The effort of enduring hatred can be exhausting. It’s also the constant worry about who will attack next and from what side. I can use that phrase metaphorically, of course.
Some Jews, like myself, feel uncomfortable in certain places because we insist on empathizing with Palestinians. Self-hating Jew. Why don’t you care about your own people? What about October 7th?
(Do you somehow imagine we haven’t been gutted with grief for the inhabitants of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Kibbutz Beeri, the massacred, the slaughtered, the raped, the kidnapped, the hostages?)
Some Jews, like myself, feel uncomfortable in certain places because we insist on empathizing with Israelis. I was with me until you brought up the hostages. “We don’t want no two states, we remember ‘48!”
(Do you somehow imagine we haven’t been gutted with grief for the inhabitants of Gaza, their homes turned to rubble, entire families wiped out, hospitals in ruins, starving in plain sight?)
The grief is a tsunami and it doesn’t stop. It’s not a good feeling to know that someone will criticize us every time you express concern for anyone.
Empathy is not popular.. Some people say that they won’t tolerate me dehumanizing Palestinians or Israelis because I refuse to do so.
