Rare people brave enough to tell hard truths, even when it's unpopular, even when it costs them and leaves them hated by the mob.
He isn't telling hard truth, he is telling easy lies that the world wants to hear which makes him a hero to some. The hard truth that makes people "hated by the mob" is that Palestinians are currently led by jihadi terrorists that need to go, and that their wider society has a problem with radicalisation.
People like Gideon Levy aren’t enemies of Israel they’re part of its conscience. They don’t want to see the country destroyed; they want it to be better, to live up to the values it claims to stand for.
Here is what Gideon's entire ideology is:
“I’m anti‑Zionist, in that I reject the Zionist belief that Jews in Palestine should have more rights than anyone else… but I do believe the Jewish people have the right to live in Palestine side by side with the Palestinians in a democratic state.”
And you are right, in theory! Israel does stand for a country where everyone lives together, equally - it is even in their constitution I believe.
The only problem is, the people in the country next door don't agree. They don't want "equal rights" even between themselves - if they did, they'd have established that. They don't want a democracy - if they did they'd have established that. They don't want to live with Jews, they literally want to kill them.
So it's quite a lot of virtue signalling at the expense of the real issues on the ground. So for clarity, I can assure you over the last 20 years I have given a great deal of thought about what happens in Gaza. My own country shares a border with it!
Now, preface with saying Egypt has treated Gaza appallingly, a topic which people continue not to care about, but at the same time militants from Gaza have attacked Egypt, including the 2012 massacre of 16 Egyptian soldiers and repeated smuggling and terror activity in Sinai. Egypt responded by sealing tunnels and building a buffer zone. Palestinian militants also destabilised Jordan (Black September, 1970) and Lebanon (triggering civil war and drawing Israeli invasions). These groups haven’t just targeted Israel - they’ve harmed Arab neighbours too.
And those Arab neighbours are not without their own under-currents of extremism. In Egypt, it's currently brutally quashed, but our president Sadat was assassinated by Islamist extremists for signing a peace treaty with Israel. This assassination was not just about politics; it signalled the deep-rooted, violent rejection by jihadist groups of any Arab normalisation with Israel.
Hamas, sharing ideological roots with the Muslim Brotherhood, embodies that same absolutist stance. If Hamas were ever to gain broader influence, including over Egypt’s policy or borders, it could reignite the kind of extremist backlash that once killed a president and threatens to collapse Egypt also. The threat isn’t theoretical - it’s historical, and Egypt knows it which is why they do not do the half of what Israel does for the Palestinians.
So really, for all Gideon's opining about his values, he forgets the world doesn't share those values. Of Israel followed Gideon's noble vision of a single shared democracy with equal votes for all - including Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank - it’s highly plausible - in fact data says almost certainly the case - that, Islamist parties like Hamas could gain power through the ballot box.
If that happened, it wouldn’t just mean the end of Zionism - it would mean the transfer of Israeli state infrastructure, military assets, intelligence networks, and possibly even nuclear capabilities into the hands of a group that openly calls for the west destruction, not to mention seeks the destruction of other Muslims who they may consider to be traitors.
Hamas doesn’t believe in coexistence or democratic pluralism; it believes in Islamic rule. A Hamas-led “democracy” would likely not remain democratic for longer than the 1 day they had an election, and the fallout would ripple across the region - strengthening Iran, destabilising Egypt and Jordan, and guaranteeing the transformation of Israel into another authoritarian theocracy under sharia, like Gaza already is. The very idea is a fantasy with catastrophic consequences.
More cards would follow like dominoes. And while my country isn't the greatest in terms of human rights, I have also been on the front end of ISIS and the Taliban and I can assure you an oppressive Egypt is like a Sunday Picnic by comparison. I went home in May - I didn't have to wear a hijab and nobody has issues with the way I live my life. I wont tell the stories of things my female friends have experienced, but life in places run by these sorts of people is profoundly terrifying in many cases.
If I seem angry, it's because I am. Not at you, because I am sure you mean well and think this utopia sounds wonderful but it is objectively ridiculous. It is like saying I should show how moralistic I am by letting Ted Bundy move in with me because he's homeless and down on his luck. This kind of thinking completely denies reality and is essentially a call for the suicide of millions of people just so you can feel they have demonstrated how "good" they are.
People have a right to safety, security and to live with democracy and liberal freedoms in a way that aligns with their values. If they reject that and prefer an Islamic dictatorship with terrorists who want to find every Jew and kill them - that is their choice - but you cannot force that choice on others and call it virtue. Virtue is protecting the innocent from evil.
Hamas is evil, and Gideon seeks to throw Jews into their mouths so they can demonstrate how "good" they are. What is his real objective here? Personally? I think he's like a girl at a disco who thinks she's ugly and tries to be funny. He's carrying the shame of his identity and he thinks if only he can prove that Jews are oh so good then he will be absolved. I think he's a very lost man.
You can be fiercely against Hamas and still believe that the lives of ordinary Palestinians matter.
Disingenuous. Nobody is arguing that the lives of ordinary Palestinians don't matter. They are arguing that Israel has a right to get it's hostages back and defeat the people presenting an existential threat to them. The people who don't think Palestinian lives matter are Hamas.
You can support Jewish safety and self-determination without supporting permanent occupation, endless war, or the suffering of another people.
Disingenuous. The endless occupation, war and suffering of another people is caused entirely by Hamas and everyone who supports Hamas.
These things aren’t contradictions they’re what make peace possible.
Disingenuous. The quandary is this:
Palestine's position for about 80 years:
"we are going to take your country"
Israel's position for about 80 years:
"we can't agree to that"
That is literally it. Every alternative offer, every deal, every compromise that has ever been offered has been rejected. And while I really, genuinely hoped there was a shift in that in recent years, on October 7, Hamas and a large number of their supporters who clapped and cheered, have made clear that total annihilation is still the only thing they will accept.
That's the block to peace.
Real courage isn’t just found on the battlefield. Sometimes it’s found in words, in questions, in refusing to look away.
I actually think a lot of people who have gone into battle have a lot more courage that I do, for all my words and questions. I have thought many times about how fucking terrified they all must be. But one thing I know for certain, there is no courage in invading a civilian village, butchering, raping and kidnapping everyone and then hiding underground for two years while innocent kids die in your stead.
If Israel and the world wants a future that’s more than just survival, it will have to start by listening to voices that challenge it, not just the ones that reassure it.
This is word salad. As I said, the people who attacked Israel and have their people hostage have explicitly said they want to kill Jews and annihilate Israel. Every voice on earth should really be helping them do that.
I am sure you mean well, you seem like a nice person, and I used to think a lot like you - but it is just not realistic. These people will keep going and going and going until everyone is dead and the only choice the truly virtuous have is whether or not to stop them.