...Then I am curious as to why you hook your wagon to Israel. My heritage is quite similar to yours yet I obviously have taken a different path.
Because, for as much as you perceive the Muslim-Arab Palestinians to be the underdog in this short-lived (only 66 years) situation...
I perceive the Jews to have been the underdog for the better part of
2000 years, and to have suffered
so much more than the Palestinians so as to exceed them by several orders of magnitude...
I side with them because Christians and Muslims both have vast tracts of land, and entire nations, and ancient cities, that serve as the Spiritual Mothership and home-bases for those other faiths, but the Jews lost theirs some 1900 years ago, and had none, until 1948...
I side with them because I grew up sensitive to their horrific pain and their tribulations spread across the vast sprawl of many centuries of pogrom and slaughter and Dhimmitude.
I side with them because the pain of the Palestinians in the past 66 years is a drop in the bucket compared to that of the Jews.
I side with them because the Muslims of the region could not part with a tiny sliver carved out of the vast tracts of land that they hold, to let the Jews come home again.
I side with them because they kicked the Muslims' arses, good and proper, against frightful odds, time and again - demonstrating a long-lost, now-recovered ability to fight.
I side with them because - after so many generations of cowering in their isolated little enclaves - they found their courage again, to stand up and fight for themselves.
I side with them because - after so many generations of Dhimmitude and being obliged to hide in the shadows - they now stand like men again, in the open light of day.
I side with them because they managed to hold themselves together as a community of faith - and because they managed to keep sight of a goal (returning to the Holy Land) for nearly two millennia - the All-Time World Record Holders, for cohesion, faith, loyalty and dedication in the face of Diaspora and catastrophic persecution.
I side with them because I perceive the Jews - collectively - to have a measure of courage and character so far in excess of the Muslim-Arabs of Palestine so as to defy measurement.
And other reasons, I suppose, but that's good for a start.
If I were King of the World and if I could spare the Muslim-Arab Palestinians their trials and tribulations while still giving the Jews what they need, I would.
But I cannot.
The world is what it is.
In any situation where compromise is no longer possible and peaceful coexistence is no longer possible, one either walks away, or chooses a side.
I chose mine, long ago.
For the reasons outlined here, among others.
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You asked, and you got a straight answer.
See you on the barricades.