Just as something to think about, would you support the nazi and soviet campaign into poland, and the land they won from that?
Or the british empire winning land all over the globe?
I think a big part of this is being open to having your opinions changed. This is true for me, even on topics that I know about and have years of experience with.
As for your main point, I’d like to reiterate again: You don’t need to pick a side, and you especially shouldn’t feel forced to pick a side when you have yet to learn more about the issue.
Maybe I will just say “I don't know enough to have a stance”
This is an amazing attitude, one more of us would be wise to adopt.
Yeah Russia are pretty good at kicking the dirt up and spreading a lot of propaganda, but if you look at the hard points it’s pretty clear cut.
The same isn’t true of Israel and Palestine. Going through what each side has done to the other and trying to weigh it and figure out which side is worse is a futile exercise that does nothing to stop further violence from happening.
People will claim it is, but it really isn't. Honestly, you'll read a lot of biased answers here.
The safest bet is to condemn the rape, murder and torture of civilians, but accept that there are no 'good' guys in this conflict.
To give you an idea:
You'll read a lot of comments about how Israelis stole land from the Palestinian Arabs. But Palestinains also stole land from Palestinian Jews.
Many middle-eastern countries had significant Jewish populations before that, but almost all were forced to flee to Israel. Something like a third of Israelis are 'Arab' Jews or Mizrahi as the prefer to be called. They're not 'foreign invaders'. They're (the family of) locals or refugees from neighbouring countries.
Hamas are horrible, and what the last few days have been deplorable, but arguably Israel helped create them.
Also, recent right-wing Israeli governments have consistently undermined any hope of a peace deal, meaning there's no real alternative for Palestinians.
But, back in 2000 Israel did offer far reaching concessions to the Palestinians, so much so that IRC the Saudi ambassador said it would be a crime not to accept them or at least continue negotiating. But Arafat, the Palestinian leader at the time, did just that.
Also, neighbouring Arab countries claim to support Palestine, but often only on paper. When they accepted Palestinian refugees this caused them huge issues. For example in Lebanon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damour_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karantina_massacre
Also, a lot of arab nationalist groups, including Palestinian ones, are virulently anti-semitic and have actual historical ties to the nazis who supported them in their fight against the colonial powers (Britain, France, etc.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf_in_Arabic#Mein_Kampf_and_Arab_nationalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_al-Husseini#Ties_with_the_Axis_Powers_during_World_War_II
But then the current Israeli government contains ultra-nationalists. One of the ministers once belonged to a banned far right terrorist organisation, labeled as such by the US and Israel. They were openly racist and supported terrorist attacks against Palestinians.
Nerom
breadsmasher
Otter
RIPandTERROR
Hanabie
letsroll