Published: 29 May 2025
Last updated: 29 May 2025
Last Thursday night, I read The Jewish Independent’s editorial calling for an end to the Israel–Hamas war. It struck a chord. I agreed. So, though I’m more of a “Here’s a photo of my dog” kind of Facebook user, I shared the article with the comment: “I love Israel but surely it’s time for this to end!”
That was it. Eleven words. Less than a tweet. More concise than a café menu. And yet, they triggered a digital firestorm.
My Facebook page exploded. Friends, acquaintances, and vague connections piled on. My motives were questioned. My Zionism, doubted. My loyalty, scrutinised. Someone even suggested I should work for Al Jazeera. Most hadn’t read the article. But the Meta algorithm weaponised outrage at my naïve peacenik post. Likes came in — but so did yellow frowny emojis, sneering at me with jaundiced disdain.
My phone also buzzed with private messages — friends who were supportive, grateful, and afraid to say anything publicly. “Thanks for saying what I couldn’t,” they messaged. “So brave,” as if I’d rescued kittens from a burning house instead of just posting on Facebook.
Messages came from friends in Israel — some supportive, others furious. Apparently, by sharing that article and posting those eleven words, I’d committed the digital equivalent of donning a keffiyeh and chanting “From the river to the sea.” A few said I’d betrayed the hostages. Others questioned the timing — how dare I post the same day two Jews were murdered in Washington?
I get it. Sort of. But this wasn’t a PR move. It was a gut response to an editorial by a publication I’ve made two podcast series for. I was — and am — proud of TJI for publishing a piece that acknowledges the suffering in Gaza without ignoring the horrors of October 7. But I still questioned myself — as a proud diaspora Jewish Zionist, do I even have the right to an opinion?
I know Hamas inflates figures, misuses aid, hides weapons in hospitals. I still feel sick thinking about October 7 —my kids could have attended the Nova festival. I’ve lived in the Negev - these are my people. I grew up in a Zionist youth movement. I love Israel. And I know the IDF tries to minimise civilian casualties. And like many diasporans, I have family and lifelong friends there — people deeply scarred by what’s happened.
But I also can’t ignore the thousands of innocent deaths or the withholding of food meant for Gazans. Who’s to blame almost feels irrelevant now. Something has to shift.
What stays with me from the reaction to my post, isn't just anger or outrage but trauma. Holocaust trauma. Transgenerational trauma. The kind that bubbles just beneath the surface — so potent even 11 words can crack it wide open.
I know everyone who engaged — liking, frowning, arguing . They are close friends, old schoolmates, work colleagues, family, and a few so longstanding they have become “how do I know you?”s. The pile-on was deeply personal.
I’m still a Zionist. I still love Israel. I’m proud of my heritage. And I’m deeply uncomfortable with what’s happening. That doesn’t make me anti-Israel. It makes me human.
I know I’m not alone. There are many of us in this grey zone — wanting the war to end, caring about Jewish life, and unsure how to say “enough” without being branded traitors. I pray for the hostages. I despise chants calling for Israel’s destruction. I also hate the lazy misuse of words like genocide, apartheid and colonisation — tossed around in every activist’s kit bag. I feel abandoned by the progressive side of politics in Australia. I was part of the infamous “Zio 600” whose personal details were leaked online. As a left-leaning Zionist, I feel politically homeless.
My non-Jewish friends are baffled. “How did such a mild post cause this?” Watching it all unfold felt to them like Succession meets Curb Your Enthusiasm — awkward, weirdly funny, and too real.
But I’m left wondering: Why is it so hard to have a nuanced conversation about Israel, antisemitism, and identity? Why are we so quick to pounce, so uncomfortable with internal dissent? Why can’t we support Israel and have empathy for Gazans?
Criticism isn’t betrayal. Being pro-Israel doesn’t mean blind allegiance. Talking behind closed doors about Netanyahu’s stay-in-power-at-all costs or Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s shameful racism isn’t good enough anymore.
In Israel, my peers are protesting, attending peace summits and calling for the war to end. But in Australia, open discussion is being stifled. For every person who questioned my post, just as many messaged, “Well done — I wish I could agree publicly, but there may be repercussions.”
If eleven words on a random Gen Xer’s Facebook page can cause this much drama — imagine what could happen if we all started listening.
Comments10
Noah Efron5 June at 03:15 pm
The posts and tweets you included in your essay were hardly incendiary. They were not even uncivil. Mostly, they just disagreed with the point of view you expressed in those 11 words and by endorsing the article.
Now I agree with the point of view you expressed in those 11 words and by endorsing the article. I (as an Israeli) think that the war causes more damage, pain and anguish that it could possibly present. But I know I could be wrong, and that others can reasonably disagree. So what was so bad with them disagreeing with what you posted, in the way they disagreed? Isn’t that what social media, at its best, is for – an exchange of ideas?
