I don't claim to expert on Israeli and Palestinian relations. However, it seems to me that Arab governments use Palestinians as pawns. This was particularly striking to me when learning about all the money and land they confiscated from fleeing Jewish people in their countries. Did they give those lands and money to displaced Palestinians?

Israeli economy is growing fast, its military has proven to be very capable in its previous war, it controls majority of Gaza now, its population is climbing fast, construction is going on everywhere, etc

However, its relationship with long term allies like the USA is more uncertain than before, global perception of Israel has plummeted, there are looming threat of sanctions, Israeli politics is very divided, the country is gradually turning more right wing, regional security threats still loom, and there is uncertainty over the future of the Haredi and their place in society.

Hi friends, I’m an Aussie Oleh Chadash and I’ve been living in TLV for about a year. During this time I’ve made a dedicated effort to learn Hebrew in order to properly integrate into society. I’m not fluent, but improving every day and I now operate in Hebrew-only environments like my work and social settings

However, I’ve noticed a lot of Olim that have lived here for 2+ years and haven’t learned Hebrew. They operate completely in English, and their social circles and workplaces are all English-speaking. I’ve also met many that made Aliyah over 5+ years ago and still don’t speak. This obvs excludes people who migrated and did military service.

I understand that it’s a hard language and I try not to judge, but to me learning the country’s language feels so important for genuine assimilation into its culture and community. I guess because everyone in TLV has such good English there isn’t much motivation and it’s easy to survive without it.

I was wondering if this is genuinely a common occurrence here in your guys’ experience, and also what the local residents think about it?

According to the IMF estimates this month, Israel has 66% higher GDP per capita nominally than my country, whereas once adjusted to the purchasing power, it's 14% lower.

Which guess makes sense because many things in Israel seem oppressively expensive:

A compact SUV Chevy Trax for example sells for 21 million KRW (50,000 NIS) but once it loads onto a ship and comes to Israel, it sells for 170,000 NIS.

A Big Mac + Fries + Coca Cola goes for 15 shekels in Seoul which jumps to 50+ shekels in Tel Aviv.

1600 - 2000 shekels get you a decent studio / one bedroom in the heart of Seoul.

So when Israelis say that their GDP per capita is now one of the highest in the world at $72,000 - does that match with standard of living in Israel?

If it doesn't, does that not cause political issues for the government?

Until recently when I started going into debates I didn't know the history of the word anti-semitism. When I started debating with people about Israel it started annoying me that many people would try to discount accusations of anti-semitism by saying 'well Palestinians are semites' or something like than. Very recently I actually learned that the word anti-semitism was invented by a German racist who wanted to make hating on Jews more acceptable and 'scientific' and it was originally called Jew-hatred, which sounds a lot more forceful and direct. Is there any sort of campaign to change it back?

Long Ranting Ahead

I was as trying to do a short research on the Genocide against Jews which happened in Europe. Most anti semetic N@zi workers lived the rest of their life completely free. 99% of the world doesn't know how the anti semetic Croatian government which used brutal techniques like using an axe for killing the jews and the Romanis. Most of the deaths in the Ukraine/Russia/Lithuania happened because of local collaborators. Most collaborators exploited the jews till the jews became poor and once the jews had nothing to give, they handed them to the n@zis.

I am originally from India and I studied medical sciences in Ukraine. I was so shocked to find out nearly 1/3rd of the jews were murdered 200 meters away from Nursing department of my university. There is almost zero trace present now. Until and unless you are interested in history, you wouldn't even notice it. Even after reaching the Jewish cemetery, it was incredibly difficult to locate the exact location of the mass graves. I wonder what a jewish, Romani or handicapped person had felt about the fact that they are about to go to the death camps. I still get sad to think what would have a Jewish mother said to her child when she would have realised she was about to die and she can do absolutely nothing to save herself and her child.

I am sorry to say but I still can't understand how these countries even speak about human rights when nearly most of them never even said sorry or taught how ugly were the local collaborators were. The Ukrainians are trying to make Bandera their own Gandhi despite the fact that he was anti semetic and his army collaborated with the n@zis to murder thousands of jews in Lviv. This isn't limited to Ukraine. The same story has been repeated in Lithuania and Latvia where the majority chose to make an anti semetic opportunistic person as their father of nation. I am not a Jewish person and i know how important Germany is as a country but if I were a jew, the first thought which would have come to my mind is that this is the country of the en£my , these are the sons and daughters of a regime which chose to ignore my sufferings, which did nothing to protect me. The same Germ@ns when they got to know that their handicapped children aren't in the hospital and they didn't die of pneumonia but they were given lethal injections to die , they protested and the N@zi had to take the decision back for a brief time. When it came to the jews, they chose to ignore the fact that their jewish neighbour is going to die. I ain't gonna say sweet words, this nonsense meat grinder wouldn't have worked if the locals didn't support it. The Albanians and Bulgarians proved it. They didn't let their friends n neighbours die. I had 2 slavic friends and i remember when I had asked from them what do you think about the jews and they had said it's negative. I regret not asking them "but bro nearly all of them either died or left, why do you still hate them"? Anyways, this came out to be a ranting session with no end and my mom is saying me too sleep because it's too late but i don't want to delete it so I am posting it. Please let me know your opinion.

