Deborah Lee Luskin , one of this newspaper's original columnists, blogs at deborahleeluskin.com.
WILLIAMSVILLE-I have three brothers.
One stopped talking to me after I criticized Israel's military response to the terrorist attack of October seventh in my blog. He accused me of being an antisemite, among other names. Another brother has been trying to convince me that Israel is defending its right to exist and civilian casualties are an acceptable part of warfare. My third brother and I continue to be friends and colleagues engaged in the creative arts.
I have three daughters. One thinks Israel should return all its territory to the Palestinians; another participates in Jews for Palestine protests; the third is considering joining the synagogue she occasionally attends. We live with the discomfort of rarely acknowledging the elephant in the room rather than discuss our conflicting opinions.
I'm left feeling isolated and silenced, as if having empathy for both Israelis and Palestinians is unacceptable, and holding both Israel and Hamas accountable for the harm they are causing their civilian populations is unacceptable, as if I have to take a side.
I wonder if I'm the only person on the planet who thinks attempting to quell terrorism with warfare is ineffective, just as terrorism is unconscionable.
I don't like that in the world's view, Israel is seen to represent all Jews; I don't like that all Jews are assumed to be Zionists; and I don't like that many Jews think that for a Jew to be critical of Israel is antisemitic.
But most of all, I don't like that with its bombs and destruction of the people in Gaza, this war has unleashed the ancient and intractable antisemitism that always simmers below a boil around the world.
* * *
In my lifetime, I quelled the generational trauma I inherited from my European grandparents and first-generation American parents. But Israel's ongoing conflict in Gaza has reactivated all the fears cast by the Holocaust. I never thought anything like it could happen again.
But Americans rounded up people of Japanese descent during World War II. And now even Americans - people naturalized, children born here, and people here with legal documentation - are being arrested without warrants, illegally detained, and deported to other countries, to be imprisoned or at risk of violence.
If this can happen to Hispanics and Muslims, it can also happen to Jews - and to those who are non-conforming in any way an authoritarian, autocratic government decides.
So, the short answer to "How does it feel to be Jewish Now?" is the same answer to "How does it feel to be American now?"
Unsafe.
This Voices column by Deborah Lee Luskin was written for The Commons.
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