Good ol' BiBiC!

quote:
You could call me a light-touch Zionist: vaguely supportive, but mostly detached.

That all changed on October 7th 2023.The sheer brutality of Hamas’s attack shook me to the core. The sadism, the joy taken in killing, the targeting of civilians, children. It was evil laid bare. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could justify it.

But worse, in a way, was the global reaction. Many groups that claim to be anti-racist, anti-fascist, and champions of the oppressed leapt to excuse, minimise, or outright celebrate the horror. People tore down posters of kidnapped Israeli children with smug righteousness.

And when Israel responded, as any nation would after a massacre of its civilians, it was immediately placed under impossible moral scrutiny. It was expected to defend itself, but without force. To rescue hostages, but without causing civilian harm. To destroy a terror group embedded in schools and hospitals, but without upsetting international opinion. Take how Israel is frequently criticised for preventing aid from entering Gaza. Even setting aside that Israel disputes many of these claims, few pause to ask the obvious question: why is Israel expected to feed a territory it is actively at war with? Or why Egypt — which also borders Gaza — rarely faces scrutiny for keeping its own crossing largely closed? The outrage is selective, and the expectations are uniquely moralistic when it comes to Israel.

No other democracy, facing a comparable attack, would be held to such a standard, one that effectively demands passivity in the face of annihilation. I supported Israel’s war. What other option did it have?...

...Israel, for all its flaws and existential threats, is something the West can’t quite understand anymore: A nation where young people serve, families grow, the past is honoured, and the future is still something to fight for.

And perhaps that’s why so many people hate it. Because, deep down, we envy it.

https://theequianoproject.substack.com/p/what-i-found-in-israel-was-a-society