Simon Krite30 May at 02:30 pm
Peter, Thanks for writing this. It’s honest, vulnerable, and clearly comes from a place of love for Israel and deep inner conflict. That tension between the desire for peace and the need for security is something most Jews are wrestling with.
But with respect, and sadness, I also think we need to be clear-eyed about the moment we’re in. This isn’t just a war that we can “wish away.” Calls for an end to fighting, however well-intentioned, risk becoming dangerous when they’re disconnected from the reality on the ground and from the motivations of the enemy.
We are not watching a symmetrical war, and this isn’t a dispute over land or politics that can be resolved with mutual compromise. We are facing a genocidal terror group whose foundational charter calls for the eradication of Jews, not just Israelis. Hamas didn’t just commit atrocities on October 7, they bragged about it, filmed it, and said they want to do it again and again. They hold hostages still. They embed in civilian areas deliberately. They reject any notion of coexistence. But Im sure you know all this.
It’s uncomfortable when people react strongly to posts like yours, as the story it linked too. But it’s not just about “trauma” or tribal loyalty. It’s about existential fear. And justified fear. It’s about watching global opinion turn against Israel and Jews everywhere while knowing full well that if Hamas had the means, there would be no Jewish state left standing. It’s about seeing hostages forgotten and our grief made conditional.
Empathy for Palestinian civilians is right and moral. But we must not let that empathy blind us to who is truly prolonging this war. Israel didn’t choose this. Hamas did and continues to. A ceasefire that leaves them standing is not peace. Deep down every Jew knows this reality will just be an invitation to repeat the horror.
The problem isn’t that you’re calling for peace. It’s that too many calls for peace ignore the cost of peace without security. That kind of peace isn’t sustainable. In fact, it’s suicidal.
We do need more space for nuance. But nuance must come with clarity. And clarity means knowing the difference between regretting war and empowering evil.
Please, let’s not pretend the greatest threat to peace is the people defending themselves from annihilation. However ever much we want to “wish away” this war.
Louise30 May at 03:22 am
I completely agree with you. I am very careful who I express my views to. I seek to know their views on the Gaza situation before I will say anything to Jewish friends. How sad is that???
Miriam Tier29 May at 11:18 pm
I agree with every word of this article. I have felt paralysed since the outset of this war, argued with friends – Jewish friends from the right and the left. Like you, a left-wing Zionist.
Judith Ohana29 May at 11:05 pm
You’re certainly not alone in feeling concerned about the scale of destruction and suffering in Gaza. There must be a better way to defeat Hamas and bring the hostages home.
Brett29 May at 10:40 pm
A perfect summary. Your post and the subsequent comments have been on my mind ever since. It saddens me that it has become unsafe for Jews to express anything even mildly critical of Israel and its actions. It seems ok for Israelis to do so, but for those in the diaspora, we all of a sudden become ‘self-hating’. It also saddens me that we seem to have lost our capacity to share and discuss our differences. Thank you again, Rob. Your 11 words were important. 🙏
Rachel Sussman29 May at 09:42 am
So sorry you got overrun with such comments, I understand it is unpleasant and there is certainly nothing wrong with recognizing that the people of Gaza, like the people of Israel are suffering loses…
I guess the thing is this:
We all want this war to end, but simply telling Israel: ‘look what you do you make the people of Gaza suffer and it must stop’ is not only not helpful (even if in best intention), but it asks Israel to virtually surrender to Hamas….
If I was to call on Israel to stop the war, I will make sure to do it alongside the call for the unconditional return of all hostages, and for Hamas to surrender its power of governing Gaza and its arms… Otherwise, I/you are condemning the people of Israel to another and another 7/10, we make living in the South unsafe, and we make all the sacrifices and suffering of this war obsolete…
Ian Grinblat29 May at 09:08 am
I am sorry to hear about the reaction to your post.
Of course none of us liked to see wholesale destruction and death, but how should Israel react? Peace is only possible if the Gazans want peace with Israel. Right now it seems that the Gazan and Palestinian idea of peace has no place for Israel – or Jews.
Negotiations only serve to allow Hamas to regroup and at no stage has Hamas offered to return all the hostages – hostage taking is a war crime which in this case preceded Israel’s war on Gaza. It also worries me that some of the hostages were held in private homes – do we consider those hosts as ‘innocent civilians’?
Corinne29 May at 07:59 am
I really applaud your article. This issue of criticising Israel therefore I’m a traitor – is many decades old in Australia. And I do believe it’s related to the fact that if we say anything vaguely suggesting immorality there, then how can we run there if we are kicked out of Australia. I don’t think it’s conscious at all. The other night here in Tathra- a Palestinian author was interviewed by Linda Motrum who lives here now. The first thing Linda said was- we understand the Palestinians- we have our own deep pain of what happened to our indigenous people! And later someone asked her- Does she think antisemitism is being weaponised? I was the only Israeli there. Hundreds of locals I knew. It’s an odd time indeed.
Hadass Segal29 May at 04:01 am
Yes! We need to be able to have robust conversations without attacking each other!