David Marchese

And when you talk about the process, you're specifically referring to the building of settlements in the West Bank?

Yeah, that's part of it, of course.

That's a big part of it.

You know, it connects for me to this sort of illusion that I think is pervasive, and it's an illusion of collective responsibility, the illusion that all Israelis are in some way responsible for the actions of Netanyahu's government or the IDF, or the illusion that...

all Palestinians are supporters of Hamas or might be terrorists.

What might we do with that illusion?

Is that just a fact of politics that individuals are ascribed responsibility that might not apply?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

I think people can often conceive of the conflict as being thousands of years old, when the reality is it's a little over 100 years old.

And there's a long history of what you just described, of a different kind of living in that region of the world than today.

than I think is often assumed to be the case.

That's perverse.

Well, you know, what you're describing is Zionism.

Can you talk about what your personal experience is of Zionism as a political project?

I think there is a lot of debate and discussion about the extent to which Zionism and Judaism are intertwined.

And also, then it ends up getting into questions of whether criticism of Zionism is de facto anti-Semitic.

But my sense is that it's not that difficult for you to separate the political project of Zionism from feelings about the Jewish people.

You know, you write at length about your friendship with a Jewish Israeli, Henry Abramovich.

Are there aspects of your friendship with Henry that might serve as a model for larger groups of people in their political relationships?

When have your friendships with Jewish Israelis been most severely tested?