation from the media, from the public, from NGOs, and from international organisations.
This week, the New York Times printed a shocking front-page story about the starvation in Gaza, featuring an almost full-page image of a healthy looking mother with a child who is skin and bones. The news story and image were reprinted by hundreds of media outlets worldwide, causing untold harm to Israel’s image.
But the image was a lie; the child was not starving, since you can see his younger brother (who was cropped out of the New York Times photo) is healthy and well-fed. Eighteen-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq (the child who is skin and bones) was born with a serious genetic disorder, suffers from cerebral palsy, and has been diagnosed with hypoxaemia.
And yet, the damage to Israel was done. Nevermind how abhorrent and sickening it is that this poor child was exploited solely as a means to demonise Israel.
Every child learned the lesson of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” The media may think they have won the misinformation war against Israel, but they have sacrificed the truth. If a cause (i.e. the so-called “Palestinian cause”) is reasonably justifiable, it shouldn’t need to manufacture lies to gain support.
It is hard to empathise with a cause that is continuously platforming falsehoods. Whether the source is the Hamas-run “Gaza Health Ministry,” Pallywood, or the social feeds of their supporters, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to support a movement that is built on so much dishonesty.
The disproportionate attention on the Palestinian issue sits uncomfortably with my sense of fairness. It feels grossly unjust that the world has become obsessed with an estimated death toll of around 60,000 people, which includes combatants and natural deaths (from a war that they started), while hundreds of thousands and even millions of people are suffering far more brutal humanitarian crises in Yemen, Syria, and Sudan, with little-to-no support from the international community.
Israel’s honesty and accountability over the past 21 months, with transparent coverage of events such as the tragic error by a young IDF soldier who accidentally killed hostages, believing it was another rouse by Hamas, has been weaponised by Israel’s detractors. This exploitation creates an environment where open discussion is shut down, fearing that any concession will be used as a tool to vilify Israel.
A healthy society is able to discuss and debate issues, giving way on points, listening to alternate views, and learning through discourse — yet that is not what we are experiencing. Context and nuance have been dethroned by sensationalism.
I’ve seen no evidence that the Palestinian people have any desire to live peacefully next to Israel. If that changes, then I am prepared to change my view.
When the people of Gaza show a willingness to stop supporting terrorism, acknowledge the obvious right of Israel to exist, take accountability for the atrocities perpetrated against Israelis on October 7th and the hostages thereafter, and show a legitimate intention to live peacefully with their neighbours, I will support their right for peaceful self-determination.
Until that happens, there’s not much of anything positive to be “pro-Palestinian” about.
“In phone recording found after Hamas attack son tells parents he ‘killed Jews’.” Global News.
Project Rozana (Rozana)
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Yes those of us who read these articles agree with you but how many readers do you have? Maybe a few hundred at most? This is what the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, CNN, ABC etc should be reporting. Even thousands of Diaspora Jews believe the publicity of the Muslims. Even thousands of Israelis protest against their own governments policies not realizing how this encourages anti-semitism in the rest of the world. Look how many countries have now called for a Palestinian state and probably about 40 percent of diaspora Jews support this.
Writing these articles in this forum do us little good. Use some good media contacts and get these voices heard in National media through the western world.
In 2023, I was sympathetic to the "Palestinians." Not passionately so, more like compassionate and open-minded. I knew Jewish history but I knew no Israeli or "Palestinian" history nor really anything about the history of any of the Muslim countries. Then 10/7 happened and literally the same day social media was flooded with calls of "Death to Israel!" and "Death to the Jews!" when it appeared that Israel had been savagely attacked while minding its own business. So I hit the books to find out what was really going on. I read and listened to podcasts during pretty much every waking moment from then to this day. Within maybe four months, all the accounts of savage repeated attempted genocide of the Jews, all accounts of peace deals rejected and met with massacres of the Jews, all accounts of Islamic colonialism and Islamic supremacy burned through any sympathy I had had.
I now have an attitude very much that the "Palestinians" have to demonstrate a complete about-face on the Islamic jihadi goal to conquer the earth before I will trust them an inch. They have to demonstrate they truly respect the Israelis and will recognize Israel as a state and not try to kill its people. Seriously, how can you trust or even respect such people? Reading a history from WWI, the Brits called the Arabs "children of lies" and the "Palestinians" totally fit that; they refuse responsibility for everything and lie about everything, and do everything they can to get the world to fight their battles for them. Unprincipled cowards.
I started out sympathetic. It takes a lot to get me to have contempt for a people. I am angry that they proved they were worthy of contempt.