RE: My Open Letter to Israel & the Remarkable Response from an Israeli Reader
It's a powerful poem. Thank you for sharing it.
The letter... sigh. I have a hard time separating anti-Zionism from antisemitism, because as long as we live in an antisemitic world, I can't object to the core principle of Zionism, which is that Jews should have state that can be their (our) refuge. This does not, by any means, mean I condone my government's activities done in the name of Zionism.
I think about leaving this country every day. Literally, every day. But it's hard to leave one's home, one's family and friends. My parents were Zionists in the USSR, where it was an act of incredible bravery. Leaving would be a betrayal in a sense. But staying often also feels like a betrayal.
Israel, right now, is an example in drawing the wrong lessons from history. Gradually, over the years, the country that was a driving force behind the creation of the Refugee Convention has changed from "Never Again" to "Never Again TO US," and that change, indeed driven by fear, stoked by extremists (including the one who's been PM for much of the last 20 years), has made the country toxic as it is.
Good to hear the poem spoke to you. Thank you, too, for sharing your thoughts, @didic, and laying your embattled heart bare. It's easier for me to separate an ideology from a people. I think it unconscionable to build one's home on land where others already live - which is, of course, what settlers do all the time. I don't know that leaving is the answer, either, since I believe in 2 state solution.
But, I do know that no lasting peace can be founded on injustice, and the systematic humiliation of a people 'more sinned against than sinning.' I also know that, while neither party is completely innocent, the greater moral burden rests on the shoulders of those with greater power.
Peace, Yahia
We agree on all counts. Thank you.
Bless you, brother. We are each other.