1. The Jews stole the land of Palestinians already before 1918

    Any Jews who came in prior to 1918 were arriving in a part of the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans functioned as a fairly normal nation with laws and order. If Jews had come in and kicked Palestinians out of their houses the Ottoman authorities would have intervened. Jews settling in the Ottoman region did so legally.
  2. Everything started in 1948

    During the time of the interbellum, under the British mandate, there was already tension between the Arab population and the Jews. Both committed atrocities. The British maintained more troops there than in all of Indian just to keep the peace there. Problems arose long before 1948.
  3. The Jews had the intent to kill all Arabs and they rolled out this plan in 1948

    The British had no desire to continue their mandate over the region and came up with a partition plan to settle the matter. The Jews accepted the plan, the Palestinians did not. As soon as the Israeli state was declared tensions escalated. Millitants from newly formed Arab nations also started arriving until all neighbouring countries invaded what is now Israel. They had the clear intent to kill all the Jews. The Jews rallied and defeated a ill-coordinated attack from many different sides. They were not succesful everywhere. For example, the Jordanians did well on the Jerusalem front. It’s still hotly debated what exactly cause about 700,000 Arabs to lose their homes at this point. There seem to be many factors at play. A major contributing factor was the Deir Yassin massacre. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Yassin_massacre

    There are other causes however. Apparently there were also Arab radio broadcasts urging Arabs to temporarily flee the war zone with the idea that they could easily return after the war was won. That many did so may have been a combination of fear and the opportunity to do so – note that the Jews had nowhere to run to – and again, a lack of firm leadership and strong organisation. See:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight

    It’s safe to assume that in 1948 you basically had two options a Naqba for the Jews or a Naqba for the Arabs. One side prevailed and one side lost.

    We don’t have a time machine, but we don’t know what would have happened if both sides had accepted the partition plan.

    And yes, the Jews did organize massacres in some areas, villages were indeed destroyed, and yes, you can even find videos with Jewish veterans of the war of 1948 bragging about killing people and smiling about it, but this doesn’t make the Arab side entirely blameless.

    4. Arab Israelis are second-class citizens

    There is simply no serious legal distinction between Jewish Israelis and Arab Israelis. Both have plenty of opportunities to develop, to be educated, to build a career, etc. Arab Israelis are not conscripted into the army, but they can join if they wish to do so. Arab Israelis do not live in restricted areas, they are not confined to ghettos. They shop and work in the same supermarkets the Jews shop and work in, for example. The vast majority of Arab Israelis prefers to live in Israel and not in Gaza or the West Bank.

    5. Israel never took any peace plan seriously

    Israel left the Gaza strip to the Palestinians (to be clear, these are Palestinians without Israeli citizenship, so not to be confused with Arabs living in Israel who are Israeli) in 2005.

    This was a hugely controversial decision. The Israeli army had to basically pull out Jewish settlers at gun point. Jewish settlements were demolished. Israel left profitable greenhouses in Gaza. They even dug up the Jewish deceased from local Jewish cemeteries and transferred them back to Israel. If Israel is always hell bent on stealing all the land and driving the Palestinians as far away as possible, then why would they hand over the Gaza strip and forcibly evict Jews who had settled there?

    6. Was Gaza a concentration camp prior to October 7th 2023?

    What one keeps hearing is how densely populated the region is. There are many densely populated regions on earth and that doesn’t necessarily make them poor. Belgium, The Netherlands and Japan are highly densely populated countries and are very wealthy. A densely populated region is not by definition a region with horrible living conditions.

    There are restaurants in Gaza, there are cinemas, there are hotels, there are tennis courts, there are beaches, you can buy and own cars in Gaza, people have internet access, there are supermarkets, there is food. It’s not paradise, but the term concentration camp risks making a mockery of the concentration camps organized by Nazi-Germany.

    Here is a quick comparison of the cost of living in Gaza and in Chicago (a major city in of the wealthiest countries on earth):


Consumer Prices in Chicago, IL are 141.9% higher than in Gaza (without rent)
Consumer Prices Including Rent in Chicago, IL are 274.0% higher than in Gaza
Rent Prices in Chicago, IL are 1,776.8% higher than in Gaza
Restaurant Prices in Chicago, IL are 293.1% higher than in Gaza
Groceries Prices in Chicago, IL are 159.0% higher than in Gaza

Local Purchasing Power in Chicago, IL is 368.9% higher than in Gaza

So yes, on average someone in Chicago has three times the purchasing power as someone in Gaza, but we are comparing a city in a very wealthy country. If we could compare the purchasing power of Chicago with that of Auschwitz in 1944 there would be nothing to compare, because the average Auschwitz inmate had ZERO purchasing power. Also take this into consideration: ‘The average life expectancy from arrival in Auschwitz 1 to death through disease, malnutrition, mistreatment or murder is approximately four months.’ (see: https://www.eis.org.uk/auschwitz/holocaustpart6)

Living in Gaza is not the same as living in an extermination camp. To live there was not a death sentence prior to October 7th 2023 and to say that Hamas were like guys breaking out of a concentration camp on October 7th is patently false.

It’s true that many Palestinians have legitimate reasons to list lots of grievances against the state of Israel, but many of these are the result of policies Israel has adopted to prevent terrorist attacks in Israel. There was a time that Palestinians and Israelis lived in relative peace and harmony and Palestinians could take their car and drive all over Israel if they wanted to. Violent resistance has gradually soured many Israelis and made more repression and surveillance a necessity for security reasons. In many cases – exploding all over social media often without much context – Israel goes too far in trying to maintain the security of its citizens. Israel is much more vulnerable than it may look to outsiders if one sees this conflict only as one between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel operates within a context where it has to count with potential violence from many different sides, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and even Turkey. You could say that Israel is operating in a perpetual state of survival mode. Mistakes are made in that process, but all in all it does an ok job in maintaining a functioning democracy within its borders.

Another way of putting it is that Israel perceives this state of affairs as having a wolf by its ears and Israel is willing to let the wolf go, if the wolf promises not to bite it.