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"Having said that, I've been to Israel, and I know that it's the only democracy in the entire area and certainly somewhere worth protecting. Unfortunately, they still have to deal with the likes of Hamas. Wishing them away won't make it so, and you're likely dealing with the bulk of the population there supporting them."
Israel is far from a democracy for those who are not of Jewish descent. That has been noted by many anti-Zionist Jews who have spent extensive time in both Israel and Gaza such as journalist Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, and Ilian Pappe.
And in fact, even its Jewish population are not allowed to marry someone of Palestinian descent.
An actual democracy in that region would indeed be worth preserving, but an ethno-state favoring one particular ethnic and religious demographic is not and cannot be a true democracy. And you can thank many decades of brutal treatment of the Palestinians starting with their displacement in 1948 for the creation of Hamas. This current debacle did not begin on October 7th. The latter did not appear out of the void without provocation. The only way for a true democracy to arise in that land is for Jews and Palestinians, and everyone else who may want to live there, to exist there in peace as true equals under the law. If it's a "Jewish state" based on legal recognition of Zionism, or of Sharia Law, that is not going to happen.