I asked my friends to send me their thoughts about Israel. Here’s a sampling of what they said.
And thank you for your amazingly succinct and clear explanation of what’s going on in Israel – both as a way to contextualize for us who lived day to day through it but also, helpfully, for those who did not.
Thank you again for once again a beautiful letter. I’m really sorry about all of things going on with Israel. It’s terrible. Sending love to you and your family, my friend.
Thank you for the wonderful note! Your comments about Israel were great but surely difficult to write.
Thanks for sharing all the news and thoughts. I loved your take on the conflint in Israel and Gaza and, as an Irishman, can agree that the Brits really fucked up yet another part of the world. I’m also sorry for the stress and pain you’re going through with it. It’s all simply horrific, from every angle.
We are also very upset about the events on Oct. 7th, the brutality of Hamas, the hostages, the war (s) that has resulted, and the anti semitism that we have all experienced here in New York and across the country. Lets just hope that 2024 brings us to a better place!
I appreciate your sentiments on what is going on right now in the Israel/Palestine conflict; people need to be able to talk about it more, not less.
We are not Jewish but both my husband and I have best friends who are. I wrote that realizing that it makes me sound like a jerk (some of my best friends are Jews!). But, I wanted to share that we are exposed to some of the pain of seeing not only the physical attack in Israel but also the rising anti-semitism in the US through the eyes of the people we loveand find it sickening. It is unacceptable and I am so sorry for the crap you are dealing with.
I can imagine how difficult it was to write about Israel, and appreciate hearing your thoughts on the horrible situation. I am appalled at the blatant antisemitism right in our own backyard and continue to pray for my Jewish friends.
This is a difficult letter, well-written. I thank you for it. So many of us go through life, gathering experiences at a surface level, just as you said…with less that “are you smarter than a 5th grader?” knowledge. It’s not possible to be ultra-deep on everything but I think we can all teach ourselves more about a few more things than we currently know. Ultimately, a better education combined with empathy for a fellow-human-being is our best shot at a better society. Yeah, I know. I’m a very simple-minded person.
I will add this – you’re my friend. Everything starts and ends there. You should never be a stranger, I am here for you if you need anything, even if it is just a conversation. We don’t even have to talk, we can just sit together with a cup of tea or coffee, though I think that is a difficult task for both you and me. 🙂
We are terrible sad of what is happening in the world.
We feel a lot of frustration specially about how people hide facts to make their point. It is horrible to see The Other is built everyday and suddenly that enemy is real.
I still cannot get how religions can separate human beings when I think that Christianity, Judaism and Muslims had a message of welcoming the ones that suffer, of welcoming the stranger, of love to the other. But in all times, these religions (or some of their leaders) found a way to find in the other a great enemy, a threat. Perhaps, one of the most ridiculous of those time has been when Christian went against the Jewish forgetting that Jesus decided to be born Jewish and that we have a huge overlap in our moral values.
But over and over again, we human beings create threats in others for so many stupid reasons (the color of their skin, their religion, their last name, their nationality, their language, their accent, their professions, their wealth. )
My dad just a couple of years ago told me that when he emigrated to Argentina when he was 11, his classmates threw him stones and told him horrible things (I cannot stop visualizing the scene in my mind over and over) that should have destroyed the self stem of anyone. But my dad could manage and succeeded. But he only managed to tell me this story, I would say too late. As if he would be ashamed of that as if he still would want to cover that, as if there was something wrong with him. Really dad? You were the victim here not the problem. I guess because, many still think there was sth wrong with the immigrants, with him. As if he deserved it. As if Jewish families deserved October 7th. Shame on all the people that believe that any one deserves that.
Now, I am frustrated about Italy and his treatment to refugees considering how many countries opened the world to them to us and how well we ended up integrating to the culture of these other places.
But I am not angry with my Italian compatriots, I frustrated to all the leaders of the world that focus on the differences of the people rather than in things that all of us have in common. I am frustrated with all the politicians that prefer a language of hate and extremes (It is quite profitable in fact). Does it mean that I want everybody to behave the same, like the same things, have the same religion, study the same, etc? Not at all. We would become robots, we would stop creating things, writing stories, building marvelous bridges and making friends all around the world, we would stop learning from each other.
When we get to know others, we can empathy with them. It does not mean that I would like everybody, there are evil people across cultures, religions, countries.
I am taking some classes in Berkeley and one day after a class there were some pro Palestinian students giving a long list of names of Palestinian people that died after October 7th. Besides them, there were a group with the pictures of the Israeli hostages. Both were sad and terrible situations, both were exposed there. Who am I to choose which life had more value?
Nobody was there to choose. I chose this interpretation. I guess, this interpretation does not sell too much.
You are our friends not despite you are Jewish but because you are Jewish. Because this religion has shaped some aspects of your personality and your character. We chose you because of that.
We stand by you, we stand by peace always. Hate and violence brings more hate and violence.
A special thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience regarding the horrific events of October 7. It was illuminating to hear your perspective as you processed that atrocious attack. I am hopeful (perhaps naively so) that we will see a path to peace and prosperity for the region in our lifetime.
I appreciate your request for caring comments. Sometimes have to tell others what we need. I also appreciated the way you tried to educate your reader without indignation or judgment. That is a gift, and one I can learn from.
I am so sorry for what is happening in Israel and Gaza, and for the ripple effects it has on your family’s safety, peace, and ease. The world is a mess and I know the heaviness of that is weighing on you.
What stood out to me from your note was your explanation of the Jewish teaching about what happens when a funeral and a wedding procession meet in the road. You probably don’t know that my younger brother died of cancer in 2023. He was 42, and had a 4-year-old son. As we headed into the holidays, our family was struggling with how to feel grief at our loss while also feeling the joy and hope of Christmas. We needed reminders, like that teaching, to allow ourselves to do both grief and joy at the same time, or in the same season.
I can’t keep the world from being a mess, but I can still find beauty in it. I hope you find beauty as well in 2024.