This question needs to be asked. Why is it impossible to voice criticism of Israel as a political

[Happy Hoosier]

24. I'd normally be there with you, but....

... there is a difference between a reasoned criticism of Israel and Likud in particular, and a an automatic stance against Israel in every possible case.

ESPECIALLY in light of the brutal attacks by Hamas which explicitly targeted civilians for massacre, it's hard to stomach folks who uncritically repeat claims by those same terrorists, and hyperbolic accusations against Israel as an entity... using terms like "genocide" or "colonialist."

Some of the critics seem to accept the narrative that Israel is an example of Western Imperialism, which flies in the face of over 1000 years of pogroms, massacres, and exploitation in Europe and that the Zionist movement was an effort to get AWAY from that.

I am quite critical of many of Israel's policies, but they did not emerge in a vacuum, and I find a lot of Democrats in this country and more or less unaware of the details how Zionism emerged as a movement, and the context of some the bigger mistakes Israel made in its early history.... or for that matter, decisions the Palestinians and Arab states made... like their earlier insistence that no Jewish state could exist in that region at all... and their OWN explusions of non-Israeli Jews.... details often left out of the ISRAEL BAD narrative.