Jewsplaining

A suggestion for (some of) my fellow American Jews:

I’ve now lived in my adoptive country for 25 years. I’m not Israeli, but I have a large family in Israel that makes me a bit closer to the situation than most people here. I also used to spend a lot of time with Israelis living in New York. As a result, I understand and share the frustrations Israelis have with American Jews about the ways they do not understand Israel. (I also appreciate and share the frustrations American Jews who attempt to engage with Israelis have with the way Israelis do not understand American Jews, but that isn’t the problem right now).

One of my cousins expressed the following to me in frustration at the non-understanding of life in Israel: “In order to understand what we are going through, you need to live here.”

You aren’t about to move to Israel, but can I make the following suggestion, please? Turn off the TV news for a while and spend some time reading.

Two of the major Israeli newspapers have English editions, and there are two English-language daily newspapers. Their perspectives span the political spectrum from Haaretz on the “left” to Ynet and The Jerusalem Post on the “right”. Television news is all about pictures and creating outrage because that’s how TV news gets engagement and ratings. Yes, the talking heads say something, but that’s only to fill the time while showing you the juiciest pictures they have. My cousin having to push my 91-year-old aunt into a bomb shelter multiple times a day every time there’s a rocket attack from either Hamas or Hezbollah does not make exciting television.

Here are the homepages of the English-language Israeli newspapers:

Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/

The Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/

The Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news

Ynet: https://www.ynetnews.com/

Bonus tip: 

Before you Jewsplain Israel to an Israeli it might be worthwhile asking a few questions to understand the perspective of the person you’re engaging with. You may be speaking to someone you virulently disagree with. You may, alternatively, be engaging with someone who has a very similar value system to you but has a different and highly informed perspective. You may learn something from that perspective. Remember, the person you’re engaging with is ducking into air raid shelters multiple times a day to dodge missile attacks, and you aren’t. However, you are definitely speaking to someone who knows a considerable amount more than you do about the situation, so ask some questions and take advantage of the opportunity to learn something before you tell them that they’re wrong.

Also, if you would like a more nuanced set of news sources and perspectives about the situation from outside the Israeli press, here are some suggestions:

The Economist: https://www.economist.com/israel-hamas

Barak Ravid – Axios’s Israel correspondent: https://www.axios.com/authors/barak_ravid

Lawfare: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/topics/armed-conflict

Lawfare specializes in coverage of national security law, so if you genuinely want to understand what may or may not constitute a war crime, this is the place to go.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) – Since Hamas is an Iranian client, they have extended the scope of their daily “Iran update” to cover the current conflict. Here is the link to today’s update – you can find the link to the current day’s update from their home page:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-november-13-2023