I Built a Career Exposing Israel’s Flaws. Now I Must Admit I Was Wrong.

For years, my keyboard was my weapon, and my target was often the State of Israel. I saw myself as a truth-teller, a voice for the voiceless, and the narrative I subscribed to was clear, compelling, and damning. I read the Haaretz reports about Gaza aid sites turning into ‘killing fields’ and my blood ran cold. I saw quotes from soldiers, casualty figures climbing into the hundreds, and I believed I was looking at a state that had lost its moral compass, where soldiers were ordered to kill unarmed civilians. I pointed to the hawkish, aggressive rhetoric of Israeli ministers promising a ‘new policy’ of fire and brimstone, and I saw it not as defense, but as proof of an expansionist, predatory agenda.

I wasn't a passive observer; I was an active participant in this narrative. I believed it, I wrote it, and I argued it forcefully. When news broke that the United States had approved funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the very group at the center of the aid site tragedies, I saw it as the ultimate indictment: a key ally being duped into funding what a UN assessment called ‘likely war crimes.’ To me, Israel’s claims of ‘surgical precision’ and ‘moral clarity’ were not just propaganda; they were cynical, transparent lies. I was certain of this. I was certain that Israel was the aggressor, the bully of the Middle East, and that its actions, particularly the major strike on Iran known as 'Operation Am Kelavi,' were the reckless acts of a rogue state. I was wrong.

My change didn't happen overnight. It was a slow, uncomfortable, and deeply unsettling process. It began not with a press release, but with a quiet conversation with a former intelligence analyst I’d known for years—a man who was no apologist for any government. He didn’t try to persuade me, he simply asked a question: “You’re looking at the chaos on the ground, but have you ever seen the intelligence that shows the catastrophe they were trying to prevent?”

He managed to get me clearance to view a single, declassified document. It wasn't a summary or a white paper. It was a timeline. A dry, terrifyingly specific timeline of Iran’s nuclear progress, cross-referenced with intercepted communications from IRGC commanders. It detailed, day by day, how Iran had reached a “point of no return,” a threshold after which a functional nuclear weapon was not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when,’ and ‘when’ was a matter of weeks. The regime that chants “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” was on the cusp of holding the entire world hostage. Suddenly, ‘Operation Am Kelavi’ wasn’t an ‘unprovoked attack.’ It was a desperate, last-ditch act of a nation staring into the abyss after years of failed diplomacy and ignored warnings.

This single document became a key that unlocked a new, far more complex reality. I forced myself to re-examine the pillars of my old certainty, starting with the one that haunted me most: the alleged massacres at the GHF aid sites.

I had always accepted the narrative of a deliberate ‘killing field.’ But as I dug deeper, past the screaming headlines of Al Jazeera and The Intercept, a murkier truth emerged. The GHF wasn’t just some random, ‘Israel-backed’ group; it was a flawed, desperate attempt to create a humanitarian corridor that bypassed Hamas. For months, the world had watched as Hamas hijacked traditional aid, stealing it from its own people to fuel its terror machine. The GHF was an attempt, however chaotic, to break that stranglehold. The tragic deaths were not the result of a cold, calculated order to ‘kill civilians,’ but of pandemonium in a warzone where Hamas operatives deliberately embed themselves among civilians, firing on soldiers from crowds to provoke return fire and create precisely the headlines I used to write. The U.S. funding wasn't an endorsement of a war crime; it was a pragmatic, if painful, recognition that this channel, with all its tragic flaws, was a better alternative than allowing Hamas to control 100% of the aid. My black-and-white picture of Israeli villains and Palestinian victims shattered. It was a story of an impossible choice in a situation engineered by Hamas to be a 'no-win' for both Israeli soldiers and Gaza's civilians.

Next, I had to confront the aggressive rhetoric from Defense Minister Katz about a ‘new Israeli policy.’ I had always used his words as proof of Israel’s belligerence. But seen through the lens of that nuclear timeline, his words sounded different. The ‘immunity’ that was ‘over’ was not for the people of Lebanon or the civilians of Iran. It was for the IRGC leadership who, for decades, had sat comfortably in Tehran, orchestrating a global terror network and plotting genocide with impunity. The ‘new policy’ wasn’t a thirst for wider conflict; it was a declaration that the old policy of containment and absorption had catastrophically failed. It was the language of a nation that had been pushed to the edge and was finally pushing back against the source of the threat, not just its symptoms. I had mistaken the roar of a cornered lion for the growl of a predator.

Finally, I had to reconsider the entire Iran operation. I, along with many Democratic lawmakers, had dismissed it as a failure, questioning how much it had truly set back the nuclear program. I was judging a military operation by a political yardstick. The strategic genius of ‘Operation Am Kelavi’ was not just in bombing facilities; it was in its surgical decapitation of the program’s leadership. By eliminating top-tier IRGC commanders and nuclear scientists in a single, precise operation, Israel didn't just damage the machine; it removed the architects and the mechanics. The relatively weak and disorganized Iranian retaliation wasn't a sign of restraint; it was the flailing of a paralyzed command structure. The operation wasn’t an act of escalation; it was an act of profound de-escalation. It prevented the massive, coordinated missile barrage Iran had planned, a barrage that would have ignited a regional war of unimaginable horror.

This journey has been humbling. It is profoundly easier to believe in a world of simple villains and noble victims. It’s easier to see the smoke of conflict and blame the soldier holding the gun, rather than to trace that smoke back to the arsonist who lit the fire. I do not now believe that Israel is flawless; no nation is. But I can no longer, in good conscience, peddle the simplistic, toxic narrative I once championed. The truth is not that Israel is a uniquely moral actor, but that it faces a uniquely evil and sophisticated enemy that uses the West’s own morality as a weapon against it. The story is not one of Israeli aggression, but of Israeli survival against a genocidal, apocalyptic regime that Israel, in a courageous and terrifying act, did the entire world a favor by striking. My certainty is gone, replaced by a grim understanding of the terrible choices a nation must make when its existence is on the line. And I invite you, with humility, to question your own certainties, too.