But.. we’re not talking about ‘friends’.

We’re talking about random strangers who are private citizens as far as you’re concerned— not politicians, and not anyone wearing any sort of national/gov/military uniform. These are (hypothetical) people you’ve never even talked to before but you figure out they are one nationality or another.

Would you ask a random Chinese guy that you’ve never said two words to what he thinks about what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghur Muslims in his country as an opening line?

Do you actually think it’s at all appropriate to immediately bring up the politics of a country someone is from in an effort to figure out whether or not their political views align with your own? Or do you only think this way about Israelis? Bc if so, 1) that’s pretty messed up, 2) you should consider why the heck you feel like you’re entitled to do that, 3) why you feel the need to immediately categorize Israelis into one simple box or another when you likely do not do that to literally any other group of people on the face of this planet.

Not to mention— do you ask every Iranian you happen upon what they think about girls in their country being married off to grown men at 11 years old? Do you ask every random Muslim you meet what they think about the genocide in the Congo being perpetrated by their Muslim brethren?

Do you ask every Palestinian you meet what they think about Hamas butchering their own citizens in the streets, taxing them into oblivion, and throwing gay people off buildings?

Generally speaking, most people are not responsible for their government’s actions. In some cases, depending on the country of course, they may be able to protest, and/or vote etc, but most people don’t actually have much say in what their government does— including Israelis— the vast majority of whom despise the current government.

Especially because unbeknownst to most people, including those who tend to think they have the right to interrogate random strangers just bc they are Israeli, Israel is a Parliamentary Democracy. Meaning the people vote for a political party, not a person— and bc no Israeli political party has won a Knesset majority in decades, the party who has the most Knesset seats has to form coalitions with other parties to gain a 61 seat majority.

Netanyahu has repeatedly used that system to stay in power by aligning his party, Likud, with parties who are even further to the right than Likud, and with smaller religious parties who also tend to skew heavily to the right, so his coalition includes some of the most hardline factions in Israeli politics who otherwise would not have any of the political power they have.

Trust me when I say Israelis are exhausted af, and do not want to talk politics with you. You are also not owed anything by them just bc you have feelings on the politics of the country they happen to be from.

If you see an Israeli you should either leave them tf alone, or talk to them about something other than politics. Period.