Supporting Israel should not be controversial.

If your commitment to justice is consistent and honest, then you already know that supporting Israel isn’t extreme. Pretending it’s controversial is.

A woman draped in the Israeli flag (photo: Levi Meir Clancy/Unsplash)

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Since April 2023, over 150,000 people have been killed, 11 million have been displaced, 26 million face acute food shortages, children are being starved, women are being raped en masse, and entire villages are being ethnically cleansed.

I’m not talking about Gaza or “Palestine.” Those are the realities emanating out of Sudan.

And yet, no protests, no viral hashtags, no encampments, no performative statements from influencers and activists, no campus revolts, no boycotts. Barely a murmur.

Now ask yourself: Why has Gaza — with fewer casualties, far less displacement, and a government run by a terrorist group that literally started the war — become the defining moral issue of our time? And, why do so many people only seem to find their conscience when it means condemning the one Jewish state on Earth?

The answer, though uncomfortable, reveals a lot about where we are — morally, politically, and spiritually. What’s more, it reveals the hidden biases that inform a lot of people’s views on Jews and, by extension, the Jewish state.

Compare the world's response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with its response to Hamas’ slaughter and kidnappings in Israel. With Ukraine, moral clarity was immediate. Ukraine had the right to exist, to defend itself, to fight back. The world passionately encouraged Ukrainian resistance.

But when Israel rightfully defends itself from terrorists who raped its women and dragged its children into tunnels, it is accused of “genocide.” No other country is told to die quietly.

The backlash to Israel’s self-defense didn’t just come from ignorance. It revealed something deeper: That many in the world still see Jews and Israel as inherently suspicious, powerful, or manipulative. As people who must be held to a higher standard, constantly justify their existence, and remain forever apologetic for surviving.

Why is Jewish grief met with skepticism? Why is Jewish power seen as threatening, while Jewish victimhood is dismissed as exaggeration or propaganda? Why is the Jewish state uniquely portrayed as both all-powerful and illegitimate?

These contradictions are not new. They’re ancient. They’re antisemitic.

When people say, “I’m not antisemitic, I’m just anti-Zionist,” but apply none of the same scrutiny or outrage to truly despicable regimes — when they mobilize global protest movements over alleged Israeli actions but stay silent about Syria, China, Iran, or Sudan — they are not making a moral stand. They are exposing a moral bias.

Let’s be clear: Palestinian suffering is real. But suffering is not the same as innocence, and just because suffering exists doesn’t mean there is someone else to blame for it. Sometimes, suffering is self-inflicted. In the Palestinians’ case, this is often the reality. I am not victim-blaming. Go read a history book not written by a Palestinian propagandist.

What you’ll find is many Arab leaders themselves, since the early 1900s, repeatedly articulating the actual truth: There is no historical “Palestinian people.” They were a people manufactured by other regional actors (first the Egyptians and Jordanians, then the Soviets, then the Iranians and Qataris) to serve these actors’ interests, at the undeniable expense of both Palestinians and Israelis.

There is a reason why so many Arab countries refuse to let Palestinians into their countries. They are dangerous and lethal. Go read about the Palestinians’ history in Jordan, Lebanon, and Kuwait. A quick Google search will yield unambiguous results that may just change how you view “the Palestinians.”

Nowadays, Hamas does not fight for freedom or liberation; it fights for annihilation. It hides behind civilians, fires from hospitals, and stores weapons in schools. It is not a resistance movement. It is a death cult, a direct offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been waging a war on the West since the 1920s. Don’t be the person who empathizes with the people who are pining to destroy them. That never ends well.

As for Israel, like any democracy it is not perfect. What country is? But unlike its enemies, Israel does not build terror tunnels under playgrounds. It does not strap bombs to teenagers. It does not reward murderers with stipends.

There is a profound moral difference between a country trying to protect its citizens and a regime that glorifies killing. If you cannot understand this difference, it’s time to give your moral compass a hard reset.

Of course, many people’s perspectives are not formed in a vacuum. They are the product of their environment — shaped by what they see, what they’re taught, and what they’re not taught. The media they consume, the educational institutions they attend, and the cultural discourses they inhabit all play a decisive role in how they interpret world events.

When universities frame the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of unhinged colonialism — but fail to mention the Jewish People’s 3,000-year connection to the land — students absorb a distorted view. When media outlets omit the word “terrorist” and use euphemisms like “militants” or “fighters,” audiences unconsciously internalize moral equivalence. When social media rewards emotional outrage over historical accuracy, misinformation becomes viral truth.

