I used to have way, wayyyy more of a "both sides are the problem" attitude, but these last few weeks have convinced me that that is simply not the case.

Although I don't particularly care if Israel is a state or not, and would happily suggest that all Jewish people could instead, just move here to the US (though of course that policy option would have opponents here as well), the fact is that Israel does exist, its inhabitants are definitely not the "colonists" given the actual history, imposition of a modern state or not.

Furthermore, as I learn more about the recent history, I find that repeatedly, whenever there are some peace talks and a ceasefire/treaty deal on the table, Hamas violates the agreement. And at the end of the day, you can tell a lot about the difference between the side that allows Palestinians and other Muslim groups to live in their nation peacefully (and which generally features a fairly liberal, Western democracy) and the side that is run by extremist theocrats who throw gay people off the roofs of buildings and openly express a desire to kill all the Jews.

And yeah, when I wade into these waters at all, the people ripping down posters of missing children just scream "zionist" at me when I point out that they're being awful by any sane moral standard... Which is pretty dumb, since I'm not Jewish, I'm an atheist who really isn't capable of valuing a hostile geographical location for religious reasons, and I have zero problem criticizing Israeli policy. I'm also on record many times rejecting US involvement/support, so I'd be a pretty bad zionist.

Doesn't change the fact that Hamas attacked civilians and has done everything in their power to harm innocent people, while apparently having zero concern for the wellbeing of their own people.