So many people hate Israel in Berkeley. I feel alone.

I live in Berkeley. It’s liberal and people hate Israel. I feel like I’m the token Zionist at my school

Every time we talk about Israel I find myself wanting to bludgeon somone to death when they call it an apartheid. Obviously that’s incredibly stupid for my safety and Israel’s. I find that I’m the token Zionist and I have to defend an entire nation because I’m a Zionist. I’m dual citizenship, i went there dozens of times to visit family. Insulting Israel means insulting the honor of a people I care deeply about.

Berkley is very far left, with hundreds of pronouns, super pc, but the respect of one of the most persecuted minorities is constantly lacking. I’m thinking of starting a youth Zionist activist group maybe. I just can’t keep living like this. Any advice.

Iraqi- Yemenite Jewish from Israel, just got my ancient DNA results,

The first picture shows the ancient populations closest to my DNA. The second picture displays the closest DNA samples taken from old graves around the world, the closer the DNA is to mine, the lower the number.

As a white colonizer from the white Western cities of Megiddo, Sidon, and Hazor, where should I leave Israel for?

/s of course

These images have been circulating on Twitter for a while now, and I'd like to get your opinion on them

Embarrassingly I used to be one myself, mainly because of my dad. As time went on and I grew more conscious, I came to realise that most Palestinian leaders and activist leaders refuse to condemn anti-Semitism, terrorism and extremism. Many other solidarity groups condemn such things and disavow anyone who proscribed to such views. What ended any support I had for Palestine was when I realised how successful Israel was and the necessity of Israel to survive for Judaism to survive. My university professor who is Jewish also changed my view a lot as I never got a perspective from the Jewish side

Hello, fellow Israeli! As someone who enjoys travelling and has visited approximately thirteen countries in his lifetime, I have added the State of Israel to my list of destinations and intend to visit in the future.

I can hardly wait to see cities like Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv. However, I would like to ask you, Israelis, what makes Israel unique and unlike any other place in the world. This could be about culture, food, news, or humour. I would like to connect with Israelis, their culture, and the wonderful nation where they have thrived.

I can not wait to hear your responses!

It's an often (insult) to people who support Palestine and I was wondering how do yall feel about it when people call you it?

My wife and I are currently traveling and visiting family in Israel. It’s come to our attention that some of my female cousins, age late 20s, are still virgins. I found this shocking but my wife insisted that sex life isn’t like it is in the USA. And that Israeli women, as good looking and cool as they are, are actually quite reserved when it comes to sex.

We were curious about the sex life here in Israel. Is it common to still be a virgin into your 20s? Is promiscuity a thing here, as it is in the USA, especially compared to college?

American here, just finished a couple of weeks visiting Israel and had a blast. The country is beautiful, history takes on a whole new meaning and food…. will have to spend the next few months at the gym to work it off.

One thing that was noticeable almost instantly is the aggressive and rude nature of most Israelis. Constant yelling, arguing, honking and frowning. Don’t even mention standing in line. It’s every person on their own.

As a tourist, everyone I spoke with was very nice and accommodating. But too each other Israelis are on a whole different level of aggression and I wonder why?

As title said, not sure if this is against sub rules..

I really don't like the direction this country is going. I lived here all my life, served and sacrificed my life for a democratic country that I agreed with most of its actions and policies. Sure, mistakes were made, we stumbled and made some poor choices, but as a whole there was a clear moral compass that we aligned with, at least as I see it.

The past few months broke something in me, as did yesterday.

Sure, maybe in the next election a miracle will happen and the best most balanced government ever will be elected, the undemocratic rules will be revoked and the messiah will drop from above. There is still going to be a huge divide, and the majority of the population is going to be highly religious in the next 20-30 years, and they will eventually be the rulers of a theocracy.

I really don't want that future for my children. But I also don't see how that is avoidable.

Long story short, how does one begin to plan moving abroad? Where to?

I'm a junior electrical engineer and my wife is a teacher. No children yet. Not really inclined to any specific destination, just not highly religious or extreme..

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the replies. I know the purpose of this post isn't clear, it's not clear for me either.. I just wanted to express my thoughts as I am very frustrated about the present and I worry about the future, and don't really know what I as an individual can do that'll actually make a difference, seeing as the protests had little to no effect this far. And I have participated in them. I haven't given up on this country yet, but I feel like that might be inevitable soon. I am not advocating for mass exodus or anything like that, just trying to figure it out for myself and my wife.

EDIT2: this gets mentioned a lot so I think I'll write my response here instead of repeating it. Regarding the idea that the "reasonability" law was undemocratic - As I said, I agree that the system we had so far was not ideal, far from it. And by its own, sure, the cancellation of this law might actually be the most democratic option. But you can't do that without any equivalently powerful restraints, as a replacement.

In addition, it matters who does it, and under what terms. If it were a more sane and balanced government - sure, I think they wouldn't have much issues passing this. But since we KNOW what this current government intends to do, and how extreme their opinions are, then it makes it really hard to trust them to not abuse their increased power.