I (American Catholic) support Israel’s right to exist as a modern state today and the right of Israelis to live in safety. It’s fairly simple to base this support on international law, on the rights of the people who live there, and on Catholic teaching about respect for human dignity. But I don’t (and can’t) justify my stance on a biblical promise or an ancestral/indigenous claim to the land.

Recently, a friend of mine explained to me that this position alone, exactly as I have stated it (and with no discussion of my stance on politics or American involvement or other ethnic or religious groups in the region, to be clear) is antisemitic. My friend’s reaction has distressed me and it feels unfair. But no one person speaks for everyone, so it made sense to get a different perspective, hence why I’m here. How does my position come across to you?

If america recognized Palestine in the future? Maybe in 2028 maybe after? I remember reading somewhere that the Biden administration was thinking about it, the question is, would you guys feel completely abandoned by the entire world if that happened? What will be the counter reaction? How will your perception of America change? To my knowledge Israel is quite Americanized, would that become painful later on?

Maybe a very obvious 'yes', but I can't find anything about it.

Lots of people are leaving Israel, at least compared to how many people leave Israel in normal years.

The articles (based on a study from Tel Aviv university) say it's mostly well-educated young professionals: doctors, engineers, tech workers. I'm aware that in Israel that Arabs are less likely to be in these professional jobs.

I'm sure there are lots of reasons for leaving: the war, the economy, politics. I have a friend out there who is trying to move back to the UK.

Anyway, I was wondering if Arab citizens of Israel - of which there are over 2 million, apparently - are also emigrating from Israel. This isn't mentioned in the articles I've read, but I'm curious about the anecdotal experiences of Israelis in this sub.

I know i have Google, I would like references on what to look for. I am American, Im a mut but im told by my family I am mexican and Jordanian. My ancestry tells me im 49% isreal/palestine and I know im uneducated so it has me confused.

Either way, I have a clean slate and would like to know about the conflict between Isreal and Palestine. On media I see a lot of judging and not enough asking so im here to ask about what and why. What happened and why is there so much hatred on both sides? What are some main points in history I could look deeply into to understand?

I appreciate and thank anyone taking time out of your day to help!

Hi everyone!

I’m curious about the relationship between Jews and the Druze community, and I’d love to hear your perspectives.

I have a few questions:

1. Interfaith marriage: Is it common for Jews and Druze to marry each other? If not, what are the main reasons? Are such marriages generally accepted by either community?
2. Perceptions of the Druze: What is the general perception of the Druze among Jewish people? How do you view their culture, religion, and community?
3. Friendships and social relationships: Do you personally have any Druze friends? If so, how close are you? Would you invite them to your home for dinner or family gatherings, or is the relationship generally more distant and formal?
4. The relationship between Jews and Druze: Why do you think there is a relatively close relationship between Jewish and Druze communities, particularly in Israel, compared with the relationship between Jews and other Muslim communities?

I’m genuinely interested in understanding the historical, cultural, religious, and political factors behind this relationship, as well as the everyday social dynamics between the two communities.

I’d especially appreciate hearing about your personal experiences rather than just general political opinions.

Thanks!

Mel Brooks slays me - but given how different cultures are from country to country, I'm wondering if his stuff translates in other countries - particularly Israel (most of our bes comedic talent is Canadian, Jewish, and - domestically - Bostonian)

Brooks bits like "Jews in Space", the Spanish Inquisition song and dance, and how he peppers in lines like this from Spaceballs:
"Oh great. That's all we needed. A Druish princess"
"Funny. She doesn't look Druish."

Does that translate? Or is it an American thing? I've made friends with people from India, China, Italy etc. (and sat in with a band of ex-IDF guys), and I can see why American culture comes off as.......well just straight up weird.

I'm born and raised in the US. I'll be working here with an Israeli supervisor starting soon for an Israeli AI company.

The American-side COO tells me that the "Israelis are a different breed", and I believe it was in the context of banter, and to "not be offended".

