The anti-Israel activists and the Jew haters that they often hid behind anti Israel rhetoric that exist are a weird and varied bunch. For some, such as the Muslim promoters of anti-Israel rhetoric, the motivation is religious and is based in Islam’s deep seated hatred of Jews. Others are old style Mosleyite types whose socialism is of a distinctly national kind and they are joined by the far left who, although they might deny it, have had Jew hatred at the heart of their ideology even since it was first shat out of Karl Marx’s diseased mind.

However there are others who are on the Israel hating and Jew hating train and that are the useful idiots. These are the liberal leftists who are in a position where all they know about Israel is what has been fed to them by other leftist activists. Some of these people are not evil but have been misguided on the subjects of the history of the Middle East region and of the various conflicts that Israel is involved in there. These people have been misguided by their families, their activist associates, their teachers and the mainstream media. For some of those who have been misguided it is such a terrible wrench for them to abandon their programming and think for themselves about political situations and narratives that they will continue with their wrong and dishonest beliefs. However there are others among the misguided, such as the person mentioned below, who are willing to change their minds when confronted with evidence that the narrative that they once believed in is shown to be wrong.

David Lange of the Israellcool blog has highlighted a piece from his site from 2007 about the experiences of an anti-Israel activist who was operating in the Hebron area of Israel and working on the side of the ‘Palestinians’. It became pretty clear to me from reading this piece that these often young ‘pro-Palestinian’ activists were being used and abused by the ‘Palestinians’ as a weapon against Israel. The author talks about how the ‘Palestinians’ considered it a bonus if one of these Western anti Israel activists got into trouble with the Israeli Defence Forces as it provided useful negative propaganda to be used against Israel. This activist also claimed that the ‘Palestinians’ considered that one job that these naive anti-Israel Westerners must do is highlight Israeli violence whilst at the same time shielding the violence of the ‘Palestinians’ from any Israeli response.

I’ve taken what is for me an abnormally large chunk from Mr Lange’s piece because it is highly descriptive of how this activist learned that what he had been told about Israel was bullshit. I would most strongly urge you to visit Mr Lange’s site to read the whole piece as there’s stuff in there that is vital to know to be able to start to understand the mindset of those naive activists who, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah ‘call good even and evil good’ and those who have seen the error of their ways.

Israelycool blog said:

How the IDF-soldiers acted

My first morning in Hebron: A young Israeli soldier was standing in his watching post at the entrance of the Jewish Tel Rumeida neighborhood, where also some Palestinian families live. The soldier called upon a Palestinian ten year old boy that was walking up the hill to approach him. The boy was remarkably scared, and hesitantly dragged his feet towards the soldier. When the boy came up close the soldier made a move towards the kid. In this instant my heart started to pump faster since I was certain he was going to arrest or beat the boy, so I took up my camera ready to film the brutality. Instead, to my huge astonishment, he shakes the boys hand and put the other on his shoulder. The soldier started to speak casually with the boy. Instantly the Palestinian kid smiled and they spoke and joked for a couple of minutes in the July heat. I felt relieved, extremely surprised, took down my camera. Nothing here to film.

Yes I was extremely astounished. This encounter between the IDF soldier and the Palestinian kid contradicted everything I was being told and what I thought was the normal mode of IDF-conduct. Surely this soldier’s behaviour must be a very rare glimpse of humanism in the overrall aggressive IDF, like a dolphin swimming in a sea of sharks. But no, it was not. It was rather the normal mode of conduct. I monitored the same group of soldiers from early morning to late evening, and their basic way of treating the Palestinians was that of non-interference and respect. Not once did I see anything that comes close to a violation. I spent three weeks monitoring the IDF soldiers, with my camera around my neck. There was nothing to film, no transgressions whatsoever (except Palestinian war crimes, but I come to that a bit later).

My laundry business

At one point a soldier made a move of his hand at my direction to show that I should approach him. He wanted to ask me a few questions: How could I work for Fatah, call myself human rights activist, while they just killed a gay Palestinian by tying him up to a car and driving his more and more molested body through downtown Hebron? (a few meters from where we were standing) I was pretty shocked. Am I getting human rights lessons from an IDF soldier? I said whitewashing, pink washing, he did not understand my point about the washing business. But I thought about what he had said. I did not care. Those that I work for are Fatah people, moderates, peace activists, even Jewish Israelis. The Palestinian Sharia law, however unjust, does not justify the Israeli occupation. Hence the washing allegations I threw to the soldier.

Here you have Hamas

The next week was slightly different. I understood that the IDF-soldiers were really nice, they treated me and all Palestinians with respect. During lunchtime I decided to go up to the PLO apartment and take a coffee. I stood with my coffee cup looking out at downtown Hebron, with full view of the Hebron Arab zouk. From nowhere I see two guys going out from a car, taking out guns, starting to shoot intensively at the market. It was several hundreds of shots. The zouk was buzzing with families. They started their shooting spree, everyone tried to ran away, I filmed it from the onset. Their shooting spree lasting so long that I had the time to walk up to our rooftop continue filming while the shooting spree continued. Here you have Hamas.

Afterwards I ran down alerted my activist collegues, alerted the IDF soldiers, called our coordinators. The IDF closed the checkpoint. Beefed up all soldier presence. This was the first Hamas attack in the West Bank, their bid on gaining power after they succesfully did that in Gaza. PA president Mahmoud Abbas instated a state of emergency lasting several days. The only ones being safe was the small community of Palestinians, Jews and us distorted foreign activists being secure thanks to the IDF checkpoint and security within the Israeli controlled area. I was actually happy that the IDF had a checkpoint there, guaranteing our security from the crazyness of Hamas.

The irony did not cross my mind at the time, that I went to Hebron to document Israeli war crimes but came home with IDF-humanism and Palestinian war crimes.

It’s interesting that in this ex-activist’s account they use the word ‘distorted’ to describe the foreign activists who went to inadvertently help the ‘Palestinian’ terrorists because that’s exactly what they are which is distorted people. They’ve been distorted by propaganda and their innate desires to do good and to help people has been ruthlessly exploited by some very bad actors indeed. Some, like the author of the account above, learn to unwind from their distortion but there must be many more who have become comfortable with being distorted and uncomfortable and even when presented with evidence that they are wrong, choose to stay ignorant because it’s mentally easier. Those who are more brave and who are prepared to admit that they, like all of us, have at times been naive about things give us a valuable window into the mindset of those who follow narratives even when these narratives are false or questionable.