Texting across the Arab-Jewish divide
As my city of Jerusalem is consumed by the fire of hatred, it is time for a tale with a glimmer of hope for redemption.
In the days leading up to Yom Kippur, I published a blog post on this site in which I described my feelings of guilt for canceling a taxi at the last minute during the Gaza War, after GetTaxi, the app I had used to order it, let me know that the driver was an Arab. Through a series of text messages, my unsettling account, which could be read on many levels, gave a glimpse into how trauma affects decision-making and culminated with a confessional that included my contrition for the new sin of “race-based fear.”
When I published my post, I thought I was presenting food for thought about power and powerlessness, aggressors and victims, and the tension between morality and self-preservation, whether on the level of individuals or nations. And some of my readers understood. I was particularly touched when a friend whose husband died while preventing a suicide bomber from entering his kibbutz shared my post; it was moving that she, of all people, understood my ambivalence and identified with what I was trying to say.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/of-taxis-terror-and-tikkun/