I am from the Middle East and support Israel, here's why...

I am currently 16 years old and from an early age have always been greatly engaged in geopolitics and current affairs in the UK, Asia, America, etc; it's always been of immense interest to me. I will split why I support Israel into 2-3 sections, and I would love for people to ask me questions and let me know your viewpoints. I'm not closed off to my point of view like many.

Background

My grandfather, born in 1927 in Iran, was born just after a coup that saw the beginning of a new Imperial dynasty led by Reza Khan, now the Shah of Iran. 19 years later, after the more progressive takeover of his son, Mohammad Reza, he eagerly joined the Imperial Army and became a Private. By about 1970, he managed to rise the ranks to a role equivalent to that of a general. His family, including my father (born in 1967) enjoyed a good upbringing and my dad even met the Shahbanu (Farah Diba) but unfortunately not the Shah himself. My mother had roots of the Shia Safavid Dynasty which reigned in Iran centuries prior so you could say they had quite a royalist background.

Under the Shah, Iran enjoyed modernisation and opening up to the West and women had a choice to wear a hijab and the right to vote. The Shah also, very excellently in my opinion, announced his support for both Palestine and Israel and a two-state solution. However, as some of you reading this will know, the Shi'ite clergy and the mullahs managed to amass a following to start a revolution. In the late months of 1978, when the Imperial regime fell apart, my dad's entire family was advised to leave by advisors of the Shah migrating to the UK. My mum came to the UK by about 2001, and she met my father there. With the clergy's control, much changed. Open relations with the west ended completely, women were stripped of all civil liberties, and the new regime enacted terrorism as seen with the capturing of US hostages in 1980. They condemned Israel and affiliated them with the "great Satan". My country also began to fund proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Political Education

Learning about my country's history and actions further allowed me to gain an opinion on what was happening with Israel and Palestine. Before the Iranian Revolution, the Shah's regime was seen as a bastion of stability and friendship to the west in a territory of uncertainty. Thanks to the clergy, Israel now took that role. Looking at it all, Islamic fundamentalism is the greatest threat to democracy. My country is exporting terrorism, be it with the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah. Israel must be protected because it is the final force we have against the darkness that extreme Islam brings. But, Hamas is not the only threat; in fact, it's not even a threat at all. Exterminating them will not achieve anything, as Iran will only replace them with a new group with the same purpose. What the west needs to do is target the Islamic regime in Iran and destroy the breeding ground of these groups, and STOP financial and military funding to both Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

I know so many of you will vehemently disagree with this, but I am eager to hear your views and perhaps we can discuss things civilly.

Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to democracy, Russia is not. They have made it clear time and time again, if we left them and Ukraine alone, a friendly relationship would be possible as seen in the Trump administration in America. However, radical Islamists want to see the west eradicated so we must target the source of their hypocrisy.

Russia is a threat to democracy, they jail their rivals, invade neighbours and their elections are shams, so I need to make clear that was a silly thing to claim. A 'friendly' relationship with Russia might have been possible but was by no means assured or issue free for happy ever after. In terms of West/Rus relations Trumps presidiancy is an insignificant blip, most leaders like Putin and Kim ran rings round him.

You weren't able to answer my question, Why should Ukraine and Russia be left to it but Israel and Iran should be interfered with?

This is very interesting and I agree we must look beyond Hamas in Gaza and look at who is funding them and organising them. The October 7 attack was highly coordinated and suggests outside support and intelligence. But why should the West stop funding Ukraine to defend itself? That has nothing to do with radical Islam and there's no suggestion Iran is involved. Do you mean that the West should try to depose the current leaders of Russia, as well as the mullahs in Iran?

Why is October 7th forgotten about? And every attack by Palestinian terrorists on innocent Israelis. Hamas is worse than the IDF.

If you say Hamas doesn't represent Palestinians, then the IDF does not represent Israelis. Children and families are being killed on BOTH sides, so that argument doesn't really work.

Ever since Hamas won the Palestinian Authority election in 2006, they have fully controlled Gaza and Israel has not intervened. When they commenced a BRUTAL attack on innocent Israelis, then of course that will change.

If Hamas cared about Palestinians, they would have kept the peace, not attacked knowing full well there would be unprecedented retaliation.

theyre fighting for their OWN country omddd

Russia does not want to eradicate us. They want peace with the west and are simply paranoid of NATO's borders becoming closer to them. As such, allowing Ukraine into NATO poses no strategical value, same as Finland. If we said no right off the bat, this war wouldn't be happening.

Russia and Ukraine should be left to it as they are not our greatest threat right now and do not threaten the west's security and existence like radical Islam. We're talking about groups that listen to every whim given out by Iran and will kill themselves and thousands more to achieve a menial goal. Putin is smart, he does not want a war he can't win. These radical Muslims however know no bounds.

If you condemn Hamas' atrocities, I'll condemn Israel's atrocities.

okay lets compare what hammas has done and isreal. go on

1) Palestinians are not being ethnically cleansed. Indeed, those in Gaza have the highest fertility rate of any group in Israel.

2) Hamas is the political arm of a terrorist organization and frequently makes unprovoked attacks upon Israel and has stated that they wish to eradicate Israel.

