[…]<\/p>\n

I do not have a positive vision as to what should be here, in terms of political \u201csolutions,\u201d arrangements, et cetera. I do, however, have a very strong sense of what should not be here (for a more detailed list, see: Rothman, Blog About Things That He Thinks Should Not Be, Everyday, All Pages, www.thelefternwall.com). Here\u2019s a metaphor I made up for this friend: let\u2019s say Israel is a garden. There are some people who will try and\u00a0plant flowers of solutions, of development, of progress here in this garden, and I think that is a good thing and I support them. However, I see my role not as planting flowers, but rather as weeding, weeding out violence, weeding out racism, weeding out oppression, weeding out hatred, et cetera. The weeds here have grown quite powerful, and probably by the fault of no single gardener or even group of gardeners but rather by the breezes, rainfalls, insects and chemicals of history and political circumstance. Someone needs to take them out so that there will be room for others to plant the flowers. If you try to plant a flower of \u201csolution\u201d in a garden overrun with weeds of violence or racism, the flower won\u2019t have much of a chance to grow.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I can only imagine good coming out of my articulating for readers what it is I love about living here, whether to complicate the picture for those who are overly-excited\u00a0about Palestine\/Palestinians (if you will notice, I don\u2019t often write positive things about Palestine\/Palestinians either, and I am not a Palestinian Nationalist, even as I support Palestinians\u2019 right to live in freedom, like everyone else), or to clarify for readers who find my work too critical that I truly do what I do out of love and concern, and a desire to build and improve, even if I think that building needs to come from weeding dangerous phenomena (phenomena, and never people […])<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I will indeed make a list of things I really like. Which is fun for me too.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The people.<\/strong>\u00a0In general I\u00a0really like Israeli people, even if I disagree with many of them re: politics\/Palestine. I like their directness, I like their humor, I like their warmth, I like the diversity of history and of journey and of identity and of belief, I like the way we all share a sort of\u00a0nutsness, especially Jerusalemites.<\/p>\n