I wish I was as brave and well-spoken as this young man.

When I was 17-18 I scored really well on a test and the US Air Force tried to recruit me. It was tempting because I was fascinated with aerospace and it would have kickstarted my career and possibly meant no student loans. I'd easily be $100k better off today if I went down that path.

But I couldn't imagine myself dropping bombs on potentially innocent people at the behest of some smug politician, or even loading ordinance for someone else to do it. The thought made me sick to my stomach. So I figured out my own path. But that was easy for me, because there was no major conflict at the time, no one threatening me with jail, and no social repercussions from that decision. I have to wonder if I would have made the same decision if it was under Tal Mitnick's conditions.

It's so sad how alone he is. The culture in Israel is so right-wing, so extreme. They like to pretend this liberal with their protests against Netanyahu, but now they're all calling for blood as if the last 70 years of occupation never happened, as if they haven't been killing and starving people this whole time.

The kid is right. There's no military solution to this conflict. But it's sad that to say such a obvious thing makes him a pariah in his own home. The US needs to stop supporting that bloodthirsty populace.

I respect conscientious ojbectors, good for him.

Before the cruel events on October 7th and the insane devastation that followed, I didn't realize how deeply messed up the western idea of foreign policy in the Middle East really is. Before October 7th, I knew about colonialism, I knew about the war on terror and its devastating consequences for countries in that region. I knew about things like the insane death toll in the Mediterranean Sea, where innocent people in need are just getting systematically crushed by the EU's border apparatus and the right-wing idea of "securing borders" and "not letting the bad ones in". I knew about it and understood it as inhumane right-wing or neoliberal ideas that align with the interests of those who can really profit from it. The oil industry, weapons manufacturers, etc... and the politicians who are in their pockets or benefit from spreading fear and hate.

For me, these topics were always something that the progressive left and even many liberal or apolitical people can understand as senseless cruelty. Seeing the news coverage after October 7th and diving deeper into the details of that conflict, I was absolutely dumbfounded, that even some of the progressive news-outlets I follow are avoiding talking about Israels war crimes while repeating the propaganda of Zionist organizations or the Israeli state. My country has defended Israels actions in the international court, and there are quite a few people agreeing with that decision. Quite a few people that I would otherwise consider reasonable and knowledgeable. I have read newspapers that hold themselves to "high journalistic standards" who call peaceful student groups antisemitic and Nazi-aligned. Groups that were advocating for humanity, a ceasefire and a one-state-solution, and have now shut down any kind of public protest because of the hate that came their way.

Not far from where I live, there was a concentration camp and less than a hundred years ago my country had a fascist tyrant as its leader and plenty of accomplices who helped him with his ethnic cleansing campaign. We are not that far removed from this fascism, from treating people with other ethnic backgrounds like something you can just exploit to drown out in the Mediterranean Sea. From supporting the idea of a pure religious ethnostate having the right to slaughter "uncivilized" people that are in the way. From being ignorant enough to whitewash those who fought against apartheid while jailing those who are opposing it now.

This insipid and cruel war against Palestine has got to end. I admit I wasn't particularly on anyone's side to start with, but now Israel has turned a singular day of violence into a bloodthirsty crusade of horror.

More killing will not solve anything, and now that Gaza is a blasted wasteland, there can't be any winners at all. The love of killing other humans has got to stop - it just has to stop and we have to undertake psychological healing and promotion of peaceful ideals and quit inculcating young impressionable and easily coerced men with the idea that murder is ever justified for any reason.

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