I'll tell you, there was this conservative "rabbi" who was a bleeding heart liberal that I used to talk to all the time. When it came down to the elections, I couldn't believe my ears that he was supporting Obama and that calling him by his middle name was "racist". Someone like that, there is no chance to change...
My mom ended up sending an email to him and everyone on her list of how Obama's speeches resembled Hitler's...that basically ended our relationship with him.
On the other hand, there are others who are staunch supporters of Israel, but still believe in a 2 state solution. Those people, I gave a history lesson...now they only believe in a one state solution or are turning more towards that thinking.
I agree with you.
I would say that if you do not want to waste your time and energy trying to convince people, it is important to distinguish between two kinds of people : those who are helpless and those who can change their mind.
There are those who will remain "anti-Israel", whatever you may explain to them. They have a preconceived judgement and no matter what good reasons and indisputable facts you provide them with, they will not listen. They are dishonest and biased. They will not hesitate to tell gross lies about the history of the Middle East. These people hate Israel anyway and there is no point in trying to persuade them. Among them, I have met two main categories (apart from Arabs) :
(i) Traditional antisemites from the far-right, either the neo-Nazi type or (sadly) the Christian type
(ii) The leftists who worship Palestinians as the poor and oppressed victims of a barbaric occupation of their land by zionists viewed as thieves backed by the imperialist America
Then, there are people who are basically ill-informed and ignorant, because of the constant pro-palestinian propaganda in the media circus, but who change their perception when they are told the true story, because they are fundamentally fair and decent persons. What they need is education. Most of them are secular, so it is a bad idea to use religious arguments if you want to change their mind. You do not have to anyway. A strong case for a Jewish state in Eretz Israel can be made without any religious justification. I can give a detailed list of the most effective arguments I use if JTFers are interested but then I'd rather start a new topic and I will need some time because it is quite a lot of work. Actually, I think it is an extremely important subject for the future of a movement such as JTF. If you want to become a mass movement, you need to know how to talk to people who are secular, moderate and even, to a certain extent, liberal, because, whether you like it or not, that is what most of Western societies (including the Israeli one) are. The most stupid thing you can do, in my opinion, is to scare people away with provocative and/or unrealistic statements, because most people, unfortunately, already have a negative bias against you since Kahane is so demonized.
Topic: Personal Pipi Kakayoyo anecdote (Read 1204 times)