This environment doesn’t just produce confusion; it manufactures conviction. It teaches people to adopt positions they believe are virtuous, even if they are built on half-truths or outright lies. And once those narratives are in place, people don’t just defend them; they moralize them. They don’t just believe Israel is the villain. They need Israel to be the villain, because it justifies their worldview.

That is the power of narrative. And that is why the fight for moral clarity isn’t just about facts; it’s about reclaiming the framework in which those facts are understood. Our schools, media, NGOs, and even some companies have surrendered moral clarity in favor of ideological theatrics. We should ask ourselves why. These institutions are self-interested, just as you and I are. Behind the mask of oversimplified narratives that sound good in short-form content, what are they trying to hide, influence, and/or benefit from?

And, how did we get to a place where an entire generation has been raised on hashtags and identity politics, while chanting genocidal terrorist slogans with no understanding of what they mean; or worse, with full knowledge of what they mean. The very institutions that claim to champion human rights suddenly go silent when Jewish lives are on the line; or worse, rationalize the violence as “justified rage.”

That is not human rights. It is human selectivity masquerading as virtue, where the worth of a life depends on the identity of the victim, and the morality of violence is judged by the politics of the perpetrator.

When we ask people to support Israel, it’s just not a Jewish issue. It is to support the values that underpin civilization: democracy, pluralism, truth, justice, and the right of a people to exist in peace. There is only one group of people that has largely and consistently been in favor of a two-state solution since the 1930s: the Jews. The Palestinians have refused it on some 10 different occasions since then. That’s on them, not on Israel or Jews in the Diaspora.

Especially since October 7th, most Israelis have understandably moved on from this solution. Proposals are not on the table for all of eternity. You cannot keep stabbing someone and expect them to keep offering you half of their home. At some point, even the most peace-seeking people learn to lock the door.

The world loves to talk about “peace” in abstract terms, but peace is not just the absence of war. It requires a partner. It requires recognition, legitimacy, and a shared desire for coexistence. Hamas doesn’t want a state next to Israel, and I’m not sure the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank) does either. It wants a territory instead of Israel. And if your so-called solution depends on trusting those who would burn Israeli children alive, it’s not a peace plan. It’s a suicide pact.

Israelis have learned, through heartbreak and bloodshed, that intentions matter more than slogans, and that survival must take precedence over symbolism. A people that has buried 6 million of its own is under no obligation to trust empty promises again.

So when we say we support Israel, we are supporting the only side that has ever truly shown up for peace — and the only one that has anything to lose by continuing to believe in it.

Plus, what’s happening now isn’t just about geopolitics. It’s about whether we still recognize the difference between victim and aggressor, between good and evil, between civilization and savagery. If we can’t be clear about this, then what will we ever be clear about again?

The people who are confused or mentally deranged about this are the same people preaching about “universalism,” calling for the removal of borders, and denouncing nationalism at every turn. They argue that all parents love their children. But love is demonstrated by what you teach, celebrate, and sacrifice for.

A society that defends its children is not the same as one that turns them into martyrs. A culture that builds playgrounds is not equal to one that builds human shields. Palestinian parents are not helpless. They have agency. They shape their societies. And when those societies glorify violence, there are consequences.

Even then, it must be said: The Jewish People are not asking for your pity. We are not asking for your moral permission to exist. We are asking why it is controversial to grieve our murdered and defend our homes. If Jewish self-defense triggers you more than Jewish death, you are not neutral. You are not compassionate. You are part of the problem.

As such, supporting Israel should not be controversial. It should be the bare minimum for anyone who claims to believe in human dignity. This is not a call for blind allegiance; it is a call for basic decency. It is a call to ask why, of all the nations in the world, the sole Jewish state is the one so many are eager to question, discredit, isolate, and even erase (or at least sympathize with people who do these things).

It is a call to reject the moral double standards that reward terror and punish self-defense. A call to recognize that peace is not achieved by enabling those who glorify violence or by condemning those who protect their citizens. And a call to understand that standing with Israel is not an act of tribalism; it is an act of moral sanity.

You don’t have to be Jewish to stand with Israel. You just need to be consistent and honest. You need to care about the survival of free societies in a world that seems increasingly comfortable excusing those who wish to destroy them. Because, if your commitment to justice ends where Jewish sovereignty begins, then it was never about justice at all.

But if your commitment to justice is consistent and honest, then you already know that supporting Israel isn’t extreme. Pretending it’s controversial is.

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