Both Ukraine and Palestine are fighting against an invading force. We can unanimously agree that Palestinians have have been illegally occupied in an open air prison/concentration camp for 75 years. And we seem to agree that Palestine cannot be a perfect victim and it is reasonable that they seek support in Hamas instead of their Israeli oppressors.
Now why can't the same logic be applied to Ukraine? There is absolutely a nazi problem in Ukraine. A nazi problem that needs to be wiped out. But Russia isnt trying to denazify Ukraine, they're trying to maintain borders and resist NATO. But while doing so they are indiscriminately killing civilians and are the aggressors.
Personally, I believe in what Norman Finkelstein has to say about Hezbollah and the red army. Both are not perfect, but I don't care about their politics. I care that they are a resisting force and believe a country should have the right to self determination.
So how are these situations diametrically opposed that you seem to be hostile towards Ukraine but supportive of Palestine?
I don't mean to come off as shaming or judgemental. I genuinely would like to hear your perspective.
Edit: I appreciate all of the thoughtful and patient responses. Even though I might not respond to everything here I am reading all of it. I was operating under a lack of information, which I've never seen any Western media source report on. Ever since leaving reddit, hexbear has been a great source of alternative perspectives and context. It's opened my eyes to a lot of how I've been misled by papers that I've trusted.
"support" or lack thereof from the other side of the world is mostly meaningless, except if it can move the needle on US government policy.
I dont want the US to send weapons to ukraine, as US interests there are not in helping ukraine win (it seems unlikely that they really could even with an endless flow of weapons), but in hurting russia via a prolonged quagmire of a war that will continue to kill conscripts, civilians, etc. all along the way and empower fascists. Western interests are the reason there wasn't a chance at diplomatic peace much earlier in the war
similarly I don't want the US to send weapons to Israel, where they will be used to ethnically cleanse palestinians and defend their apartheid state from any regional opposition.
Saying that ukraine and palestine are the same is honestly almost offensive in how reductive and inaccurate it is. An oppressed people struggling against settler colonialism and genociders is not the same as two bourgeois states fighting over territory, even if one is bigger.
Also, Hamas became what it is today because of israel's support, to delegitimize the palestinian cause, whereas neonazis in ukraine are not a russian creation, but empowered in large part by the US in euromaidan
I think that being against the US sending weapons abroad is the bare minimum for someone on the anti-war left
Donbass as it existed pre 2022 was very much a Russian creation. There were many deaths under suspicious circumstances of pro independence/pro worker (and willing to criticize Russia) figures in the breakaway republics. People like mozgovoy, dremov etc. they were of course replaced by (more) reactionary people that were more loyal to russia. "officially" they were all killed by Ukrainian operatives but the locals themselves don't believe that.
The uprising may have had popular roots but it was very quickly coopted and brought under control.
Does this matter in the scenario of the Donbass republics facing ethnic repression and cleansing?
I'm not steeped in the events to the extent of like, the news mega crew, so I won't try to dispute this, but I don't think that undermines my point at all. The point of saying "israel created hamas, russia didn't create ukraine's neo-nazis" wasn't "israel bad we shouldn't support them", it was to say that the analogy the OP constructed between hamas and ukrainian neo-nazis was not a very good one.
Saying the US shouldn't send billions in arms to Ukraine is not saying "the russians were 100% justified in invading, Donbass simply yearned for freedom"
Its kinda true that russia wants to remove leftists for easier control, but ukraine recently flat out admitted to running assasination program starting from 2014, and i think they claimed one of those guys.
And russia left a lot of other uprisings to get fucked by azov in 2014, as they didn't manage to get armored military. So outside looking in, it seems like it was uprising which failed in lots places, but stabilized in others and become useful for russia