ISRAEL EXPLAINED TO MY DAUGHTER

“You asked me why I support the Jewish state and why I am ready to put myself in harm’s way to do it. You said that I am not a Jew and that I am not directly concerned. You can see that the Jewish state is criticized, insulted, and vilified, relentlessly, and you think there is a reason for that. You think that many other causes deserve my support, and that my life and yours would be less complicated if I chose another cause and abandoned this one. I'm not a Jew, that’s right, and even if I have the highest respect for Judaism, I have no intention to convert. But, and I insist: it is not necessary to be a Jew to support the Jewish state and to be directly concerned by its fate. Knowing history, having ethical values imply making choices. I know history, I have ethical values; ergo, I made a choice. The Jewish state is criticized, insulted, vilified, relentlessly, and there is a reason for that; that’s right again, but the reason is not the one you may imagine, really not at all. There are undoubtedly many other causes that deserve my support, and they already receive my support, you know it. I support liberty and human rights wherever they are threatened. But it does not mean that I should turn away from the cause of the Jewish state, even if it made my life (and yours) easier. I have to explain”.