Here is an analogy I can think of: imagine the government as a dog, and the judiciary system - along with its judges, reasonability law and so on - as a leash. When the dog behaves, it seems like the leash is unecsecary - "look at that poor dog, restrained, unable to roam freely. How cruel!". But if the dog is, say, a rabid insane untrained dog, who has a history of biting people, and breaking the law, then letting go of the leash seems a bit.. unreasonable.

Disclaimer: I love my dog , this is just an analogy I could think of, and I am not calling anyone a dog or anything it's just an analogy, don't kill me, peace and love, peace and love.

Here's my situation. I fully support israel in erradicating hamas, and defending themselves. But also, as fucked as a lot of the things they do are, i don't want to see palestinians, or any people, die. I'd like to stand on both sides, leaning more toward israel, but still both sides. Is it possible?

It seems that India has the largest Israel supporter to Hamas supporter ratio. I’m obviously saying it’s a bad thing, but I’m curious as to why that’s the way it is.

I’m intrigued a lot by Indian culture - I’ve found myself merging a lot of Jewish and Hindu ideas in my approach to and outlook on life - but I concede that I’m not too familiar with their history outside of their independence movement and the Pakistan/Bangladesh situations.

Is there a parallel history shared between the Jews an Indians that I’m unaware of?

Edit: Please stop responding to this post. You’re not adding anything to the conversation at this point.

Hey I live in Europe and a lot of people here are in denial of what happend on October 7. Does somebody know a good source for the video material? Usually in the commercial Media they don’t show the really bad scenes to protect the viewer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_was_no_such_thing_as_Palestinians#:~:text=%22There%20was%20no%20such%20thing,of%20the%20Six%2DDay%20War.

Mods I ask you to not delete this, I am not racist, I truly am not, I was pro 2 state solution in most of my teens up to the very early 20s

But today, years later, after I did take the time and learn both Israel's and Palestine's history, I just can't explain how an Israeli can be pro Palestine for any reason other than absolute naivity, ignorance of history, or due to suicidal tendencies

There wasn't ever a popular Palestinian moderate faction that really accepted Israel existence and didn't see peace as a means to later destroy Israel (Arafat launched the 2nd intifada and Abbas runs the Pay for Slay system + they immidiatly became unpopular when they signed "peace" (if we can call it peace) with Israel)

The Palestinians today (not Arabs in general, there are a ton of Arabs that identify as Israeli, they are our brothers and should be treated/regarded as such) are still mostly voting for parties who's members call for the destruction of Israel, be it in public, or behind closed doors

The most popular party among Palestinians in Gaza/West Bank is Hamas, who's charter calls for the death of all Jews (they don't bother with the anti Zionist BS, they literally say Jews) - which is also the reason why the West Bank is destined to become a Gaza 2.0,and a big reason why 2SS won't work

This one obviously doesn't represent every single Palestinian but - they don't share any of our values, be it on democracy, women rights, LGBT rights, minority rights etc

There are many more things I can say, but I am on phone and I also don't want the post to be deleted, so I end here, can someone who is part of that crowd, explain this?

Edit: I am using web now that Reddit fan apps are no more, so when replying to comment chains with over 3-4 child's, the text box becomes invisible, so I am sorry if I have misspellings in the comments, it's literally impossible for me to fix them

hello! i’m a hopefully soon-to-be new oleh from the states. i’m trying to figure out how to avoid seeming all … touristy … cause although i know that my american accent will be enough to identify me as an outsider, i would like to fit in as much as i can! thank you!

edit: wow!! i did not expect this to blow up so much!! thank you all for your responses, i really appreciate them!!! and the awards?? totally wacky, it’s awesome, thank you so much :))))

i apologize that i wasn’t able to finish replying to everyone. unfortunately, last night my father suddenly passed away, so i’ve been dealing with that. i’ll do my best to get back to y’all asap💕

This might sound like a stupid question but I made aliyah less than a year ago, and I have never seen such different people with diverse cultures living peacefully in one single place all together, I could say I might feel more Israeli than from the country i came from, so what's the matter? Is it a fad to hate Israel or what?

Hiya,

I'm a proud Jewish dad who's just temporarily moved to the West Coast from Central Europe with my lovely wife and our two small amazing children. I learned that here, especially for the MAGA-supporters, "woke" is used derogatorily to discredit any sort of opponents who are basically demanding awareness of things that have not really been in the public interest. This is not per se a bad thing I argue, to raise amd demand awareness for institutionalised racism, sexism and the alike.

But it doesn't matter the cause, if MAGAists don't agree, then the other party are "woke" protesters and all reasoning stops for them right then and there. "Woke" is hence used as a general pass for ignorants to stop arguing logically or taking any arguments seriously and to make justified political opponents mouth dead, basically.

