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Meandering Ramblings
Jul. 17th, 2009 12:18 pmOn the radio I was listening to a discussion about whether supermarkets should label food from the West Bank to make clear whether it was grown by Israelis or Palestinians so consumers could choose not to buy food grown in Israeli settlements but still buy food from West Bank Palestinians. I was reminded that this sort of labelling could go both ways. My mother proudly told me that she bought herbs from Israel rather than the West Bank and was rather put out when I told her that the West Bank herbs she was boycotting were probably grown by settlers. I'm not sure where my mum gets her hardline Zionism from. It's certainly not me, she far more jingoistic about Israel than I am and I think she was very supportive of Israel before I became Jewish. I suspect that it's because she doesn't have much time for sore losers. In her opinion Israel won all of it's territory fair and square and if it's neighbours didn't want to lose territory to Israel, they should have made peace with it when they had the chance. I also wonder whether it's a generational thing, she remembers when Israel was seen in the UK as the plucky underdog.
I think Alec's also more supportive of Israeli military actions than me. I think part of this is that, not being Jewish, he tends to have different sorts of conversations about Israel than I do. I'm more likely to get to discuss Israel in situations where everyone is relatively well informed and Israel's right to exist is a given we can get down to the rights and wrongs of specific policies and actions, whereas conversations with non-Jews are more likely to be big splodges of accusations sometimes rolled together with how this supports their pet theories of Imperialism. I'm getting better at dealing with these people. The key is to just ask them to expand their views and correct any factual or logical errors. If I've had a few drinks I still sometimes end up yelling at them. Still, unlike Alec I've never had to deal with people saying that Christian book shops should stop stocking Rosh HaShannah cards or that churches shouldn't hold Holocaust memorial services because of Israeli military actions at the time.
I think another side of it is his protectiveness. Alec really wants there to be a country where I and our children and grandchildren could go if things turned nasty. I think he fears antisemitism more than I do. I don't want to be melodramatic, but "don't you realise people are going to want to screw you over because you're Jewish" has been part of the formula with converts going back to Talmudic times. I think would have been a bit naive for it not to have crossed my mind at some point that my decision to convert might lead to the deaths of some of my descendants. I'm sort of more at peace with it. I while ago I told him that I found it very sweet that he reacted to any kind of antisemitism as a direct threat against me and our future children. He replied that, given the history of the last 100 years, wasn't that reasonable?
I think Alec's also more supportive of Israeli military actions than me. I think part of this is that, not being Jewish, he tends to have different sorts of conversations about Israel than I do. I'm more likely to get to discuss Israel in situations where everyone is relatively well informed and Israel's right to exist is a given we can get down to the rights and wrongs of specific policies and actions, whereas conversations with non-Jews are more likely to be big splodges of accusations sometimes rolled together with how this supports their pet theories of Imperialism. I'm getting better at dealing with these people. The key is to just ask them to expand their views and correct any factual or logical errors. If I've had a few drinks I still sometimes end up yelling at them. Still, unlike Alec I've never had to deal with people saying that Christian book shops should stop stocking Rosh HaShannah cards or that churches shouldn't hold Holocaust memorial services because of Israeli military actions at the time.
I think another side of it is his protectiveness. Alec really wants there to be a country where I and our children and grandchildren could go if things turned nasty. I think he fears antisemitism more than I do. I don't want to be melodramatic, but "don't you realise people are going to want to screw you over because you're Jewish" has been part of the formula with converts going back to Talmudic times. I think would have been a bit naive for it not to have crossed my mind at some point that my decision to convert might lead to the deaths of some of my descendants. I'm sort of more at peace with it. I while ago I told him that I found it very sweet that he reacted to any kind of antisemitism as a direct threat against me and our future children. He replied that, given the history of the last 100 years, wasn't that reasonable?