Hmmm...

Once again, I am using this blog as a form of procrastination. A few thoughts:
1. An Israeli cousin called to make sure I was eating, bc he felt I didn't eat enough when I was at his house. This is something I can only imagine an Israeli relative doing, and it is something that definitely conforms to the American stereotype of the Ashkenazi Jew.
2. I was babysitting the other day, and this American guy who's been living in Israel for 10 years made a comment about "stupid Arabs", but his son was next to him, so he said, "But they're not stupid bc they're Arabs. They're Arabs who happen to be stupid."* I made a comment like, "I don't beleive in inherent stupidity", or something along that lines. He looked at me, said, "How long have you been here?" "Six weeks", I replied. "So you have no right to talk", he said contemptously.

I was really ticked off. What the heck does he know about my life? I've been 20 km from Gaza during the Gaza War and have been coming to Israel since I was 9 months old. (I also happened to be referring to the human species, not to an ethnic group, when I made said comment.)

It is a general Israeli assumption that if you don't live here, you have no right to talk about the situation. On the one hand, I understand that - but on the other, its normal to receive a peice of information and have an opinion on it, whether or not we've experienced that information first hand. As humans, it's what we do.

I think that the truth is, that as humans we must have opinions, because that is a form of caring, but must temper our opinions with the knowledge that if we don't experience something firsthand, we can't truly understand it - and let's face it, as humans, there are many things we pray to God not to understand in that way - the experience is not worth the price.

I certainly think that 6 weeks + too many visits to count, including some during the second intifada and the Gaza War, earn me the right to a casual comment on the playground.

* He later went on a whole speil about not wanting to teach his son to be racist. Good for him. (I mean that seriously. It is tough to educate people to be open-minded.)