To those who were shocked by my last Posting

Dear friends and allies,

It has come to my attention that the first paragraph here
of my last letter was perceived as Zionist (by "Zionist"
I mean in support of an exclusively Jewish state in historic
Palestine). I want to clarify what I meant by the
description and apologize for being careless enough to
be so easily misconstrued.

In my three years of teaching on tour, I have learned that audiences
learn best when you tell them the facts and let them draw their own
conclusions. People don't like to be told what to think, and it
certainly isn't what helped me change. Telling people what to think
also does not empower them. Providing people with the information and
resources necessary to build strong opinions will ultimately make them
smarter people and better allies.

For example, I begin my presentation with a photograph and description
of separate roads for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the West
Bank. I could instead begin my presentation with a statement that
Zionism is racist and Israel is an Apartheid state. Which one would
reach the most people? I believe the first way is stronger (although
presenters tend to use the latter technique), but some may view my
description without condemnation as implicit approval. It is not.

I began my last email with a description of what having a Jewish
majority state requires: ethnic cleansing. I wrote it
matter-of-factly. I gave my readers credit that they would read it and
decide what they thought on their own.

I described what I believe to be the origins of the Nakba: the desire
to create a Jewish majority in an area where the majority was
Palestinian, as opposed a specific sadistic kind of desire to hurt
others. I did this because I think the latter explanation:

(a) is likely false (although not knowing the Zionist expellers I
cannot be certain),
(b) allows people to dismiss the Nakba as a fluke, since most
Israelis—indeed, most people—aren't so sadistic,
(c) alienates potential allies, who won't believe that the
perpetrators were just plain crazy.

I wanted to show clearly that the Nakba and the ongoing ethnic
cleansing are not perversions of Zionism; rather, they are the direct
and logical consequences of Zionism, no matter what a Zionist's
intentions may be (and I know many well-intentioned people who want to
believe that a democratic Jewish state is possible... I was once one
of them). We needn't dehumanize anyone; we simply need to be clear
about the reality of the situation: it is bad enough.

For those who see everything as good people vs. evil people (this is a
George W. Bush technique, by the way), citing the source of the
conflict as ideology rather than "evil" may sound wimpy. I believe we
can try to understand why something happened without condoning it.
There is a difference between explaining something and excusing it.
I'm very sorry I didn't make that clearer.

Respectfully,

Anna