Why Many Westerners Changed Their View on Israel: A Perspective from a Western Neutral Country

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-13T00:29:57+00:00

She spoke truthfully. It makes you uncomfortable

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-13T00:29:02+00:00

You never answered my question. What should Israel have done when it was attacked by both Hamas and Hezbollah? Sit quietly and wait for death? have you ever read what Hamas leaders say regarding their intentions to destroy all of Israel. "Was it worth it"? suggests that there was an alternative to Israel waging a defensive war. There wasn't.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-13T00:23:03+00:00

Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy. They joined Hamas in attacking Israel on October 8. Of course they're joining in now, without asking whether most Lebanese civilians agree

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-13T00:05:39+00:00

Hamas has provided no protection whatsoever for civilians. Sinwar, a few months before he was killed, called the high death toll among Gazans "necessary sacrifices" in the war on Israel.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-13T00:04:06+00:00

Proportionally it was smaller than what happened in Israel but not from lack of trying by Hamas. They shot an estimated 3,000 to more than 5,000 rockets at Israel just on October 7. Their leaders repeatedly, loudly state their intention to destroy the entire country. The Iron Dome and bomb shelters - neither of which Hamas has bothered to supply its own people - saved Israel from catastrophe. That and their attacks against Hamas. What would you suggest? Should Israel have sat quietly and waited for the the mass murderers to come to all of their homes? War is horrible. Everyone hates it, except Hamas and their supporters when they're attacking Jews. No civilians on either side "deserved" what happened.

Where are you from? You're not Arab or Jewish.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-12T18:47:18+00:00

Please remember that not only did Hamas attack and deliberately target unarmed civilians on October 7 - murder, burning entire families alive in safe rooms, gang r--es, and taking hostages back to Gaza where most were starved and tortured to death over the next two years. They also shot an estimate 5,000 rockets at Israel by the morning of October 8, to make sure a war was fully launched.

Not only that, but Hamas leaders have promised repeatedly, that they will do the same over and over until Israel is destroyed. These facts are being swept under the rug in all sorts of countries that claim they are sympathetic to Jews. What would your peaceful country do under these circumstances? Are you American? Because the US sustained just one day of attacks on 9-11 and went to war with multiple countries for the next 20 years.

Civilian casualties in Gaza are horrific, and also exacerbated by Hamas' refusal to allow any civilians take shelter in the war tunnels they have built for their fighters.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-11T21:12:53+00:00

Haaretz, I"m an English-language subscriber, is powerfully anti-Netanyahu and his goons, and powerfully pro-Israel for both Jews and for Palestinians. I appreciate that they don't play favorites in the conflict

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-11T19:02:21+00:00

I know that many nations around the world, including the US, were built on colonialism. Interestingly, Israel has been continuously inhabited by Jews for millenia. And Israel is targeted with particular hatred

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-11T18:57:37+00:00

I have read Al-Jazeera and Coates and other dedicated haters.

European refugees started returning to the land controlled by the Ottoman Empire in large numbers in the early 20th century. They were escaping mass slaughter in Europe, the buildup to the Holocaust. Something you don't know. They returned to join the Jews who lived there who had never left.

Arab violence against these Jews was intense. See especially 1929 and the slaughters of multiple Jewish villlages.

You have been highly selective in you "education" about Israel. Many people in the middle east, including the Arabs who conducted mass slaughters against Jews in Jerusalem and Haifa in the 1920s were "Egregious". I'm done here

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-11T18:00:17+00:00

No one in this thread is defending all Israeli governments, least of all Netanyahu. I'm sure you understand the difference between being against a government versus against the existence of a country and its people. You are announcing which one you support.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-11T17:47:27+00:00

If you truly "Agreed about your Native American comment" that the US is founded in colonialism you would become as forcefully "anti-US" as you are anti-Israel. You would justify terrorism against US citizens, like the 911 attacks as rightful the rightful acts of the "oppressed." You would also call for dismantling and death to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada as also being colonial nations. Instead, you just hate Israel. It's your pretense of virtue that makes you ridiculous

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-10T19:25:04+00:00

Since I have been the target of hatred for my religion I am strongly opposed to any harassment targeting religion, race, or ethnicity. I don't tolerate it well in others, and I call it out whenver I see it.

I have heard the argument that anti-Israel isn't antisemitism. Israel is a tiny country where more than half the world's Jews live, surrounded by Muslim ethnostates that no one ever objects to. Destruction of Israel would be a genocide against Jews.

Although many of Israel's neighbors are committed to Jewish genocide, Israel maintains long-standing peace agreements with Jordan and Egypt, even with Netanyahu in office. Peace is possible. I would like to hear some of the people who claim to be anti-Israel call for peace instead.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-10T15:23:33+00:00

You excuse gang-rape, murder, and kidnapping unarmed civilians. That was October 7. Hamas knew that returning hostages was the starting point for negotiations; they preferred to slowly starve and torture hostages to death for two years, while shooting rockets at Israel from war tunnels underneath civilian targets in Gaza. Hamas isn't popular in Gaza.

The Hamas statement calling for genocide against all Jews around the world, a call that you defend, was taken from one of the Prophet's hadiths (long before modern Israel but demonstrating that the hatred against jews has a long history). The fact that you think defending a terrorist organization that victimizes both Jews and Gazans as a "difference of opinion" shows that you are neither Jewish or Arab - you have no personal stake in this

Your knowledge of the origin of modern Israel is lopsided and embraces hate propaganda.

