Criticism vs. Attack: YOU Don’t Get to Talk About US!
Why We Can’t Talk
I’m Jewish but grew up third-generation secular.
My mother was a Zionist Socialist who left New York City when she graduated high school and moved to Israel — then, a few years later, in the late 1950's, she moved back to New York again.
She hadn’t found gender equality in Israel; nor was she happy with the treatment of the Israeli Arabs — read “Palestinians” — which, that far back, she felt too closely tracked the treatment of African Americans in the US.
Criticism of Israel?
I don’t have any problem with that; I was born with a “primary source” that I trust.
I don’t think that America, or any other country, is above criticism either.
That said, it is undeniably true that some percentage of people who criticize Israel — and Zionism — are using that as a scrim for antisemitism.
What do I “do” with that?
Mostly . . . I try to listen.
And I try not to — prematurely — deploy or “play” the discrimination card.
That’s hard.
Because . . . trying to pick apart what constitutes “legitimate criticism” and what constitutes flat-out attack?