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IH's avatar

"This is a difficult question, and I want to give you space to answer it however you’d like (or not answer it at all) — but how has your time researching and writing this book led you to understand the violence and devastation and horror of what’s happening in Israel and Palestine right now?"

I understand why it felt relevant and reasonable, even topical, to ask this question, but frankly I am very tired of people (mostly white, almost exclusively non-Jewish and non-Palestinian) feeling like it's entirely acceptable to essentially ask Jews to answer for the actions of the Israeli government, or to call on them to unpack their personal connection to a conflict unrelated to the topic of the book they wrote (settlement of indigenous land in what would become the "American west"). We as Jews are constantly called on the carpet to either perform our guilt for the sins of a government who we didn't vote for, or to disclaim and condemn the actions of an army which we can't control. It's exhausting and unending, and it's no more ok than asking a Muslim to condemn ISIS or al-Qaeda. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nearly nothing in common with the settlement and colonization of the United States. It's clear that you attempted to be gentle, kind, and sensitive to the situation, but the fact that you asked the question at all is illustrative of the kind of context in which Jews find themselves increasingly these days, asked to perform guilt for something over which we have no control or to condemn and decry and disclaim a country that most of us can do nothing about, and a conflict through which white Americans are expiating and laundering their own settler guilt.

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Lauren Grainger's avatar

Every time I open your emails I'm so happy I made the decision to subscribe. I can only imagine the hours and care that go in to your writing and curating to be able to produce something that stretches my mind in so many directions and I feel so glad to be benefiting from it. Thanks again!

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