Why I chose to support Israel after Oct 7th

Before Oct 7th I was not paying the slightest attention to Israel and the Palestinian question. If I knew anyone who is a Jew, I was oblivious to the fact of it. I had not even heard the word Zionism until 2022 when I saw it coming up in attacks against prominent Jewish activist Eve Barlow.

I had not had any dialogue with Eve before Oct 11th as it happens. In New Zealand no one ever bought up Jewry as a consideration in our social politic before Oct 7th. The last time I ever spoke to any Palestinian activists was in 2004 and even then, only briefly as part of a wider discussion of the fallout that followed from 9 11. So, I can honestly say that I had no skin in the game on either side.

I went to bed on Oct the 6th blissfully unaware that I would awake the next day to be presented with the sight of the defiled and broken body of Shani Louk being paraded like a slaughtered animal for the entertainment of a cheering spitting mob shrieking their jubilation.

As I sat here stunned at the sheer level of depravity I was witnessing, other posts started racing across my feed presenting additional obscene atrocities in a relentless stream. I have heard and seen many acts of evil over the course of my life but what I was seeing was beyond anything I had ever witnessed.

The rage I was feeling was fueled even further by the sight of so-called sexual abuse activists suddenly falling over themselves to “contextualize” the Nero level rapes and atrocities carried out on Israeli civilians.

I saw jubilant Palestinians crowing that they preferred death over life, young Israeli women being dragged screaming into Gaza and crowds erupting on the streets calling for the fall of Israel and in some cases the genocide of the Jewish people.

I also saw the faces of the Israeli leadership and what I saw were men and women who had suffered the most profound violation barely able to contain their composure and I knew in that moment that the response was going to be a version of total war with everything that meant.

Initially I considered that total war was potentially a step too far but that reasoning only survived for two days. Both sides were making claims against each other but to my thinking there were bigger questions to be addressed.

Which side presented an actual threat against global order and the inherent safety of the vulnerable in every country? The answer to that was evident. No matter what Hamas claimed as justification, claims I refute based on fact regardless, there could be no future where a fighting force that used rape as a weapon of terrorism could be allowed to succeed at any level.

Additionally, Hamas could not be allowed to achieve victory using the criminal tactic of using their indoctrinated population as human shields. If these things were allowed to happen, then every terrorist organization would immediately adopt the exact same tactics to achieve their own vile aims.

The same reasoning had to be applied to the hostage consideration. If Israel allowed Hamas to use hostages as well as human shields to protect themselves from retaliation, then the obvious result would be more atrocities and more hostages as every terror organization globally seized on what would amount to be a proven model of success.

These are the considerations that formed the basis of my initial support for Israel but over time that support has firmed at a deeper level and that is thanks to the statements and actions of pro-Palestinian supporters generally.

I made a point of making sure I listened to both sides on a 90 / 10 percent basis. I rarely read Israeli media and I have Aljazeera on every day. I have been listening and all I hear is lie after lie, mostly in the form of glaring omissions.

I noted that pro-Palestinian propaganda relentlessly talked about how Gaza had been “under siege” in the complete absence of the fact of the suicide bombers and Jihadi gunmen that had been murdering Israeli civilians for years which was why the wall around Gaza was built in the first place.

To my disgust and horror, I started to observe sinister and obvious parallels between the rhetoric of pro-Palestinians and the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. I have studied the rise and fall of the Third Reich extensively over the years. When I look at the pro-Palestinian movement, I see the rise of a new and virulent breed of Nazi.

Since Oct 7th I have talked with many Jews at various levels and seen what they post generally. I have seen the fear that the Jews have carried since the rise of Hitler and his Nazi filth front and center once again in the year 2024.

Even in the presence of that fear the Israelis I have dealt with have been reasoned and insightful people. On the other side all I see is mobs frothing at the mouth and conducting themselves like Nazis. I hate Nazis. Pathologically.

There has been much talk about the “dehumanization” of the Palestinian people and to that I say that dehumanization was self-inflicted by the videos of Gazans spitting on and desecrating the broken and violated body of a young woman who had never done anything to anyone.

There has been much talk of human rights in the complete absence of any reference to human obligations. Human rights apply to all as does the obligation to conduct ourselves as humans as opposed to rabid animals.

Those who cross that line and deny human rights to others in the form of acts of sadistic and depraved obscenities have crossed a line that deprives them of their own human rights beyond the bare minimum required to serve the wider cause of humanity.

My position is clear. Hamas can reap the whirlwind it has bought upon itself. Israel must stand at any cost. If Israel falls, we can be certain that the disciples of Jihad will turn their attention elsewhere in their quest to impose their vile theological order on the rest of us.

Long may Israel stand.