I Visit Israel Every Summer. I’ve Never Seen Hopelessness Like This.

“So, if you are a friend of Israel
abroad … I tell my American friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, if you are a friend,
a true friend of Israel, you must become an enemy of the current government of
Israel. I’ve never said that about previous Netanyahu governments. Never voted
for him but always considered him totally legitimate. Not anymore.” 

Oz-Salzberger’s father was the
noted novelist and left peace activist Amos Oz, who, she reminds me, used to
say, “I’m not pro-Israel. I’m not pro-Palestine. I’m pro-peace.” That’s where,
she thinks, the global progressive community should land. And, to her, that
means not only promoting justice for the Palestinians, but peace for both
peoples. If you are pro-Palestinian, she suggests, you must consider if “you
would like the justice of the graveyard, which is what is going to happen, or
the peace of compromise.”

But the current pro-Palestinian,
anti-Israel activism is not the answer. “What you cannot do is erase and
eradicate a nuclear power made of 7.1 million Jews and two million Arabs. How?
How will you annihilate us … you must rethink not from an ideal, platonic ideal
of ultimate justice, but from some very complex, very nuanced groundwork for
allowing both people to live here. Bottom line, if you are not a friend of
Israel, at least be a realistic friend of the Palestinians. Do not tell them
that they will get it all.”