My Awakening
I used to be pro-Palestine like many in London where I grew up. But after moving to the US and befriending Jews, the invisible ink of anti-Semitism (Jewish Racism) became visible. My friend Matthew said, “Babe, it was there, you just chose not to see it.” He was right – I was blind to the hate. The wake-up call came on October 7th with the Palestinian missile attacks on Israeli civilians. As my friends put up Palestinian flags in support, it chilled me to the core. I realized they must hate me for being Iranian because they were celebrating the same terrorists who killed my family.
The Nazis Thought They Were Good Too
Those friends blocking me for condemning terrorism was a shock I’ve never recovered from. They think they’re social justice warriors taking down the patriarchy, but as I told them, “The Nazis never thought they were evil either.” Evil doesn’t announce itself. This TikTok generation gets radical misinformation in 2-minute videos. So we fight back with longer explanations of the deeper truth – that the Palestinian “resistance” is part of the same terrorist snake as the Islamic Republic that oppresses Iranians.
Israel is Fighting Our War
Seeing Westerners celebrate terrorists who murdered my people was soul-crushing. I thought, “You must hate me so much.” Supporting Palestine means supporting the Islamic Republic’s proxies like Hamas too. Ironically, most Iranians inside Iran have become extremely pro-Israel now. They see the IDF as their savior fighting our terrorist enemies. One commented on a fallen soldier, “Our savior is gone!” Israel is fighting a war on behalf of Iran and the Middle East.
A Plea to Israelis
To Israelis reading this: Thank you for being our powerful, beautiful, eloquent allies against the terrorists oppressing us. We Iranians don’t want to “end the Zionist settler project” – we want peace and harmony between all peoples in the region after decades of chaos. For the Western world to accept Israel’s right to exist, it will take Middle Easterners like us loudly rejecting the fantasy of eliminating Israel. We don’t support your weird fetish about ending that state. We are grateful for Israel’s fight against the terrorists tormenting our people.
