For people who say I stand with Israel

[sprinklesprinkle]

What does that mean to you? Especially for Jewish people who are happy to answer.

I know what Free Palestine means - it has always meant freedom for Palestinians, peace, basic human rights such as water, the right to life essentially.

I Stand with Israel - what exactly does this mean?

I am genuinely not being 'goady" to use a MN word but I want to learn & understand. I know many will say not to have Israelis attacked at a festival or for the hostages to be released but what is the long term goal for those that support what the Israeli government is doing. What do you want for Palestinians?

How can anyone stand with Isreal after they dropped a bomb on a hospital, killed over 500 babies and children?

Eh they didn't. It was a misfired jihad rocket

Israel did not start this 😐 I can't fathom why anyone supports the opposition... Israel simply fought back.

Palestine didn’t start it. Hamas did. And there is the problem.

Except Hamas did that. They also place their rocket launchers in residential property, school and hospitals using Palestinian people as human shields.

Posts like this read and sound a lot like what many think Free Palestine means. Actually if Palestine has been allowed to be free in the first place the first paragraph of this post would not have been necessarily

Very accurate and simply put.

I dont think everyone who says things like Free Palestine or I stand with Israel believe the same things as set out here

I stand with Israel because I believe the country shouldnt be under attack and has the right to exist

I say 'free palestine' because what I mean by that is that over decades Israel has been encroaching on the arrangements set out and agreed and limiting/restricting Palestinians to live free lives.

The problem is people like you to be on a 'side' so its nice and easy for them, but life is more grey than people wish

This, completely this.

Israel didn't do this.
It was a misfire rocket set off by Palestinian Jihad.
And nowhere near that number died.
You're spouting Hamas propaganda here.

Yes, that really is what it means.

It is weird that people feel the need to force some dodgy message onto such a simple statement. Freedom is a pretty basic thing for a country to want.

If I were a Palestinian now, I would despair at the 4 200 deaths announced today. I would feel powerless. scared, in shock and in utter disbelief that my life is not as valuable as the one of an Israeli.

I agree

Also this.

I will also point out that Israel agreed to a negotiated ceasefire in May this year.

Hamas broke that ceasefire on Oct 7th when it crossed the border and killed 1400 Israeli citizens - most women, children and elderly.

Hamas lit the fuse knowing Netanyahu would need no encouragement to fuel the flames.

Innocent Palestinians and Israelis will suffer because of war-mongering, intolerant men.

For me (although I haven't actually said 'I stand with Israel' publicly as my job requires me to be apolitical): it means that Israel has the right to exist and protect itself from terrorist attack.

I also believe the Palestinians have a right to a state, and to live free from occupation.

Basically, I support a two-state solution, although another poster said, that isn't looking very likely for some time, if ever.

Interesting thread! Thanks for opening it!

Personally, I would never stay that I "stand with Israel" - I just don't! Or, to be precise, I don't stand and would never stand with the Israeli state, which has oppressive policies - most famously but not only against Palestinians - and as of the most recent, pre-war cabinet version an ultra-far-right government that is so extreme it should make anyone to the left of Nigel Farage shudder in horror.

On the other hand, I have no problem standing with Israelis! In fact, a lot of what I know and how I personally view the conflict is deeply informed by the Israeli (and Palestinian) left. I have every empathy for the deep shock and hurt of those who have lost loved ones in the recent attack. Their grievances are legitimate. Their fears are valid. And I am happy to stand with them.

But personally, I cannot get behind the notion that, in order to do so, I need to also get behind their government committing war crimes against Palestinians! Other, better, much more constructive ideas for how to deal with the situation exist - ask Israeli leftists!

I think the difficult thing about this conflict, speaking as someone with no particular affiliation to either side, is that there is no easy answer. It's not like the Russia-Ukraine conflict when it was clear to most people in the UK that Russia was in the wrong. The only thing that's certain here is that innocent people on both sides are suffering.

@MrsFinkelstein Isreal most certainly did drop a bomb on that hospital! You clearly believe the isreal propaganda.
Isreal repeatedly break international law. There is no justifiable excuse for that.

i feel much the same and that's as an Israeli citizen.

It's also I stand with my people in their time of pain too. Funerals, grief, hostages, displacements, fear. It doesn't take away from any palestinian suffering - it's not a zero sum game.

You obviously know better than American intelligence. Wow. The balance of evidence that's been released points to a misfired Islamic Jihad missile. And that there were nowhere near as many deaths as claimed.
You clearly believe the Hamas propaganda.....

Except they didn't. There's verifiable evidence that they didn't. You want to believe they did despite the proven fact that they didn't. It fits the propaganda of Hamas, who are terrorists. You can believe what you want to believe but the truth has been proven on this one.

I stand with Israel in its darkest hour as a victim of heinous terrorist acts of unspeakable barabarity. I stand with Israel in that is has a right to exist as a state. I stand by Israel as the home of many Jews that only wish peace.

I also stand up for the right to voice these opinions openly without fear of violence or insult.

If you leap straight into “whataboutery” at the first opportunity you will learn nothing.

Both sides have too much to point to and shout “but what about…”. It achieves nothing but a stalemate.

"From the river (Jordon) to the sea (Mediterranean), Palestine will be free" - Basically means they want to take the entire land of Isreal from the Jewish people and they have no intension of ever having a two state solution. The people of Gaza do not want peace, only destruction and violence.

I would never say "I stand with Israel" because that would mean that I stood with the Israeli government. Which I don't.