Thread by @yaelbt

I go back-and-forth between never wanting to talk about Israel again and wanting to talk about it all the time. I was born and raised there and served in the IDF, and my entire family is sitting in bomb shelters atm. It’s deeply personal but important to me so here goes.(1/10)

1. There are no good sides in war: war is ugly and messy and people get blown up. There is however a side that attempts to minimize civilian casualties at all costs, and a side that aims for populations and celebrates when innocent people are killed.

2. You’d be hard-pressed to find an Israeli that would rather be at war than at the beach or a bar. Doesn’t mean we are all peaceful hippies, but we’re tired of this shit and would rather not die. Even the most right-wing Israeli loves his family more than he hates Palestinians.

3. For us, this isn’t about land. Most Israelis couldn’t give a fuck about the settlements, in fact we’ve offered them up several times in various peace deals that quite literally blew up. It’s about an actual existential threat from all borders (Gaza, West Bank, Syria, Lebanon)

4. There are Arab citizens of Israel who are attempting to lynch Jews within our borders. There are pathetic extremist Jews trying to hurt them back. Neither represents the majority, and both can go fuck themselves. As they say - it’s a shame both sides can’t lose.

5. This current round started over 6 houses (6 !!!) in Jerusalem that have been in legal battle for over 50 years. The case is with the Israeli Supreme Court, that serves both Palestinians and Israelis and has Muslim and Jewish judges. That’s your ethnic cleansing.

6. Israel isn’t perfect but it’s never vowed to wipe all Palestinians off the map. I would never serve in a military like that.

The Hamas charter on the other hand says exactly the opposite - their goal is to eliminate Israel. Why don’t you believe them?

7. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. The IDF pulled thousands of Jews from homes were they were born in to return the land to the Palestinians. There is not one Jew in Gaza. We got a non-stop stream of rockets in return ever since. So we have some trust issues now.

8. The amount of misinformation and lies online is nauseating. Including memes from your favorite influencers. Always verify your information and seek out more opinions, mine is just one. I’m not unbiased - It’s my home! And other Israelis might disagree with me. Read them too.

9. Last but not least, for too long I have avoided this topic for fear of pissing people off. No more.
I’m gonna fix myself a drink now so bring on those @ ‘s. First person to point out that I also work for the evil police gets a retweet 🍻

11. No one asked but here’s more. Israel is tiny! It’s about the size of New Jersey. It’s 8 hours drive N to S and at some points 25 minutes drive E to W. It’s the only country I know of under existential threat. The rockets have been raining down nonstop. What would you do?

12. Despite it all I still believe in PEACE. It gets harder, but what choice do we have? I grew up singing songs about peace while Palestinians went to schools named after suicide bombers. We need our neighbors to choose peace over struggle, and we’ll be able to live side by side