Critics of Israel have made some of the most extreme false accusations imaginable: apartheid, a colonial project, an “open-air prison,” genocidal, ethnic cleansing, baby killers, even “the new Nazis.” They claim the Middle East would be peaceful if Israel did not exist. I could go on.
These are harsh and unjustified accusations. They are accusations that Israel itself is an evil society, that its very existence is the cause of war, and that the world would somehow be better off if the Jewish state disappeared.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. If anything, Israel is a model of a progressive society, and in many ways more progressive than the United States.
We live in a world where propaganda is often presented as fact. That is what propaganda does. It takes an accusation, repeats it often enough, wraps it in emotional language, and people embrace it as truth.
So let us look at reality.
Israelis have a deep desire for peace and a long history of pursuing it. The people of Israel do not want endless conflict. They want to live with their neighbours in peace.
Make peace with Israel and Israel reciprocates with peace.
That is the point of this article.
If you make peace with Israel, Israel makes peace with you.
Critics of Israel throw around words like “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” as if they are simple synonyms for war, civilian casualties, or military operations. They are not. Those are among the most serious accusations in the world. They describe an intentional effort to destroy, expel, erase, or kill a people because of who they are.
That is not what Israel is doing.
The evidence is not theoretical. Most significantly, more than two million Arab citizens of Israel live in peace as equals.
Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Accords in 1978, followed by a formal peace treaty in 1979. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
Those agreements ended wars. They created stable, demilitarized borders. They created security arrangements. They opened the door to trade, tourism, diplomacy, intelligence cooperation, and a future in which Israelis, Egyptians, and Jordanians have now lived in peace for decades.
That is what peace looks like.
More recently, the Abraham Accords showed that other Arab countries could make peace. Israel is a permanent part of the Middle East. When countries choose partnership over hatred, they gain access to Israeli technology, agriculture, water expertise, medical innovation, investment, tourism, trade, security cooperation, and peace.
Israel has spent generations learning how to make the desert bloom, desalinate water, build high-tech industries, and create one of the strongest economies in the region. That is just part of what Israel has to offer its neighbors.
The accusation that Israel is unwilling to live in peace also collapses when you look inside Israel itself.
More than two million Arab citizens live in Israel. They vote. They serve in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. They work as doctors, professors, nurses, journalists, entrepreneurs, business owners, teachers, lawyers, judges, and public servants.
The fact that Arab citizens participate fully in Israeli society is powerful proof that Israel is not trying to erase Arabs from the land or create apartheid.
If Israel wanted to purge Muslims, it had opportunities after 1948 to do what many Arab countries did to their Jewish populations: expel them. Israel did not.
Israel could have answered that injustice by expelling the 150,000 Arabs who remained within its borders. It did not. Instead, those Arab residents, and now their descendants, became citizens of Israel.
Of the roughly 850,000 Jews forced from Arab countries after 1948, upwards of 650,000 resettled in Israel.
That fact matters. The real question is not whether Arabs and Jews can live together. They can. Israel has proved it.
The problem is when Hamas teaches its people from childhood hate, that Israel has no right to exist, that Jews are colonizers and evil, that violence is heroic, and that peace is betrayal.
That is the tragedy of Gaza.
In 2005, Israel, motivated that this would achieve peace, gave Gaza its own authority and withdrew every soldier and every settlement from Gaza. In 2006, Gaza held an election and Hamas, a terrorist organization, was elected. Hamas built a war machine.
Before October 7, Israel was not isolating or trying to destroy the people of Gaza. Israel was allowing thousands of Gazans to enter legally, work, earn money, and support their families.
Meanwhile, many of the Israeli communities near Gaza were among the most committed to peace and coexistence. They had spent years supporting dialogue, humanitarian work, and efforts to build bridges with Palestinians.
On October 7, they were met with murder, rape, kidnapping, torture, arson, and massacre.
More than 1,200 Israelis were killed. About 250 were taken hostage. Hamas fired more than 5,000 rockets that day and continued firing rockets daily into Israel. Israel had no choice but to enter Gaza from the air and with ground troops to end the rocket fire and retrieve the hostages. Hamas was given the opportunity to return the hostages, stop the rocket fire, and end the war. But Israel is portrayed as the aggressor?
So it is clear Hamas does not seek peace, Israel does.
This article is not an analysis of every event in Gaza. It is about what happens when Israel’s neighbors choose peace.
The problem is Iran and its proxies, Hamas, Hizballah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis proving exactly what it has always said: its mission is the destruction of Israel. It is they who should receive the blame for the wars.
The path forward is for Hamas to end, so the people of Gaza can live in peace as a neighbour of Israel.
Israel has proved it wants peace and can maintain peace. The Jewish people are not leaving. The State of Israel is not disappearing.
Peace becomes possible the moment people decide that destroying Israel is no longer the goal.
Israel has proved it wants peace.
The question is: who else is ready to choose peace?
Mitch Mallett is a pro-Israel Democrat, writer, media commentator, and community organizer. He is the founder and administrator of the Facebook group “We Are Progressive, Liberal, Woke and Pro Israel,” a growing community dedicated to supporting Israel from a liberal and progressive perspective.
Mitch has been writing articles for The JCA International Jewish News, focusing on Israel, antisemitism, Middle East politics, Democratic Party dynamics, and the importance of maintaining strong bipartisan support for Israel. His writing reflects a lifelong commitment to progressive democratic values, Jewish identity, and the defense of Israel’s legitimacy in public discourse.
Before turning to published commentary, Mitch spent seven years as a morning drive-time radio talk show host in the Tampa market, where he discussed politics, public affairs, and current events with a broad audience. His background also includes years of involvement in Democratic Party leadership, Jewish advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
Mitch has traveled to Israel multiple times over several decades, experiences that continue to shape his understanding of Israeli society, Jewish history, regional conflict, and the possibilities for peace. He writes as someone who believes that support for Israel, concern for Palestinian human rights, opposition to antisemitism, and progressive values are not contradictory, but deeply connected.
His work is grounded in the conviction that pro-Israel voices on the left must remain engaged, informed, and active in shaping the public conversation.