There's no need to reconcile those sentiments. I respect and admire US achievements in technology (and music, cinema, etc), even though the US government has done and does a lot of disgusting things to non-US citizens. There's no contradiction.
Also, consider what policies your fellow citizens might support if your country was surrounded by hostile neighbours. I mean, 40% of the American public supports the "Mexico Wall", even though Mexico is an important trade partner and poses no military threat to the US. Imagine if Mexico and Canada were to declare their intent to destroy the US...
(not assuming you are American, above is just an example)
A better way to frame the support is in how the US defeated Germany and Japan and then helped them economically, in order to get them back up and prevent too much resentment. First and foremost Britain took no responsibility when they decided it's best to un-occupy the region, allowing the recent conflict over the same patch of land a lot of previous blood was wasted for before. Also, let's be fair and mention how much support (like Japan or Germany) the new state has gotten from the West and used that to reach where it's now. There's a difference between a regime supported while under sanctions and limited I/O ports and another that's supported freely. I'm mentioning that before anyone says Palestinians were supported from the outside as well.
Regarding Israel's (the regime) support of the west bank and gaza: it's more like a prison where, despite the inmates' violent behavior trying to get out, you must support them because you're holding the key to their cells since the victory in the war. Is it right for either side to repeatedly reach out to violence as a bargaining chip? No, it's not, but not every tribe of this world subscribes to Mahatma's strategy. Well, the Norwegians did successfully when peacefully opposing the German invasion, but again, different populations act and think differently.
I don't pick sides in this debate, but it's important to put things into perspective. Yes, other nations may have decimated them. Yes, both regimes have a history of undiplomatic approaches to finding consensus. No, Israel (the regime) doesn't support them out of good will.
Israelis are not a "guy". There are multiple segments of the population and typically the technological achievement people and the assholes that go to wars are not the same people.
Just for the record - most people here want peace and are willing to make sacrifices for it. If only it were that simple.
>Just for the record - most people here want peace and are willing to make sacrifices for it. If only it were that simple.
Lav davka. Most people want peace for free, and don't see why they should have to do the work of siding with filthy smolanim to counter the settlement movement when the Palestinians aren't trustworthy anyway.
Try attending an antiwar demo and being yelled at that you're a traitor and a dirty Arab if you think most Israelis want peace so much.
If most Israelis wanted peace, they wouldn't vote for the Right.
That. As much as I think it's great that people are expecting more of Israel, IDF does not get enough praise. It's tough enough to come up with a workable solution (might not even be possible!), even tougher when you have to defend yourself from an onslaught of unwarranted criticism.
Apart from AI's dubious record on that — you understand that these two statements about the conflict are not mutually exclusive, right? Of course Gaza is a humanitarian disaster, even extremen right-wingers would agree with you on that.
