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.”