I was amazed at how other people reacted when they heard me say "Israel can do whatever they want"

I'm American and yesterday I was at the park with my 2 nephews, a 17 year old girl and a 16 year old boy. I'm American of Egyptian descent and currently live in Egypt. I've been an avid supporter of Israel for 12 years or so, since I was around 18 years old. I remember at that time I spoke with an Israeli girl who was around my age who told me that she joined the military to defend her country against terrorism. This was an absolutely foreign concept to me, we in Egypt are told that we're a peaceful nation who never provoke our enemies and that our wars are defensive. But what she said made sense to me, and I don't really remember why I was so drawn to Israel but I just was. The Palestinians were a distant memory to me, I remember in summer 2014 the war in Gaza happened and no one was talking about the conflict anymore and no one cared, that was until I started following Israeli news websites. I was shocked at the fact that this conflict was still going on, and I was even more shocked when I read that the Palestinians were the aggressors! The more I learned about the conflict the more I supported Israel. Every year or so, without fail, there would be a war between Israel and Gaza and my Egyptian fellows would start spreading Hamas propaganda like crazy, they would paint Israel in a very evil light, and it was hard for me to express my opinion because it was considered taboo.<br><br>Fast forward to yesterday, I was at the park and there was a group of people sitting right across from us and I don't know why but they started talking about Israel. One of them said "Israel is a terrible country and they're responsible for all the terrorist groups in the Middle East" and another one said "I can't wait until they get dismantled". I immediately reacted and said "Israel can do whatever they want" and they all stopped talking. I kid you not, they were all staring at me, dumbfounded. I knew that opinions on Israel were controversial, but I never thought that people would literally stop talking and stare at me like I'm crazy because I said I support Israel. I was honestly amazed, I was expecting maybe a few angry reactions but what I got was just weird. This experience alone has convinced me that Israel is the right side in this conflict. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that all Americans are like that, but I was genuinely shocked because I know that there is a faction of Americans who are also pro-Israel.