I’m a Christian visiting Israel, and here is what I’ve learned: Far too many people have confused their empathy for Palestinians with hatred towards Jews. As I walked around these sites that were destroyed on October 7th, places where both Jews and non-Jews were murdered by Hamas, I kept thinking with frustration, “I know what my comment section will look like if I talk about this.” Because, let’s be honest, there is an obvious double standard when it comes to talking about antisemitism and Jewish suffering generally. Since I’ve been here, my comment section has been flooded with hundreds of people telling me that if I travel to Israel as a Christian, if I embrace my Christianity here, that I will be spat on and harassed by the Jewish community in Israel. Well, I’m here to say that that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’ve been to Israel many times, and I can say that the closest I came to harassment on this trip was when my Jewish host family kept feeding me challah and I almost fell into a carb induced coma. The love I’ve received, from being recognized by a girl in seminary to our hostess becoming my adopted Jewish mother, my time in Israel is consistently marked by the amazing people I interact with here 🤍 Am yisrael chai. Be back soon 🤍