Israel isn’t perfect, and it has gone much farther right than a lot of reasonable people are comfortable with, especially Jews, but let’s keep things in a healthy perspective!

One just has to look at any discussion on social media that involves Israel to see how many anti-Israel fanatics are out there. True, social media by its design attracts extremists, so this may not fully represent society, but the numbers are too large to be ignored. This is also confirmed by growing antisemitism around the world and louder demonization of Israel.

These widespread denunciations of Israel, however, are not supported by facts. Not even close.

Even accepting much of the criticism against Israel, Israel’s record is still phenomenally better than the record of most countries in the world. Considering that Israel faces some of the most extreme and violent enemies in the world, this is pretty much a miracle.

After so many decades of being forced to defend itself, it’s not surprising that many Israelis are saying “f*ck it, I am sick and tired of being a nice guy, and I am going to elect the people who are most likely to pummel the enemy”. It’s a normal human reaction. I don’t even live in Israel, I am not even Jewish, and sometimes I have some pretty dark thoughts about what I would do to some of Israel’s enemies.

But despite all that, Israel still upholds high standards when it fights wars. Israel could have ended the Gaza war very quickly if it didn’t care to protect civilians, but that clearly has not happened. During the war with Iran, Israel controlled Iran’s skies, but it only hit selected targets meant to either weaken the regime or destroy its military capabilities. Israel has never, in its whole history, targeted innocent civilians. It’s an inconvenient fact, I know.

The record of Israel’s enemies, however, is the reverse. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime, and the rest of that coalition of hate, use their own civilians as human shields and even murder their own civilians when they show signs of dissent. Their attacks on Israel are meant to cause maximum harm to civilian populations. The list of their crimes is very long and often very disturbing, so much so that their supporters can defend those acts only by pretending that they never happened, as the October 7 denial industry demonstrates.

But I am not saying anything that reasonable people don’t already know. These facts aren’t secret, and they are easily proven. The conclusion that Israel should be supported rather than demonized is the natural conclusion that any reasonable person would draw.

So, what are we to conclude about those who spend a lot of time demonizing Israel while ignoring the much worse crimes committed by others, such as the Iranian regime? My conclusion is simple: they are idiots who are unable to process and analyze the simplest information. One could argue that many of them are antisemitic rather than idiots, and I will concede that, but then again, can someone be an antisemite without being an idiot? I think that the answer is obvious.

The reality is that Israel’s priority isn’t to appease idiots any more than it is to appease terrorists. Its priority is to protect its citizens. It’s doing that unapologetically and forcefully, and anyone who isn’t an idiot stands with Israel in that effort.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)