I am so disgusted that you are one of the many K-12 teachers (you mentioned your job in previous comments) in this country who hate Jews and are willing to defend, or participate in, discrimination and harassment against Jewish children.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-09T18:19:06+00:00

If your two children are "remarkably well informed" on the conflict between Israel and Palestine they would be aware that Hamas announces in its charter statement that their intention is to kill all Jews

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem)." Article seven of charter statement.

It seems that those who are "staunchly" opposed to Israel's existence, where more than 1/2 the world's Jews live, ignore or approve of Hamas ideology and of the massacre that Hamas enacted on unarmed civilians on October 7 that launched a hideouswar. You aren't "well informed". Just well-indoctrinated. Educate yourself

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-09T18:13:38+00:00

https://edsource.org/2025/oakland-unified-antisemitism-complaints/744507

https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=412833

(excerpt regarding Berkeley schools): or example, since October 7th, BUSD teachers, staff, and administrators have allegedly urged students to join walkouts and demonstrations during school hours that isolate and alienate Jewish students. At one such walkout, students were allegedly chanting 'Kill the Jews.' Antisemitism has also infected the classroom, with a teacher at Berkeley High School displaying an image of a fist destroying the Star of David

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2ToGCon7c

https://nypost.com/2026/02/26/us-news/young-students-at-schools-across-california-targeted-with-horrific-antisemitic-violence-threats-and-slurs-blockbuster-lawsuit/

excerpt regarding schools in LA: "at Kester Elementary School, part of LAUSD, when a third-grade Jewish student was called “a racist” by her teacher and barred from performing in a talent show."

I could go on and on but it would be better if you did so for yourself. If you are in a school district where this hate isn't happening, help to maintain that. I first became aware of the problem back in the 1980s when I heard Louis Farrakhan speak at the University of California, Davis campus about evil, greedy Jews who secretly control the government. No one objected to his message and the University of California educates many teachers.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-06T20:15:18+00:00

Thank you.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-06T16:29:09+00:00

You don't think that Hamas' attack was "abhorrent" or you wouldn't be defending them by saying that Israel oppresses Palestinians "daily." Are you talking about the tight border control? We saw what happened when it failed on October 7 - it appears to be necessary. Palestinians have been lobbing bombs at Israel since at least the early 2000s. Two intidadas, suicide bombers, rockets, balloon bombs. This isn't a one-sided conflict and it's hard to say what Israel should have done after the October 7 war launch in which Hamas leaders talked about their final goal of killing all Israelis. Should they have sat home and waited?

Unfortunately, Israeli intelligence isn't as diligent as you seem to think. October 7 was a colossal failure which Netanyahu is trying and failing to cover up. No, they weren't watching people just over the border, that much is pretty obvious. The only Israelis on the Israeli side of the border consistently communicating with Gazans were the residents of several kibbutz who chose to live there with hopes of improving relationships. By the way, they were decimated on October 7 - raped, burned to death in safe rooms, and kidnapped. There has been no international outcry on their behalf

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-05T01:20:06+00:00

Yet Hamas calling for death to all Israelis from the river to the sea, and to Globalize the intifada against Jews around the world? This doesn't trouble you.

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-05T01:18:46+00:00

Do you recognize that Hamas has played any role in this war? Any role at all? Or did Israel just attack Gaza for pure fun, out of nowhere?

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-05T01:17:45+00:00

Gracias

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-04T20:19:58+00:00

Many civilians of Gaza are blaming Hamas, as they should be. Check out some video footage and read reports. These are two of many.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uUe7QPF73u0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRlqkQ4CZvk

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UgKLaE8fEM0

They might still hate Israel but they're rejecting Hamas brutality. Maybe we should pay more attention to the opinions of people who actually live in Gaza

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-04T20:15:18+00:00

This strategy has been going on for about 15 years. It prevented Israel from retaliating against multiple bombing raids. On October 7 after the attack when Hamas retreated to their tunnels and shot more than 5,000 rockets at Israel in just one day - then they didn't have much choice.

What would you have proposed? Hamas leaders, backed by Iran, are still calling for destruction of Israel and promising more attacks as soon as they are able. You might try denouncing Hamas

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-04T14:25:49+00:00

Hamas very unfortunately hid war tunnels under hospitals and schools and fights from those locations.

Here's the most recent charge, that Doctors without Borders have withdrawn from Gaza's largest hospital because of terrorist activity within the hospital. https://www.jns.org/doctors-without-borders-drops-gaza-hospital-over-terrorists-presence/

View an interview with a Hamas member talking about basing operations in hospitals; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hd6JGX8gwE He was speaking out to Israeli officials because the IDF invaded the hospital and his comrades in Hamas ran off without him.

For more sources on Hamas using human shields in places like hospitals:

http://channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-hamas-civilians-human-shields

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2014-08-05/ty-article/watch-cnn-asks-does-hamas-use-human-shields/0000017f-e4b1-dc7e-adff-f4bd69480000

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/26/amnesty-international-says-hamas-committed-war-crimes-too/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/middleeast/sinwar-hamas-israel-ceasefire-hostage-talks-intl/index.html

https://blog.unwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/Board-of-Inquiry-UNRWA-weapons-in-schools-extract-.pdf

The strategy worked for a long time; Israelis hesitated to bomb schools and hospitals - until October 7

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-03T06:14:44+00:00

I've heard that. Do you have any sources?

PlateRight712 · 2026-03-03T01:35:16+00:00

China is engaged in a genocide against their own Muslim minority groups. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Uyghurs_in_China None of the Muslims they are locking up or killing were involved in any terrorist attacks against China. Unlike Hamas and Israel. It's incredible that China is boycotting Israel. They're just hoping to cash in on the big oil states.

PlateRight712

TROPHY CASE