Though I’m of Jewish heritage on my dad’s side, I wasn’t really raised in the culture, except for family visits and such. Let’s face it; actually, I’m an ignoramus. Those facile liberals you characterize as just saying “The situation is too complex to understand or debate”– that cuts rather close to the bone for me. I have, in fact, been recently making token efforts to try to understand the issues at play in the Middle East a bit more. Your post came at a good time for me. For anybody else like me (that is, woefully ignorant but with a desire to rectify the situation), there’s some really clear background on the Palestinian perspective here, inside one of the sites Sabotabby linked. And while I’m at it, may I recommend Lawrence of Cyberia, a blog with really clear analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that always makes me feel like I actually understand what’s going on for a little while.

Anyway, Sabotabby, thanks for that, and keep it up. That’s some fine writing.

I’m missing the commemorations. Which I’m glad in some ways because I’ve become more and more involved in the activism at home, I’m also too cynical to believe next year I’ll be in East Jerusalem celebrating a Palestinian state.

I think at the end of the day, once the people and not the “leaders”, “ideologues” and what have you, establish, with “facts on the ground” as they say, that co-existence with mutual respect, love and all that mushy stuff … things will happen.

The thing that really made me re-think my “America Jew” perspective is how many people know about these abuses. When I first started speaking with people from my synagogue, there was almost never any denial that these things happened, just constant repetition that it was necessary, necessary to protect Israel, living in a land surrounded by enemies. And the really scary cognitive dissonance for me was the realization that that sounded *so* familiar. This idea that we need to separate, conceal, oppress - haven’t we learned that this is unacceptable? How have we turned a lesson that should be about tolerance, about abolishing arbitrary ideas of “other,” into a lesson that Jews should never be questioned?

It’s frustrating, because I’m so proud of my Jewish great-grandparents, who came here from Russia to escape the pogroms. I should be able to be proud of them for being so brave, and I should be able to take their legacy and use it to protect other people who are being oppressed. It’s so painful to be told that I’m not a “real Jew” when I try to do that.

I’m at a point where I say, “a pox on both their houses, and the houses of Jews who tell me I’m a bad Jew because I say a pox on both their houses.” I try to have more hope than that, but I’m young yet. Maybe in a few years.