Correspondence
I am an American Jew, and I agree completely with David Grossman about the difficulty of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need for change. I have been alternately angry with how Israel has treated the Palestinians and proud that my people have a homeland, a country that extends its hand to me, no matter where I live or what I do. I agree that the Holocaust and the occupation of Palestinian lands are different in magnitude. As Grossman says, the Israelis do not intend to exterminate the Palestinian people. But that is also the crack in his argument. If you strip a people of their dignity, their basic human rights, their self-determination, and their pride, and if you also inflict physical abuse, violence, death, and destruction on them, the distinction becomes a form of denial.
L.K. Walker
Morrisville, Vermont
In your October interview David Grossman says, “As the world shrinks, we feel the need to minimize the surface of our soul that comes in contact with its harshness, because if we feel more, we suffer more.”
His comment is just the first step in a transformation that we as a species are undergoing. It begins with the fear that our soul cannot face the horrors of the world. As Grossman describes, this leads to the construction of complex mental structures such as ideology, prejudice, and separation from others. The mind tries to shield the soul, but regardless of what “logic” the mind may adopt, the soul knows that suffering is not justified by ideology. For the soul, suffering is suffering.
After a long and painful struggle, we are left with but one choice: to open our heart. As we open our heart, instead of being crushed by the weight of the world’s harshness, we are relieved of the burden of propping up those complex mental structures that never were more than temporary distractions.
Nearly Normal Warren
Chelsea, Michigan
David Grossman’s effort to humanize the Palestinians and Israelis to each other exemplifies the highest of human impulses and is perhaps the best hope for peace, but an important distinction gets glossed over in Anna Blackshaw’s interview with him. The catastrophe that befell the Palestinians was no accident. There is broad agreement, even among Israeli historians, that Zionist leaders planned the wholesale dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land and homes, with the result that 1.3 million of them now live in squalid refugee camps. Those in Gaza live on the edge of starvation while Israelis reside in their former homes a few leagues away.
Grossman seeks to equate the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians and make their shared suffering the basis of a new relatedness — a laudable project. But the bridge of reconciliation must rest upon the ground of truth. I don’t want to minimize the horrific suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust or Israelis in the struggle over Palestine, but to imply that there is parity between the suffering of the Palestinians and the Israelis is akin to equating the suffering of the rapist and the rape victim. Sure, the rapist has wounds that spur his violence, and even rapists deserve our compassion and understanding, but the possibility of healing and forgiveness is precluded while the perpetration is ongoing and the perpetrator is unrepentant. I invite Grossman to look reality in the eye once again and call it by its name.
William Lyman
Saint Helena, California
As an Israeli American, I was moved by Anna Blackshaw’s brutally honest interview with Israeli author David Grossman [“My Enemy, My Brother,” October 2008].
Grossman says, “It is important that Jewish Americans who oppose the occupation communicate their point of view here [in Israel], because we mainly hear from the right-wingers, who are much more vocal and sure of themselves. . . . If [U.S. critics of the occupation] are silent, if they do not make their opinions heard here, Israel will believe that all Jewish Americans support Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”
Grossman’s words have inspired me to do just that, beginning by writing an essay about my Israeli cousin, who put his freedom on the line by refusing to serve in the occupied territories and who is now an active member of an amazing group of Israelis and Palestinians called “Combatants for Peace” (combatantsforpeace.org). I am also compiling essays for an anthology that reflects Jewish Americans’ struggle with their love for Israel and their hatred for its government’s policies. Information about the peace anthology can be found at www.wakenowdiscover.weebly.com. I would love to hear from Sun contributors and readers.
Osie Adelfang
Huntsville, Alabama
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