This entire situation is flooded with disinformation, double standards, and outright lies. A lot of it comes from an aggressive pro-Palestinian PR machine where falsehoods are repeated so often they pass as fact. I’ve watched this happen daily since the conflict began. Antisemitism plays a major role in it too, that’s why we’re seeing swastikas at protests and Jews assaulted on the streets. Antisemitism thrives on lies and scapegoating, and we’re watching it unfold in real time.
There's also a strong element of social contagion. For many, this isn’t about justice....it’s a trend. It gives people a cause, a costume, a Saturday activity, and someone to gang up on. That mob mentality has existed since humans first walked the earth. It disgusts me. I can’t stop wars, but I can - and will - speak up when I hear lies or antisemitic poison in my own community.
Frankly, the Western obsession with offering “hot takes” on Gaza reeks of arrogance. Nobody in the region cares what you or I think, and the performative outrage from people in Britain who claim to oppose colonialism while dictating foreign borders, is laughable. It isn't up to you or me or Macron to decide who's land is who's or what sort of government Palestinians choose.
My own view though is that this conflict isn’t as complicated as people pretend. One side wants liberal democracy and coexistence. The other wants to wipe that side off the map. Hamas has never supported a two-state solution. Its charter calls for the destruction of Israel and murder of Jews, with a toned down version of that in its updated text. That’s not fringe, that’s core ideology, and it’s what kids are taught in UN-funded schools.
Even when Hamas spokesmen say they’d accept a state, they admit it’s a stepping stone to more violence. So what exactly are people celebrating? A tactical pause on the road to genocide? I literally don't get it.
If people think the entire land of Israel belongs solely to Arabs or Muslims, that’s historically illiterate. If people think October 7 was “justified” because of the Nakba, then they’ve done mental gymnastics worthy of Olympic gold to get there. There is no justification for what was done to Israeli civilians that day. None.
Unlike the keffiyeh crowd, I don’t rank suffering. I feel the same sorrow for starving children in Gaza as I do for those in Congo, Yemen, or Hackney. All suffering matters. That includes Israeli hostages, many still alive, held in horrific conditions. I find the entire obsession with Gaza to be demonstrative of targeting Israel rather than anything reflective of more.
Where I differ most is this: I understand that the vast majority of Palestinian suffering comes from their own leaders. I don’t pretend blockades happen in a vacuum. I don’t think shipping missiles is a human right. And I know that when a terror state devotes itself to your destruction, you don’t sit and wait to die.
It doesn't matter what I think though.
Israel’s response to October 7 is justified under international law, Article 51 of the UN Charter guarantees the right to self-defence. That doesn’t mean tit-for-tat casualty counts. “Proportionality” means striking military targets without excessive civilian harm relative to the advantage gained. Hamas hides in civilian areas, uses schools and hospitals, and booby-traps tunnels beneath homes. Civilian casualties, though tragic, do not make those strikes unlawful when precautions are taken.
And no, this isn’t over. Hamas is still firing rockets. Still holding hostages. Still threatening to repeat October 7. Israel’s campaign is not just retaliation, it’s prevention.
No nation would tolerate what Israel is facing. Hamas is a genocidal terrorist group. Its goal is not resistance or freedom, it’s obliteration. It’s astonishing that more people aren’t demanding they surrender. That’s the only moral position.
I’m a pacifist. I hate war. I doubt I could ever pull a trigger, much less drop bombs. But I have the luxury of safety, a life secured by people who fought so I wouldn’t have to. And I’m deeply grateful. Hitler had to be stopped. So does Hamas. Or more innocents will die.
I think the best thing anyone eho avtually cares can do would be to bin their keffiyehs and replace then with signs calling for the return of the hostages and Hamas' surrender. Thats whats morally correct.
You can debate Israel’s leadership or tactics, but the core principle here is clear: a sovereign state has not only the right, but the obligation, to protect its people from mass murder and terror. And let’s be honest, if most of Israel’s critics were in the same situation, they’d be ten times harsher, and nobody would bat an eye.
But my personal concern doesn't stretch to the middle eastern peace process. It only extends to doing whatever small things I can do to say "no: to the frenzy of lies, historical distortion and outright obsessive bullying that means Jews aren't safe in the town where I live.