It is a complicated subject and goes way back in the Bible.

The protestors generally believe Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. Because Israel tends to respond with excessive force after Hamas attacks. Israel and Israelis have also been stealing and destroying Palestinian homes to become Israeli settlements. This has been going on for many years.

Hamas is horrible but Israel does awful things, too, such as when they murdered the World Central Kitchen workers. The west likes to turn a blind eye towards Israel's atrocities.

It's a very complex topic and the discussion online contains a lot of propaganda from both sides. Nobody ever truly wins in war.

At the end of the day both sides are God's children and people on both sides deserve to live. But people on both sides want to exterminate the other side. And humans are ignorant enough to choose a side and choose who is "right". Both are behaving immorally and making the world a worse place.

bill, you asked this question with such genuine earnestness that as CL I hope DS doesn't decide it should be taken down. I really appreciate your sincerity, my friend.

I'm responding as a college professor who retired from 40 years of teaching at private 2 universities and 2 public colleges during my 4 decades in the classroom, During those decades different world events stirred my students to protests like the ones you mention going on now.

I taught nursing students, but since I grew up in Latin America and also had a doctorate in Spanish, sometimes if their cause had to do with Latin America or Spain students called upon me to speak on their issue to one of their groups.

I always let them know that I respected how much they cared for people overseas in countries most of them had never visited, much less resided in. Then, though, I let them know that as someone who had roots in a country overseas, over there in those countries the citizens there see their own issues from both sides, too. That's why the ones that don't have dictatorships and do have democracies have multiple parties with different points of view on their issues.

I wasn't avoiding taking a stand; I literally wrote a book that got published in which I stand up for democracy against the dictatorship I grew up in as a missionary kid in Uruguay. That is why I have PTSD and am a CL on the PTSD group here on DS.

I told students, then, that even though I was tortured by troops in that dictatorship, for my book I interviewed officers who led the right wing dictator's troop. Likewise, I interviewed a left wing terrorist who murdered a US embassy official for working with the dictator's troops even though a leftist student hit my family's car I was riding in with a bomb during a student riot against the dictatorship..

I practiced dialogue with both sides of an issue that literally traumatized me, so as students living safely in the USA they could talk to both sides rather than shout the other side down. That applies to the current Palestinian war with very high civilian casualties just as much as it applies to the massacre against Israeli civilians on October 7th this past fall.

I earned the right to say so and to challenge any safe US protester on either side of the current crisis--whether for Palestinians or for Israelis--to be so bold as to say they deserve to have the last word in a dispute they themselves mostly haven't suffered directly. It's easy to get caught up in the spectacle of militant activism for one side or another. However, it's not a show, it's not a circus, and even protesting must be done with respect for how it's what others are suffering.

Somehow as a professor before I retired I was able to deliver that message to students many times over my years when protests erupted on campus. I told them that process mattered as they protested as much as the product in the results of their protests. If they wanted to persuade anybody with the substance of what they had to say in protest, respect attracted those watching their protests while vehemence drove listeners away. If they really cared about the cause for which they were protesting, they'd show respect for the other side.

That's just me speaking for myself, of course. There are many who think otherwise. I'm moved by how sincerely you asked, though, bill, so I hope my sincerity comes through to you in turn. If not, my sincere apologies, then. I mean to send you my support here in the spirit of how we treat each other well at DSPTSD. I hope I'm not out of line with DS ROR policy. If I am, I'm certainly sorry and will learn from my mistake.

Sending support, amigo.

thanks muji....there truly are two sides and war does nothing but kill people....that is mostly why I oppose the entire thing...it is war....killing is not right in my humble opinion...

total distruction of property is never a solution to terroristic acts...terroristic acts are never acceptable....

I got asked to join a debate group but declined....I am not wanting a debate....just ideas how others who have no ship in these deadly seas over seas feel about the groups that are here to protest in and on our campuses and on our soil.....

police here in St. Louis arrested a bunch of protesters...some of them were hurt during their arrests.....USA says Peaceful protests are allowable....and the debate is what was not peaceful about some of the protesting going on here.....I did not attend any protest and probably never will....I keep my politcal life out of public eyes to best of my ability.....

thanks Muji for comments made on how I approached this....

I'm not a person to expand on my words.
I can only say: WAR is very ugly and no one wins. Does Hamas still have hostages? Will Israel cease if Hamas releases the hostages?

The best explanation I have heard is that the protestors world view is the aggressor against the poor country. Meaning the USA and Israel are rich countries and must be the aggressors and Gaza is poor so can’t be the aggressor. This ignores the financial corruption and world money sent/given to Hamas. So the protesters appear believe they are fighting for the under dog. And so kidnapping and killing innocent people doesn’t matter when you are the under dog, it’s okay. Not everyone understands history. I’ve seen some interviews of the protesters who are asked questions like what does from the river to the sea mean or who is the Gaza government— and they simply don’t know. And the universities and police agencies are reporting that the people being arrested are often not students by large numbers. Say half who were arrested at the college protest were not registered students. So outside groups come in and organize these protests. You can tell by how polished the speakers are and what they say, how they all seem to have similar playbook. There is a good book by Andy Ngo on antifa in the USA and how it is organized and run. If you want to understand more about these groups.

I wanted to add that most Americans have no idea of the history of the Middle East and how the various countries came into being. We don’t understand that no Middle Eastern country will allow Gazans to migrate to a new country and be given citizenship. Why is this? Why has Egypt closed its border with Gaza and refused to allow the victims of the bombings shelter and citizenship? How did this underclass called Palestinian come to be? Modern history of the region is ugly.

You're welcome, bill.

I think there is a general feeling that the Palestinian people are oppressed and not given a fair chance by Israel. I think many do not understand the full history of that area and that Palestine and have not been granted state status because of investment of terror organizations such as the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah- and that there have been genuine points in history when there were negotiations that failed because of the terror organizations. I also do not think many of understand that the cries of antifada are a cry for genocide- and that Israel is not “stolen” land it was granted by Great Britain so Israel is not colonizing- this was the homeland of the Jews before it was taken first by the Romans and then by the Muslims…
It’s super complicated- but I think if the Palestinian people would divest themselves from the terrorist organizations that hide behind the civilian population they would be far better off- as the people of Israel would not have the fears of suicide bombings and raids and other acts of terror in their daily lives….