I will not argue with you...
A reading list disguised as an essay.
I will not argue with you about the whether or not Jews are indigenous to Israel because there is irrefutable proof not only that we are, but that we have been living there continuously since the diaspora began. It is our dispersion from Judea the word diaspora was first used to describe.
If you are willing to do the work of reading and thinking deeply about this complex issue, I will discuss with you the reasons our understandings of indigeneity are fraught, particularly when we are talking about international policy.
I will not argue with you about whether or not the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab nations was the right decision unless you have both a better plan and a time machine. And if you have a time machine, in spite of all science fiction’s warnings against it, I’d suggest you go back and murder Hitler, without whom its doubtful Israel’s history would have unfolded as it has.
If you are willing to do the work of reading and thinking deeply about this complex issue, I will discuss with you how non-Israelis/non-Palestinians can support the work of those living in the region to build solutions that provide security and self-determination for all. (I will not have discussions about “what Israelis should do” or “what Palestinians should do” unless you are Israeli or Palestinian. It’s weird to me that you keep calling for self-determination without recognizing that your attempt to dictate what others should do fully undermines that call.)
I will not argue with you about whether or not Israel makes Jews safer unless you can tell me where the Jews of Yemen, Iraq, Ethiopia, the former USSR, Ukraine, and the Arab Nations would have been welcomed as refugees when they were expelled from the countries in which they lived. Unless you can tell me where the next wave of Jewish refugees can safely go.
If you are willing to do the work of reading and thinking deeply about this complex issue, I will discuss with you the long history of Jewish (particularly in the US, but not exclusively so) activism focused on social justice issues, particularly refugee rights, international asylum law, and immigration. I cannot make you honor Israel’s right to exist, but I will insist that if you are going to arguing for its dissolution, you first have an ethical obligation to ensure the 7 million Jews currently living there have a safe place to which they can flee1.
I will not argue with you about whether or not Jews are members of a religion or a people. We are both. Converts are adopted into the people and become Jews of equal status; their generations are also Jews. Jews who are atheists are also still Jews. Even Jews who convert to another religion are, according to Jewish law, still Jews. But we aren’t likely to invite them to Shabbat dinner (unless we are related to them).
If you are willing to do the work of reading and thinking deeply about this complex issue, I will discuss with you the difference between a religion and an ethnoreligion, and between open practice and closed practice spiritual practices. Judaism is a closed practice ethnoreligion.
I will not argue with you about any of the conspiracy theory -ish you learned on the internet; Ashkenazi Jews are not secretly Khazars, IDF soldiers did not rape women in the wake of the most recent raid of Shifa Hospital (though they did capture and kill hundreds of Hamas soldiers), October 7th was not a “false flag operation by Israeli intelligence, and we don’t have horns. (Although, honestly, I think it might be cool if we did.
There is nothing you could read, or cite, from these conspiracy theorists that would make me engage with you.
I will not argue with you. I will only engage in open-hearted, open-minded conversation about things neither of us have a perfect understanding of, and which each of us should set out to learn about rather than to reify our positions on.
The tone of this article is, frankly, awful… but it provides a good source of information about the restrictions on Israeli’s emigrating to other nations. Also, I think it’s important to listen to other voices, even when they are sardonic about a thing which I think we should take seriously.
Sarah, I so admire your evenhanded and rational responses to the current flood of antisemitic lies.
My plan, when I finally got hold of a time machine, was not to kill Hitler but to get him into art school. . . . but I see that's been tried too from your link. . . .