A 
Zionism and Israel is sold to Jews and the world like it’s a solution, it’s our salvation, it’s our ‘just in case’ that Jews ‘need’ it. The reality is Israel is nothing more than a larger Pale of Settlement. A bigger Jewish ghetto. Israel prevented Jews returning to Europe after the Shoah, which enabled Europe to not have to provide restitution to survivors. It meant they got rid of more Jews, even from UK & America & Russia - the Allies - permanently. It serves antisemitism.
The less people interact with us, know us, and we don’t interact with others, the more dangerous the world is for us, the more we are seen as strange.
I worked for a Jewish educator who told me they pride themselves on doing the rituals & burdens as these things distinguish us, “set us apart” as if that were a good thing. Our disconnection is made prideful. Vanity.
In my opinion, just being vocal without prejudice, standing up for righteousness without regard for the self, or for merit, is what automatically sets a person apart in the world. We are hated and despised for speaking truth without fear, standing in faith.
It’s not the rituals you do or the sacrifices you make no one gives a fuck about because it makes no real difference in the world. It’s the mercy. It’s the love you give, even to a stranger. It’s the oneness of God you are to recognize.
I hate feeling so separate & apart in the world. All it means are so many are persistent in desiring & maintaining injustice, unapologetically unwilling to do the right thing. It does not make me proud, or feel saved or safe. It makes me feel sad. It makes me feel useless. It makes me sometimes despair. But God lifts me up bc of how mankind set me aside and apart to continue in their evil without accountability.
I am very clear to God, because of how much I’ve been set aside. I am an obvious standout as well as a target.
God has treasured me as we are One.
And I live my life this way because I believe with all my heart that’s what true love is and I choose true love as the most beautiful way. It certainly hasn’t paid in dollar bills, and it’s been brutal, but it has also given me gifts money can’t buy.
Not the least of which is my integrity.
The world rejected & trashed me.
God treasured me.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
@JoBlakely take with a grain of salt, because my perspective is strictly "liminal outsider." but I think it's instructive when you question *why* Jews are the Chosen People.
With some Rabbis it's "we just are, Torah says so, now drop it" and more often it's legalisms and covenants and rituals, plus maybe bloodlines. But all the argumants against your view of Practice boil down to "that would mean we're not inherently superior to the g̶o̶y̶i̶m̶ gentiles." It can indeed be quite sad.
@darcher exactly. It was this discussion about Chosen People with the Jewish School Principal I worked for that struck me as so shallow and vain.
@JoBlakely Ha. I guess I'm not surprised. I was struck as a kid by the kind of shameless Zionist indoctrination my Jewish friends were getting. I'm not sure I would have noticed it if my parents hadn't been anti-Zionist to begin with, but it was pretty striking.
@JoBlakely Maybe it's not so many. Maybe it's that just a few have been insidiously clever about exercising power that the many really are captive, and need a connection to what is good.
@janisf it’s too many.
@JoBlakely I hear you--I just scale down when I feel overwhelmed. I have days where a load of laundry is the accomplishment.
Focus on one, then. The masses will be there when you look up. If we all do that, we'll move the masses, and what we see when we look up will be changed.
⁷ 
Yes, this.
For me, the only light in the darkness is How the beautiful souls of Palestine have freed us all by opening our eyes.
@bunnytown
It’s true. Finally many many people are speaking out on the long suffering of Palestinians and starting to see clearly.