• “Israel was such a hot button issue for so many people around the world, surely if people have such strong opinions about a country, they'll be somewhat familiar with at least some basic facts, right? My gosh, was I wrong… I realized people didn't know some basic facts, like that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has been an uninterrupted democracy since its founding in 1948, after the United Nations granted the Jews a state following the horrors of the Holocaust. The Arabs were also granted a state at the time, but they chose to refuse it and start a war… I heard some people call Israel an apartheid state, which is also absurd when you know that the third largest political party in Israel is an Arab party. I realized some people see the entire problem in the Middle East as an Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a David-and-Goliath story that pits an army-less people (the Palestinians) against one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world (Israel). It's easy to cheer for the underdog, but this dynamic is categorically not the case. The conflict is not between the Palestinian and Israeli people but rather between the entire Arab world and Israel. Twenty-one Arab countries, population approximately 423 million, and one Jewish state, population approximately 9 million. In that matchup, who is the David and who is the Goliath? I realized that people were disproportionality fascinated by Israel, that almost everyone had an opinion, but that a lot of people simply didn't know what they were talking about.” - intro

Are Israeli’s Colonizers? What’s the history of Israel?

• Israel was originally populated around 1000 BC, when 12 Jewish tribes came to the land to form a Jewish Kingdom and instilled King David as their leader (based on the Bible and archeological findings) → King Solomon built the first temple, destroyed by the Babylons, rebuilt the second temple during the Persian era, and destroyed by the Romans
• Over the next two thousand years, the land of Israel was conquered and reconquered countless times by empires like Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans, until post WW1 in 1917 when the British took over and named it the British Mandate of Palestine (Balfour Declaration promised a future Jewish state…)
• During this time between WW1 and WW2, the Middle East wasn’t really what we know today, where England and France were allocating different regions to tribes like Al Saud taking Saudi Arabia or forming Transjordan with the future intent to create the Jewish state of Israel → this only upset both the Arabs and Jews because they didn’t get the divisions they wanted
• Back to basics - a few facts: Israel is the size of New Jersey (6 hour drive from top to bottom), surrounded by Arab states ie Iran, no natural resources aka oil money, yet has one of the holiest sites to both Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
• Through this time Jews were forced out of the region and eventually returned, as the world order decided to give Jews a state after WW2: “That British Mandate wound down after World War II, when on November 29, 1947, fresh out of the Holocaust, the United Nations granted the Jews their land back and allowed for the establishment of modern-day Israel. Which brings us to 1948, the reestablishment of the modern state of Israel.” (Important to note that there was never actually a Palestinian state here, the British Mandate of Palestine had both Jews and Arabs so it’s not simply about Israelis being colonizers)

Why do we even need a Jewish State?

• Even if you try to forget you’re a Jew, someone will always be there to remind you of it - Theodore Herzl knew we needed a Jewish state for our own safety (even in 1896!)
• “It would take a massive event, a worldwide catastrophe that would wipe out 3 percent of the world population and almost half of the Jewish population, for the political atmosphere to change and allow for the Jews to reestablish a home. It would take a Holocaust.” → Zionism directly saved Noa Tishby’s family’s life, as her grandparents came to Israel before the Holocaust whereas the rest of the family were killed
• When her grandparents moved, Israel had a little over 500,000 people and was a land of disease and malaria, with high mortality rates and no industry… so no, “The Jews did not "take Palestine." There was no Palestine for the taking. There was no state, no united governance, not much industry, or a healthcare system, or agriculture, economic or education systems. There was certainly no democracy, equality, safety, or prosperity for the people living there… Rebuilding a homeland, a safe haven, was their only way to survive. And it became even more urgent as the crisis for the European Jews who stayed behind was worsening by the minute.”
• Post holocaust! “The plan included a Jewish state to be formed on about 55 percent of the land, and an Arab state on about 45 percent of the land. Though the Arab state was a bit smaller, the land was better quality, with greater access to water. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was a plan! For a state!” → the Jews approved this plan but the Arab states flatly rejected it, saying: “not only were they not accepting the plan, but should Israel be created, they would go to war in order to wipe the new Jewish state off the map. And so they did — the following day.”
• David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, was able to rally together all the able bodied men to fight in a war against Syria, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq, after declaring Israel as a state open to all Jewish immigration and yet still offering equal citizenship to other nationalities (ie the Arabs who were preparing to go to war…) → So they come to Israel after barely surviving the Holocaust, offer a peace deal to share the land with Palestinians, and first thing they do is go to war? Now over the next year they both suffer big losses… Golda Meir quote: “Don’t worry, we Jews have a secret weapon in this fight: we have no place else to go” - Israel doesn’t want these wars, but when they live next to neighbors who wish for their demise, then they have to defend themselves)

Is Israel an Apartheid State?

• Israel is NOT an apartheid state, because many Arabs live in Israel with full voting rights, can serve as judges, be voted into government, and were even brutally killed by Hamas during October 7th - “In a recent survey done by professor Sammy Smooha from the University of Haifa, 77.4 percent of Arab Israeli citizens living in Israel said they do not wish to move to a Palestinian state should one be formed” - Israeli Arabs are now much more united with Israelis than ever before (around 1.6 million citizens!)

Do the surrounding Arab states help the Palestinians?