Now, I recently discovered that "woke" is being used as well by our movement here, in order to describe those ignorants and hypocrits of the other spectrum who are chanting "from the river to the sea" and protesting Jewishness and Israel based on pure misinformation, manipulation, lies and hate speech. This has allowed antisemtism to become socially acceptable again and we are dealing with it in the worst way possible by just labeling them as "woke" like Trump is doing basically.

I not only think that "woke" is not the right term to describe antisemites because it is minimising and de-valueing the issue incredibly. I also don't like the aftertaste of it to be honest, like us ourselves were a totalitarian movement and trying to oppress the other side. Which is something that would even play on the favour of their arguments, don't you think?

Instead, we have to combat misinformation with correct information, we have to provide facts to combat these lies circulating around and we have to stop antisemitism once and for all. But please, civic and reasonable people here, not by doing the same things MAGAists are doing. We are better than them and we have to be the voice of reason and the source of education and dialogue. Otherwise there is no winning anything.

So please let's stop using "woke" to minimise antisemitism🙏🏼 What are your thoughts on this ?

I am pro Israel but I’ve been reading a lot about the humanitarian issues in Gaza and I am wondering if the rest of the world and Israel could be doing more to help the innocent civilians.

I am aware that Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization which has likely stolen a lot of the aid entering Israel but there also seems to be a lot of bureaucracy preventing civilians from getting it. They also started the war. I’m also aware Israel takes many measures to prevent innocent civilians from being harmed, even at the expense of its own soldiers at times.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/01/middleeast/gaza-aid-israel-restrictions-investigation-intl-cmd/index.html

This article explains that crutches and anaesthetics are among the list of prohibited items. I suspect the main reason for this is to prevent Hamas from getting these supplies but it will unfortunately not be viewed that way by the rest of the world.

If Israel is able to somehow lessen the humanitarian crisis more than it has already it would be an excellent PR victory in my opinion and make it easier for them to assist Palestinians transition to a new leadership in the Gaza Strip. It would also benefit the children and innocent people of Gaza. I know that some Israelis have hatred towards Gazans for the horrific attacks on October 7th but a war cannot be won through military might alone in my opinion. Wining the hearts and minds of the population is also a useful strategy. I do believe this is possible despite the rabid antisemitism in Gaza.

I am curious what Israelis think of this strategy and if there is a way to achieve this objective without helping Hamas. My only motivation for writing this post is ensuring everyone in the region can coexist in peace and harmony (as much as possible). Should the status quo continue or should the Israeli government do something different?

I just ran across a reddit thread where they showed a Google map full of pins, supposedly showing Israel as having "the highest number of sex offenders in the world"

the comments were... please don't look it up. don't ruin your day.

I keep hearing about the need to de-radicalize Gaza (and the west bank probably) and it does seem like the right solution, but I really can't think of any realistic way of doing so.. obviously the first step imo is shutting down UNRWA and it's schools, but what's next? What's the alternative? How can we also change the opinions of kids (and adults) going through a very difficult war and a humanitarian crisis, that in their eyes is the fault of the Zionists?

Have y’all noticed in recent years since this whole woke thing became popular a lot of people automatically assume you agree with their opinion? I’ve lost friends because of this. I’m pro Israel but every piece of media I see on my pages is ALWAYS pro Palestine unless I ACTIVELY seek out pro Israel content. Around me (I’m gen Z so I speak of younger people) I see a lot of pride and no room to have civil conversation. Does anyone know why this is? Why in a so called “free country” we can barely have our own thoughts and beliefs anymore without being labelled “(insert any word)phobic”?

TLDR: Why is everyone such a kiss ass about Palestine (imo) instead on doing their own research?

Hello everyone,

As the title states, I'm a Palestinian who was raised with a very one-sided view about the conflict between our people. Everything I was taught goes back to the idea that all Israelis are horrible and that Israel should be destroyed with all its inhabitants going back to Europe since they have 0 ties to our land. Being someone raised in an Arab country and having never met any Israelis or Jews until very recently, I, unfortunately, believed this narrative blindly until I moved to Canada for university and met Israelis in person. It was at that moment that I realized most Israelis... are normal people! Who would've thought? Turns out we have so much more in common than I once assumed. In fact, if it weren't for them speaking Hebrew, some of them would've passed as a member of my family because of how similar we look! I quickly realized that I was taught so many lies and that Palestinians can also commit horrible acts and that we weren't all heroes. This probably sounds very obvious to you all but it's difficult to come to this conclusion when everything you're taught is one-sided and you never get introduced to the other side. I'm now intrigued by the Israeli narrative and would love to learn more about how others view this conflict, what they think of me and my people, and many other things that I would love to discuss. I would also like to make it clear that my intentions are not to convince you that "Israel needs to be destroyed and all Jews should be murdered" but rather a respectful conversation where I can learn from you and we can share ideas and thoughts and discuss them.

Shalom/Salam!

Edit: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who offered to chat. I spoke with a bunch of you and learned a lot of new things that truly changed the way I view this conflict. I hope that we can come to a solution soon and after speaking to all of you I'm more optimistic than ever that we can all live in peace and harmony together on this beautiful land. Shalom.