On Israel/Palestine

To start with, I will fully denounce any form of antisemitism. It is a scapegoat, a way of blaming the problems of an individual or group on another group that is “secretly responsible” for all of ones problems. Yet I think there is a good point in that stereotypes usually don’t simply arise from nowhere. Is it true that Judaism builds a tightknit community that then builds itself up? Yes. Is it true that Jewish people usually have higher than average levels of wealth? Yes. Is it true that Jewish people often make up higher amounts in academia? Yes.

The important point is here, however, that while minor dictations can be made from differing ethnicities, with each culture prioritizing different things, the leap to Jewish people “controlling the world” is simply ridiculous. Stories are easy for humans to understand, so the story (which is what it effectively is) that Jewish people are the manipulator behind the world’s problems can thus find small aligning elements that then reinforce the story. In counter, I notice that of companies such as Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duetsche Bank, SoFi, and 5+ other top Wall street firms, there is an interesting pattern… All of their CEOs… are… Irish (2022). The point is its a self reinforcing prophecy that has little basis in reality.

As for Israel, the oncept was first was introduced in 1897 at the first Zionist Congress, Zionism meaning a return to Zion, although it should be mentioned that starting in the 1870s Jewish people had been moving to Palestine to flee antisemitism in Europe. Most of these new migrants were not from the middle east, because contrary to how we may see it today antisemitism was not really a problem in the middle east, especially when compared to Europe.

From here I would like to explain it from the perspective of my expat Palestinian friends Grandmother who resided in Jordan. As she explains it, her family lived in Palestine for generations, and they had Jewish and Christian neighbors, which was no problem. She started to notice that more and more Jewish people were moving in around her, but again, she had no problem with it. The problem came when, around May 15^th 1948, Jewish soldiers with guns came in and kicked many Palestinians out of their home, forcing them to walks tens of miles with little to no food or water.

This event is called the Nakba, and it resulted in 750,000 Palestinians being forcibly removed from Palestine, along with about 12,000 deaths. Such is the founding of the Jewish state, a state which I denounce in so many respects.

In the founding of Zionism, there is an important aspect often overlooked, that being dispensationalism. Dispensationalism was an 19^th century interpretation of the bible by John Darby, with the most important part for our purposes being that he believed that Jewish people would regather in Palestine to signal the coming of the “end times”. This view spread through evangelical teaching and became commonplace, despite the fact that Darby’s work breaks down even under small criticism. Most Christians in the US sort of presume that the bible includes sections preluding to the return of Israel, when this is truly not the case. Nevertheless, it helps explain why the US has such a formative role in Israel. When people say that “the Jews control congress” or something along those lines, I would argue more often than not the top Zionists lawmakers and lobbyists are actually American neo-dispensationalist Evangelicals.

Thus American and Israel have always had a close relationship, with Israel acting as a puppet state for US government interests in the region and the US providing about 310 billion in inflation adjusted dollars since 1948 in return. While I could get into the specific history surrounding Israel and Palestine, there are plenty of texts that already do that (which I could link here). Instead, I will cover important parts so that one can get a better understanding.

Adolf Eichmann, a main organizer in the holocaust, wrote that he supported the idea of a nation of Israel as a way of getting Jews out of Germany. This is why Israel somewhat misses the point: Jews should be able to live without fear anywhere. It is the responsibility of the governments of Europe to enforce this, not to come up with a sidestep. Nevertheless, what’s done is done so no point dragging it.

Another important aspect is that this is not an “equal” fight. Are there innocent victims on both sides? No doubt. Yet at the end of the day, Israel always has the upper hand when it comes to law implementation (before October 7^th). For example, Palestinian farmers in the West Bank effectively cannot use wells, and in the rare cases where they are allowed they cannot be deeper than 3 meters. In contrast, Israeli settlers in the same region can have wells that are hundreds of meters deep with little restrictions. It is a wide variety of policies like this that lead to Gaza specifically being an open air prison, one full of young people who are stuck in terrible conditions with no ability to change their circumstances. And again, this is all before October 7^th.

Israeli’s also grow up in a heavily nationalistic and Zionist environment, with the news, teaching, and government all emphasizing Israeli narratives. Intense propaganda for years has led to truly extreme positions, such as in a May 2025 poll that found that 82% of Israelis support expelling every Palestinian from Gaza and 47% support killing every man, woman and child (Haaretz). The reality is that this state is fully content with genocide of the Palestinians due to the support for it, something which they are actively doing.

Condemning the state of Israel is not the same as opposing Jewish people, and I applaud Jewish people who are able to see the flaws in the Israeli state.

As for a solution, this is quite hard due to again how much both sides hate each other, although again I believe the Palestinian hate is much more justified in a sense. I would advocate for a complete ceasefire with say US troops coming in, re-education of Israeli and Palestinians to a historical interpretation (which I recognize is hard because historical to who?), and a equaling of laws among people. Then, homes would be built, paid for by the US and Israeli governments. In regards to homes, Israelis would be required to move out of homes if the homes were taken from Palestinians at any point in history. Apartments would have to be built up to accommodate these Israelis, and the whole thing is pretty unfeasible but a man can dream. Again, thinking wishfully, the party’s to elect would be required not to explicitly appeal to certain ethnic or religious groups, such as in Kenya or Nigeria. I must be honest and conclude I am not well versed enough to create a solution, although I do wish to dive deep into this topic later on.