I can't help but think that, if the US and other Western countries had done right by the Jewish people -- as in, welcoming all of those refugees with open arms and treating them as equal citizens -- we wouldn't now be faced with an Israeli government that visits some of the same atrocities on the surrounding Arab populations that individual Jewish people themselves have, and still do, experience in other parts of the world.
Oppression and trauma all too frequently flow from those who have themselves been oppressed and never given a chance to heal. Some children who have been abused grow up to become abusers. Some peoples, after decades or centuries of oppression and trauma, themselves become oppressors given even half the chance at power over someone else. This doesn't excuse Israeli government atrocities, or atrocities committed by Arab people against individuals or groups of Israelis. It does help explain them.
I used to teach "The Diary of Anne Frank" every year to my eighth grade language arts classes.
Anne was their age
I can't help but think that, if the US and other Western countries had done right by the Jewish people -- as in, welcoming all of those refugees with open arms and treating them as equal citizens -- we wouldn't now be faced with an Israeli government that visits some of the same atrocities on the surrounding Arab populations that individual Jewish people themselves have, and still do, experience in other parts of the world.
Oppression and trauma all too frequently flow from those who have themselves been oppressed and never given a chance to heal. Some children who have been abused grow up to become abusers. Some peoples, after decades or centuries of oppression and trauma, themselves become oppressors given even half the chance at power over someone else. This doesn't excuse Israeli government atrocities, or atrocities committed by Arab people against individuals or groups of Israelis. It does help explain them.
I love your columns! Your book is great too!