I think your position on the boycott is entirely reasonable (and Mandela's word means a lot for me, because he's come out so strongly against simple revenge). I might even espouse it myself, if doing so wouldn't also mean boycotting my grandmother. And there's the nub of the problem for me - I can't think about this place in a disinterested way, even though it doesn't have the resonance for me that it does for many Jews.
In terms of beliefs, I've called myself an atheist for as long as I've understood the concept, because the whole idea of God just doesn't make sense to me. But I still self-identify as a Jew, because that's my roots and one of the important strands of my culture. It does make people-more often other Jews than non-Jews, ironically-assume wrong things about me, but if anything I think it's a good thing to confront those assumptions and show people they're wrong. Incidentally, once I naturalise I think I'm going to join J Street, not because I agree with everything they espouse but because the counterweight to both AIPAC and the nastier anti-Israel voices.
I am also interested in the emerging non-violent resistance amongst the Palestinians, but I've kind of become too deeply pessimistic about this whole conflict to get all that excited about it. I just want to be proven wrong on that.
I also self-identify as Jewish. But being culturally Jewish doesn't have nearly the "my Israel right or wrong" context that being religiously Jewish does. Or at least I have not found it to be so.
In terms of beliefs, I've called myself an atheist for as long as I've understood the concept, because the whole idea of God just doesn't make sense to me. But I still self-identify as a Jew, because that's my roots and one of the important strands of my culture. It does make people-more often other Jews than non-Jews, ironically-assume wrong things about me, but if anything I think it's a good thing to confront those assumptions and show people they're wrong. Incidentally, once I naturalise I think I'm going to join J Street, not because I agree with everything they espouse but because the counterweight to both AIPAC and the nastier anti-Israel voices.
I am also interested in the emerging non-violent resistance amongst the Palestinians, but I've kind of become too deeply pessimistic about this whole conflict to get all that excited about it. I just want to be proven wrong on that.
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