"Actually, most of them don’t give a s--t to Palestine. They protest against Israel and the Jews. Otherwise we would have seen much wider protests against genocide in Rwanda, civil wars in Sudan, Syria, Yemen, etc. Millions of people are being killed in the Middle East and Africa, but since the Jews are not involved, no one cares. And this is the bitter truth."
"I will try and give a serious answer even though I agree with the feeling behind the question.
"People are busy with their own lives and don’t make a real study of the situation in other countries. They might get information from social media or TV, and some people do follow the news, but they don’t know the history of the conflict.
"On the face of it, it appears that Israel has power and the Palestinians are poor and being bombarded by superior Israeli fighting machines. And as many people on Quora tell me, vast numbers of Palestinians have been killed and far fewer Israelis.
Rashida Tlaib, US Congress |
"And that hides a more complicated truth - if Israel were willing to let the Palestinians develop an independent state, and give them economic cooperation, Hamas would not have so much support, and would not have been elected.
"And that hides more complicated truths - because Hamas was elected as part of a unity government and then seized total power in a coup, and nobody would dare to speak up against them today. Conversely - when Israel signed the Oslo Accords and allowed the Palestinians an armed police force, Palestinian opponents started bombing Israeli restaurants, buses and malls, convincing Israelis that concssions to them were dangerous.
"It goes on, and on, and on, and on, and is just plain complicated. Even in the days when people read lots of books and newspapers, most people didn’t have the time to delve into the complications of other countries’ conflicts. I myself know almost nothing about India in its first days of independence, for instance.
"But today in the era of populist media, people grab onto what they see and think they know something, and most people have good and passionate hearts and care about others, so they rush to protest for whoever seems superficially like the underdog.
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And yes, there is also a lot of underlying contempt and hatred for Jews in many places."