Ms Miller, I have struggled with the same questions. I was born and reared Jewish, and I gave it up because it didn't mean anything to me. There's no such thing as "god," so I don't qualify to identify with any religion, and religions have done far more harm than good. As for your questions, I have never felt disposed toward or against a…
Ms Miller, I have struggled with the same questions. I was born and reared Jewish, and I gave it up because it didn't mean anything to me. There's no such thing as "god," so I don't qualify to identify with any religion, and religions have done far more harm than good. As for your questions, I have never felt disposed toward or against any religion or anyone about much of anything, as long as they don't harm anyone else. And I think the world community was right to provide a safe home for the Jews after WWII. But I have to admit that it's become very difficult not to feel antiSemitic and antiZionist when the Israelis behave the way they do. They're absolutely right to remember the resistance they got from the start, and they don't realize that the various Arabs were reacting to having been pushed around and deprived by the West, and were not particularly antiSemitic or antiZionist, per se. Israeli Jews have relentlessly built illegal settlements in the West Bank, settlers have attacked entirely innocent Palestinians, and no Israeli government has intervened.
Israelis like to tell themselves the current glaring problem started on Oct 7, '23. They ignore everything that happened before that date.
I have a friend who is Israeli, and he lives in my area (Miami area) now. Not only does he believe this is all Hamas' fault, and he ignores any reason Hamas might have had to attack in Oct, '23, but he also gets most of his information from his old IDF contacts, whom he believes. (Who in this world could possibly be more partisan and less believable than the Israeli government and its military apparatus? He has no trouble dismissing Hamas and Palestinians as liars.) At the moment, he complains that Hamas disproportionately wants the release of many Palestinians and Hamas members in exchange for just a few Israelis held hostage. He wonders how that can be a fair equalization. I tell him it was Israel that decided that was fair, when it responded to the deaths of 1200 Israelis by killing 50K Palestinians (so far), the majority non-combatant men, women, children, and babies. He complains that Hamas is still holding Israelis hostage. I point out that at the end of Nov, '23, Israel agreed to a one week ceasefire, and got back half of the hostages. If Israel really cared about the hostages, they would have extended the ceasefire to get back the rest. But my friend can't see any of this. Israel is right, Hamas is wrong, Hamas is "evil monsters," and all Palestinians should die. We can no longer talk about this, because he can't think about what he's saying.
Ms Miller, I have struggled with the same questions. I was born and reared Jewish, and I gave it up because it didn't mean anything to me. There's no such thing as "god," so I don't qualify to identify with any religion, and religions have done far more harm than good. As for your questions, I have never felt disposed toward or against any religion or anyone about much of anything, as long as they don't harm anyone else. And I think the world community was right to provide a safe home for the Jews after WWII. But I have to admit that it's become very difficult not to feel antiSemitic and antiZionist when the Israelis behave the way they do. They're absolutely right to remember the resistance they got from the start, and they don't realize that the various Arabs were reacting to having been pushed around and deprived by the West, and were not particularly antiSemitic or antiZionist, per se. Israeli Jews have relentlessly built illegal settlements in the West Bank, settlers have attacked entirely innocent Palestinians, and no Israeli government has intervened.
Israelis like to tell themselves the current glaring problem started on Oct 7, '23. They ignore everything that happened before that date.
I have a friend who is Israeli, and he lives in my area (Miami area) now. Not only does he believe this is all Hamas' fault, and he ignores any reason Hamas might have had to attack in Oct, '23, but he also gets most of his information from his old IDF contacts, whom he believes. (Who in this world could possibly be more partisan and less believable than the Israeli government and its military apparatus? He has no trouble dismissing Hamas and Palestinians as liars.) At the moment, he complains that Hamas disproportionately wants the release of many Palestinians and Hamas members in exchange for just a few Israelis held hostage. He wonders how that can be a fair equalization. I tell him it was Israel that decided that was fair, when it responded to the deaths of 1200 Israelis by killing 50K Palestinians (so far), the majority non-combatant men, women, children, and babies. He complains that Hamas is still holding Israelis hostage. I point out that at the end of Nov, '23, Israel agreed to a one week ceasefire, and got back half of the hostages. If Israel really cared about the hostages, they would have extended the ceasefire to get back the rest. But my friend can't see any of this. Israel is right, Hamas is wrong, Hamas is "evil monsters," and all Palestinians should die. We can no longer talk about this, because he can't think about what he's saying.