I'm not the youngster I thought I was.

During the school year, I live in an apartment tucked into a college dorm. I eat most of my meals in the dining hall with undergraduates. We discuss everything from classes and life's meaning to vacation plans and Taylor Swift. It's exciting and energizing to hang out with them.

We've always been pretty sympatico when it comes to political views. Women should have control over their own bodies; diversity among its citizens is an American strength; we need to confront climate change; Biden won the 2020 presidential election; etc.

No longer. I wised up in the wake of the murderous Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: Last week at dinner, two brilliant undergraduates encouraged me to express my views on the Israel-Hamas war. I plunged into the troubled waters. After a few minutes, one of them asserted Israel had instigated the attack as an excuse to invade Gaza. They believed there was no other explanation for the success of the attack given Israeli superiority in military power and intelligence assets.

Dumbfounded, I pointed out that over 1,200 Israelis had been murdered in the attack. As a percentage of population, that's equivalent to 30-plus 9/11 attacks. Would Israel really be complicit in the murder of so many of its citizens? I also brought up the Israeli withdrawal of its troops from Gaza in 2005. Why would they want to come back? These arguments and others were received by eyes rolled at my naivete.

I shouldn't have been surprised. In the hours after Hamas violated a ceasefire and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, a statement written by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee held the "Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Ryna Workman, president of NYU's Student Bar Association, wrote in a student newsletter that the Hamas atrocities were Israel's "full responsibility."

According to a recent poll, 60% of college-aged Americans (18-24), agree that the Hamas attack was justified, compared to only 9% of those over 65, Moreover, some two-thirds of these college-aged Americans see Jews as oppressors. Now, mind you, that's Jews, not just Israelis. The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. rose 361% in the three months following the Oct. 7 attack. Apparently, American Jews are being held responsible for the actions of a foreign country.

Facts just don't seem to matter. NYU's Workman and others condemn Israel's "settler colonialism." Jesus, a Jew, was preaching to his co-religionists there 2,000 years ago. Referring to Jesus, the Gospel of John reads, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God." Jews were in the Holy Land before Christians or Muslims. They were there when the land was conquered and colonized by the Babylonians, Seleucids, Romans, Crusaders, Ottomans and British.

There are cries to send the Jews back to where they came from. About half of all Israeli Jews trace their ancestry to Arab and other Muslim-majority countries where they were forced out after the founding of the State of Israel.

A United Nations report found Hamas committed "rape and gang rape" in its Oct. 7 attack There was credible evidence of "genital mutilation, sexualized torture" along with "mutilation of corpses, including decapitation." Young American progressives, who supported the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and who condemned Donald Trump when a jury found him a rapist, said nothing in response. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) refused to vote for a House condemnation of "countless instances of rape, gang rape, sexual mutilation" perpetrated by Hamas.

Young Americans concerned about racism in this country (count me in) try to apply their American-centric views to Israel. "We are also freedom fighters who have been grossly mislabeled and violently targeted for standing up against injustice to our people," said Black Lives Matter Phoenix on social media. Those who are raping and murdering refugees from Arab countries, members of families that have lived in Israel for centuries, and American citizens at a music festival are civil rights protesters?

There's a certain racism involved, too, in supporting Hamas. Hamas attacks are validated without reservation, and Israel's responses are condemned without nuance. Palestinian Arabs do have agency. They have rejected opportunities to set up a Palestinian homeland. For example, in 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the British mandate in Palestine into majority-Arab and majority-Jewish states. The Jews accepted and declared the independence of the State of Israel. Palestinian Arabs and neighboring countries tried to conquer the entire territory.

In 2000, Yassir Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, rejected the Israeli proposal for a Palestinian Arab state. Former president Clinton stated, "I regret that in 2000 Arafat missed the opportunity to bring that nation into being and pray for the day when the dreams of the Palestinian people for a state and a better life will be realized in a just and lasting peace." As noted, in 2005, the Israeli Defense Forces left Gaza. In 2006, Hamas, whose charter calls for the elimination of the State of Israel and for the death of all Jews, took over Gaza. Students do not seem to know all this history.

My goodness, there is a need for peace and humanity in the Middle East. There is an urgent need for the end of violence and the replacement of Hamas by Palestinian Arabs who want peace. Support for Israel's right to exist does not mean support for the current Netanyahu government. As the poet John Dunne knew, every death "diminishes" us all.

I will keep expressing my views when asked and hope students reach their own conclusions based on facts and study, not reflex and prejudice.

In Keith Raffel's checkered past, he has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started an award-winning internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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