3) Hamas is essentially a dictatorship that has not held free and fair elections since 2007 when they came to power.

Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October

Ukraine is just an example of how we can scale back intervention to territories that do not threaten us or pose strategical value. We should instead focus on targeting the breeding ground of all these terrorist groups and attacks, the regime in Iran. We need not depose the Russian rulers as that would not help us.

The mullahs in Iran control Hezbollah and Hamas, so toppling them will topple these organisations eventually. And I don't mean war, I mean very harsh sanctions and not giving them billions of pounds for a few hostages (silly Biden).

Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to democracy, Russia is not. They have made it clear time and time again, if we left them and Ukraine alone, a friendly relationship would be possible as seen in the Trump administration in America. However, radical Islamists want to see the west eradicated so we must target the source of their hypocrisy.

Something about sanctions you aren't taking into account is the law of diminishing returns, the harsher they get the more that in fits and starts a country will make new friends and become self reliant, exampled in both Iran and DPRK, we sanctioned and embargoed the bejeezus out them to stop them getting the same nuclear weapons we have, and they pretty much managed to make them despite our efforts.

Once you've used this stick too much is breaks, and the more extreme, harsh and tubthumping your sanctions get the less the other side sees any point in talking to you. Take the nuclear deal, US utterly torpedoed it by pretty much saying 'Even if Iran keeps it's end of the deal we won't keep ours', you just can't deal with a position like that and people walk away from the table, no matter how much someone shouts 'We'll sanction Yoooooou!'

I am currently 16 years old and from an early age have always been greatly engaged in geopolitics and current affairs in the UK, Asia, America, etc; it's always been of immense interest to me. I will split why I support Israel into 2-3 sections, and I would love for people to ask me questions and let me know your viewpoints. I'm not closed off to my point of view like many.

Background

My grandfather, born in 1927 in Iran, was born just after a coup that saw the beginning of a new Imperial dynasty led by Reza Khan, now the Shah of Iran. 19 years later, after the more progressive takeover of his son, Mohammad Reza, he eagerly joined the Imperial Army and became a Private. By about 1970, he managed to rise the ranks to a role equivalent to that of a general. His family, including my father (born in 1967) enjoyed a good upbringing and my dad even met the Shahbanu (Farah Diba) but unfortunately not the Shah himself. My mother had roots of the Shia Safavid Dynasty which reigned in Iran centuries prior so you could say they had quite a royalist background.

Under the Shah, Iran enjoyed modernisation and opening up to the West and women had a choice to wear a hijab and the right to vote. The Shah also, very excellently in my opinion, announced his support for both Palestine and Israel and a two-state solution. However, as some of you reading this will know, the Shi'ite clergy and the mullahs managed to amass a following to start a revolution. In the late months of 1978, when the Imperial regime fell apart, my dad's entire family was advised to leave by advisors of the Shah migrating to the UK. My mum came to the UK by about 2001, and she met my father there. With the clergy's control, much changed. Open relations with the west ended completely, women were stripped of all civil liberties, and the new regime enacted terrorism as seen with the capturing of US hostages in 1980. They condemned Israel and affiliated them with the "great Satan". My country also began to fund proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Political Education

Learning about my country's history and actions further allowed me to gain an opinion on what was happening with Israel and Palestine. Before the Iranian Revolution, the Shah's regime was seen as a bastion of stability and friendship to the west in a territory of uncertainty. Thanks to the clergy, Israel now took that role. Looking at it all, Islamic fundamentalism is the greatest threat to democracy. My country is exporting terrorism, be it with the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah. Israel must be protected because it is the final force we have against the darkness that extreme Islam brings. But, Hamas is not the only threat; in fact, it's not even a threat at all. Exterminating them will not achieve anything, as Iran will only replace them with a new group with the same purpose. What the west needs to do is target the Islamic regime in Iran and destroy the breeding ground of these groups, and STOP financial and military funding to both Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.

I know so many of you will vehemently disagree with this, but I am eager to hear your views and perhaps we can discuss things civilly.

i don't see the shah as being a bastion of stability with the crackdowns on public dissent, especially after 1953 coup. many in their minds saw the Shah as a foreign-imposed leader. the only reason the shah was replaced by the mullahs was because he focused more on the socialists as they would be a bigger threat due to the Soviets, so in the aftermath of the revolution, the one who had more power would have been them. correct anything i say wrong since you may have an opinion. about the financial aid for Britain, we shouldn't,i agree since the us contributes a bigger chunk it can be their problem since we have our own. ironically i consider myself somewhat overall in the pro-Palestinian section i guess in principal; i agree with a significant part of your judgement

Well this is going about as well as expected.

Israel is not perfect, no coutnry is (apart from the Uk naturally, RULE BRITANNIA) but Israel is better by every conviceable measure than Hamas.

Zelenskyy is insanely corrupt. I know it's by no means a popular opinion, but Ukraine doesn't matter to me. It's a country many can't even find on a map. We shouldn't be funding them without any upside to us.

Instead, we should declare neutrality and let Russia and Ukraine fight their war, whilst reforming relations with Russia so we can fix our economy a little bit. It doesn't sound radical to me; not our country, not our business.