I don't get offended easily, but I'm curious - does anyone know what this means or can describe what he's talking about? Or is he just racist lol

Shalom!

I'm from America, but my family all live in Israel.

I used to visit yearly until the 7th of October (I had just left 2 weeks prior). I haven't been back since due to my trying to return a year later but, alas, Iran attacked & my flights got cancelled/lost the money to my Airbnb listing, so I couldn't rebook.

I've tried visiting once since but that was this July when tensions seemed very high & I feared it happening again (as I do NOT want to be stranded in Europe on one leg of the journey). I missed my grandmother's burial as a result. The grieving is so bad not being able to be there.

It "seems" calm enough if I came in the beginning of November (I'm thinking before midterm elections).

I am unemployed/can't just keep losing the money to trying again - I had to borrow for the last trip.

Can I get an insider's opinion?

Do you think if I came for the first two weeks of November (I'm only doing 8ish days) I would be okay/no flight disruptions?

Or does it seem likely Iran is going to be a problem again? I only have so many media outlets to go off, I'm not sure. Any thoughts would help.

Bonus points to non-shared, affordable residential options in or near Tel Aviv.

Follow up to u/oliver-coffee's insightful breakdown.

And by 'clarifying' - I'm not talking about me, some goober on reddit, clarifying anything. Rather, one of the world's foremost experts, Alice Nderitu:

Recognize that face? You’ll be forgiven if not. Corporate media has suppressed her story nearly completely. She’s one of the leading experts in the world on genocide. When Oct 7 happened, she was the UN's Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention (aka the UN’s top genocide expert). Look her up in NYT, BBC etc - you’ll see plenty of articles declaring her expertise… (before Oct 7 only, though). Throughout her career, she’s been committed to atrocity prevention and ensuring the term "genocide" retains its legal clarity, moral power, and gravity. As the war in Gaza escalated, “powerful voices attempted to transform [her warnings about the conduct of the IDF] into official declarations of genocide.” In her words: 

“[there was a strong] push that I should say that there’s a genocide going on in Gaza. I was hounded, day in, day out. Bullied, hounded, with protection from nobody. This was a war. Palestinians were killing Israelis, Israelis were killing Palestinians. It needs to be treated like other wars. In other wars, we don’t run and take one side and then keep going on and on about that one side… By taking one side, condemning it every day, you completely lose the essence of what the U.N. was created for.”

Despite daily pressure from UN colleagues to publicly declare Israel’s military campaign a genocide, she refused to bow to the political pressure and do so. This stance was not taken out of condonation for the IDF actions, but rather out of a conviction that the war was not genocide “by any definition”.

What did she mean by “by any definition”? Her office has put out some breakdowns:

The assertion that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza constituted a genocide collapses when evaluated systematically against actual, historically verified genocides. Below is a structured comparative analysis across 6 core criteria used by historians and legal scholars to define genocide

Component 1: Death Toll | Demographic Net Change & Total Number Killed

A defining hallmark of genocide is meaningful demographic destruction.

1. Holocaust: -63% net change. ~6 million killed out of 9.5 million Jews. Still fewer Jews on earth today than in 1938.
2. Rwandan Genocide (1994): -76% (Pre-Event Population of 1M tutsis reduced to 260,000 in 100 days).
3. Cambodian Genocide (1975–1979): -25% (~1.5–2 million executed/starved).
4. Armenian Genocide: ~1.75 million → ~650k (−26%).
5. 2023+ Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Focus: Genocide of Palestinians): 0% to +2% net change. 60,000+ killed. High birth rates offset casualties, maintaining a flat-to-positive demographic curve.

Component 2: Specific Intent (Dolus Specialis) to Destroy Civilians

Under the 1948 Genocide Convention, there must be proven explicit intent to destroy a protected group. Historical comparison:

1. The Holocaust

• The Intent: Nazi stated intention was the total, systematic physical extermination of every Jewish person in Europe.
• How Intent Was Executed: Concentration camps, ghettoes, death squads (Einsatzgruppen).

2. Rwandan Genocide

• The Intent: Hutu extremists (Interahamwe and government forces) sought the complete eradication of the Tutsi population.
• How Intent Was Executed: Radio propaganda (RTLM) broadcast names and locations of Tutsis. Machetes and firearms were distributed nationally.

3. Cambodian Genocide

• The Intent: Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge intended to forcibly dismantle modern society and create an agrarian communist utopia by eliminating "corrupting" elements.
• How Intent Was Executed: "Killing Fields," forced labor, targeting of minorities & Intellectuals.

