When was the last time you had an actual talk with a republican in order to understand what he/she thinks?
Every day until the Pandemic. My republican friends now work in a different office than I do. It's not hard to see the policies and politicians they vote for though, and I can read the handwritten signs in their yards explicitly calling me an idiot, moron, or traitor for having different views than they do. (I see those every day BTW.)
it collapses the Israel-Palestine issue into a winner-take-all situation
I'm just looking at what I've spent the past several months witnessing via news reporting and video clips. I'm not debating what the dictionary says about it. (And in any case, dictionaries reflect usage not prescribe it.)