There isn't a third option.

You get the neoliberal that will be broadly disappointing, and likely perpetuate the situation in Palestine, or you get the open fascist that will make everything far worse - including Palestine, and potentially end US democracy. Both are bad, there's a yawning chasm of difference between the two.

Your spectacularly priveliged abstaineousness and the false equivalence you're drawing (even on the single issue you've pointed to) in such a critical swing state is cripplingly naiive, and gambles with the lives of who knows how many Palestinians, Ukrainians, and Americans. To sit back and vote for a Russian asset in this context is frankly disgusting.

There are 1,458 days of the election cycle to push for better - there's only one for keeping the fascists out of power, and you chose not to.

I find this stance wild. Like I none of us are happy with what's going on in Gaza, but some people are completely blind to the various ways the current US government has been using its political might to try prevent the war from spreading. People can argue that those steps may or may not be working, that's fine, in glad people have that opinion.

But how can those same people look at Trump and their statements and views on this subject and think "yes that's better"? Trump has blatantly said that he things Israel is doing a good job, he also thinks that USA should not be invoived in any humanitarian aid in Gaza.

If Trump is elected, the situation in Gaza is going to get substantially worse. If you actually care about Gaza, the strategic vote is Harris. It's not a perfect vote or even a great vote, but that's what FPTP forces, when there is a single issue you're passionate about, you have to vote strategically. That means looking at the candidates and picking the candidate who most closely matches your views and is also most likely to win. Otherwise you're throwing your vote away (assuming there were an issue you're supper passionate about, if there are no super important issues then it's justifiable to vote for a candidate you really like)

The confusion is that you, and others who are spouting off the same nonsense, really seem hellbent on ignoring that you're getting one of them as your next president if you are a citizen of the US.

"I'm not voting for either" gets you nowhere. Worse, it withholds a vote from a candidate who isn't a full-blown, mask-off, dangerous fascist.

This is the compass you have to work with:

I presume you want to be somewhere around here:

Or even here:

But you can't get there from where we are right now, and you sure as hell can't do it if you end up with the red circle.

The closest you can get to what you want in this election is the blue circle. So the logical thing to do in this election is to hold your nose, get over your "moral authority", and vote for the one viable option that is even remotely close to your ideal candidate.

Voting third party in FPTP doesn't benefit any candidate except the viable candidate least aligned with your ideal. You are contributing to a possible Trump victory by refusing to vote for the only other candidate that can win this election.

Everyone I've encountered who regurgitates the "Harris isn't acceptable" line of thinking falls back to "voting for Harris makes you complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza" but refuses to acknowledge that, if we apply the same logic, voting for a non-viable candidate makes you complicit in the same genocide, along with every other shit thing that will happen in a second, more disastrous Trump term.

"I didn't vote for him though," carries no water, because if you lean left of Harris and vote third party in this election you've taken support from the only viable candidate and in doing so made the shift towards fascism easier to enact.