The world's daftest question: Are you "pro-Palestine" or "pro-Israel"?

Freedom as an antidote to binary thinking

[Image: Palestinian supporters, left, at a protest near the Israeli Consulate General in New York. Pro-Israel supporters, right, gather along Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. AFP via Getty Images. Retrieved from nbcnews.com]

Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel are lazy labels that represent binary thinking. Yet I would forgive the reader for adopting them. For it seems to the impartial observer that Jews support Israel and Muslims Palestine. There are many exceptions. Famous exceptions. Yet the stereotype just outlined largely holds true. 

For many this may be pure religious tribalism. Or the safety and comfort of supporting your own kind. There are many reasons besides. And the binary thinking encouraged by our universities - whereby you need to pick a side in this conflict as an identity label - is undoubtedly a factor too. However I am not a dealer in stereotypes and I cannot look into the mind of every Jew and Muslim, the majority of whom I have never met. So I will just turn to myself. Because I know myself very well indeed. And in my case I can say, in the fullest of sincerity, that being Jewish barely affects my perspective on the Middle East. Don’t believe me? Well I’m about to prove it.

Many would say that I publish pro-Israeli articles online. Yet those of you that have seen my content on the Israeli legal debate know better.  For what is my rallying cry and my clarion call? Nothing more and nothing less than the cause of freedom. Freedom represents my passion and my struggle. Freedom is the jewel that I tuck away safely at night and unveil in morning to protect once more. 

To the extent that I support Israel, it is for that cause alone. It is because Israel is a free society and Palestine is a autocratic one. If Israel were to turn into a theocratic dictatorship, it would immediately lose my support. If Palestine turned into Nordic-style democracy, I would laud its development and champion its society. If both strode the stage as democratic colossi, I would support both against their tyrannical enemies.  And if both fell into the abyss of unfreedom, I would reject the two nations as equally despisable. Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine is not a binary choice. One can be both. One can be neither. It’s a question of freedom.

So what is a free nation? Can it be simply defined? Well yes. In my opinion it can.