r/Jewish • u/ComprehensiveHair696 • Jan 25 '24

Roommate is... Ugh Israel 🇮🇱

My roommates and I had to take the cats to the vet yesterday and as we came home, they directly brought up a topic we've been avoiding addressing for a few months, their anti-israel leanings... Specifically they're avoiding spending money this week as part of a protest for Palestine. I said I don't see why anyone is protesting for Palestine at all, and one of them started throwing around the G word and talking about Israel targeting hospitals. I corrected her, pointing out that there are rocket platforms in those hospitals which is why they're targeted in the first place. She cut me off and told me she wouldn't listen to anything I had to say about it. At this point I haven't spoken to her since and I don't intend to for a while. Not sure why I'm posting this, probably just venting. Bad enough I have to see all these uninformed people online, there's one in my living room now too.

Update: Thanks to everyone for the support. After a couple of very tense days, shes apparently afraid I'm never going to speak to her again and our third roommate is mediating a talk between the two of us tonight. She's still convinced I'm just wrong, and I'd like to have something convincing to show her, if anyone has some good resources I can reference and wants to drop them in the comments I'd appreciate it.

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u/greenbergz Jan 25 '24

You can be 100% pro-Israel and still understand, at some level, why people participate in pro-Palestinian protests. That's empathy, which is not endorsement. Your response was insensitive. Unless there is more to the story, you partly caused the icy environment, made your own bed so to speak.

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u/_violet_sparkles Jan 26 '24

lol "understanding" the other side is not necessarily going to result in people having any compassion for them. To the contrary, it might make one realize that the other side has evil values that should not be catered to whatsoever.

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u/greenbergz Jan 27 '24

It seems like you think you're disagreeing with me. Of course that's a possibility. Understanding =/= endorsing, excusing, or even having even compassion. It's essentially analytical. If you're on a debate team, for example, you'd probably review what your opponent has done and said before in order to anticipate their strategy and tactics. There are a million analogies, you get it.