Question about Israel vs Palestine support

[後援会]

I don't really "sympathize" with either the Israeli or Palestinian peoples over the other. I find both cultures to be equally unrelatable. And of course, the conflict and violence is quite unfortunate. And I do admit that in the current situation, the Palestinians are suffering far more than the Israelis.

However, I don't think one can be pragmatically "pro-Palestinian". The fact of the matter is that Israel is a liberal democracy that meets almost all of the standards of a free society. And most importantly of all, Israel respects minority rights, especially the rights of its Arab citizens (20% of Israel). Of course, there are still injustices perpetrated, but in the free society that is Israel, at least there are ways to gain redress. Arabs have taken cases to the Supreme Court of Israel (which an Arab sits on) and won.

On the other hand, there is no functional civil society in Palestine. The most powerful political group in society, Hamas, is an intolerant and violent group. The two simply cannot be compared.

Regardless of whether you support Israel's current policies (I personally don't, especially their settler policies), regardless of whether you like Israelis or Palestinians "better", and regardless of your views on the Palestine issue, you can't reasonably not support Israel, the democratic, minority rights-respecting society.