This text has been iteratively rewritten based on a much more emotional original text. I hope you appreciate the effort!
When people see others suffering, they want to help. That's a good and natural thing, and it’s the right way to feel about the situation in Palestine. My starting point is the same. I want the war to end, and I want the Palestinian people to be free and to live well.
But this is where I run into a problem that I can't ignore. When I look at the basic goals of some groups, like the BDS movement, it seems their final aim is the total end of Israel. I know that many people who support Palestine do not want this at all, and that’s important. But the fact that some leaders in the movement do want this raises a hard question for me.
How can good people come to support a goal like getting rid of a whole country? It seems to happen when the story that people are told changes. If you can be convinced that Israel is the cause of all the problems and is guilty of the worst crimes, then removing it can start to seem like the only moral answer. The alarm bells that would normally ring about something so extreme are silenced by this story.
I see this happen in conversations, too. A person will often start by saying they are only "anti-Zionist" and not antisemitic. But in every single discussion I have had, the conversation eventually turns to wanting Israel itself to be gone. It seems very hard for people to keep those two ideas separate in the long run.
This intense focus on ending Israel also has a clear, negative result: it stops the work of building a Palestinian society. You cannot build a new, working country if all your energy is spent trying to tear down your neighbor. A group identity that is built only on hating another group is not a strong foundation for a nation.
It’s also interesting to me that these arguments are almost never religious. A Muslim who knows the Qur'an knows that it teaches us about God's great mercy for all people. The Qur'an also calls Jewish people the "People of the Book" and makes it clear they have a place in that land. This teaching would lead us to take good care of everyone, not to support removing a people.
In the end, I am in favor of any solution that brings peace. But I believe it must be based on building up a good community, not on hate. I hope a better plan can be found, one that delivers everyone from anger and leads to a future where all can live in dignity.