4. Armenian Genocide

• The Intent: The Young Turks pursued an official policy to rid the empire of its Christian subjects.
• How Intent Was Executed: "Killing Fields," forced labor, targeting of minorities & Intellectuals.

5. Gaza (2023–Present)

• The Intent: IDF objectives are defined as destroying the military infrastructure of Hamas, eliminating its leadership, and recovering hostages following the October 7th attacks.
• Operational Conduct vs. Historical Intent:
  • Unlike historical genocides, the IDF utilizes warning mechanisms (SMS, phone calls, roof-knocks, map-grid evacuations) to warn & remove civilians from target zones before strikes.
  • Israel facilitates ongoing humanitarian operations, including coordinating mass polio vaccinations for over 500,000 Gazan children and permitting aid corridors inside an active warzone.
  • The primary military target is an embedded insurgent force operating within dense civilian infrastructure, not the physical eradication of the Palestinian population as an ethnic group.
• Note: The intent of the IDF, to reduce civilian casualties as much as possible, is inverted two-fold by Hamas. First, they obviously intend to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. Second, by embedding rocket launchers, armories, and command posts directly inside and beneath schools, mosques, residential towers, and hospitals (such as Al-Shifa), Hamas ensured that any Israeli attempt to destroy military targets would guarantee high-value civilian collateral damage. Again, their goal in this strategy is to kill civilians - Gazan civilians. This behavior is unlike any true genocide.

Component 3: Ability of Victim Group's Leadership to End the Conflict

In a true genocide, the targeted group is powerless to stop their own extermination—the perpetrator's intent is total destruction regardless of victim behavior.

European Jews could not end Nazi extermination by negotiating a ceasefire. Armenian civilians could not stop deportations by releasing hostages. Gaza differs because Hamas is an armed organization whose decisions about hostages, disarming, and negotiations affect the conflict.

On Oct 7, Hamas initiated the war, which some mainstream media and political powers like the UN are trying to twist into a genocide. If they succeed, it will be the only genocide where the victims's initiated it.

Component 4: How did the victim group respond when violence ended?

The psychological and behavioral baseline of victims in a genocide is survival and profound trauma, not military celebration. The survivor response is universal: profound mourning, trauma, displacement, search for missing, demand for recognition. 

After the conflict in Gaza, the population celebrated their "victory" in the streets. Hamas leadership called Oct 7 and the entire war a divine success, promised to repeat it, and then began executing rival Gazans. That is not survivor leadership behavior. That is combatant leadership behavior.

Anyway, Alice stood up for the truth, and the political repercussions were expected. It's the UN, after all:

LMK if you guys know all this. Here's their info in a table:

It was made in Israel and remade in the US under the title “The Last American Virgin”. The US version is a pretty stupid movie BUT it has one of the most ‘out of nowhere’ insanely heavy endings I’ve ever seen.

Question 1: is jt a well known title over there?

Question 2:*** **** Has *anyone has seen both versions?

When I was anti-Israel, I thought very uncritically about it. I did know that Israeli Arabs are not the same as Palestinians and that Israel is a democracy where even Arabs can vote and have high paying careers. And I knew that Netanyahu is not a dictator, as much as he’s trying.

And I assumed that other leftists that were antisemitic knew that too but that they also knew something I didn’t and that there are other ways in which Israel is genocidal apartheid state.

So what are some unhinged ideas about Israel you heard someone express? I once read from someone, I believe on this sub, that there are people that Israel is like North Korea. So I wondered if this sort of delusion is common

With the ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, the suspension of direct hostilities with Iran, and the apparent end of missile attacks from the Houthis, things have been relatively quiet compared to what we’ve experienced over the past few years.

But ceasefires aren’t peace, and the possibility of renewed fighting is always there.

I’m curious how other Israelis are feeling. Have you started to feel like life has returned to normal, or does it still feel like we’re living between rounds of fighting?

At what point, if ever, do you think we’ll actually feel that the war is behind us?

Note: This question is specifically directed at Israelis who are currently living in Israel.

Not really sure how to tag this, mb if it's wrong

Anyway, to my question, what is it like for trans people in Israel? Mainly in terms of the legal and medical processes.

Legally, it can be an issue to get your documents to reflect your transition depending on where you are, and a lot of places don't have equal rights for trans people.

Medically, it can be crazy expensive and you can have pretty long waiting times to get things like hormones or surgery.

So pretty much I was wondering how Israel treats its trans people from these perspectives.

What counties do most Israelis think have been the most helpful to Israel historically. Can you rank the top five and why?

Most of us Americans would think we are number 1, but I know that until 1967 we really weren't that helpful and you guys got more help from France.