Plug o’ th’ Day: Treppenwitz’s Shifting Perspective

Treppenwitz does not, I suspect, need any help from me in attracting readers to his blog. Nonetheless, I’d like to recommend a post of his on the perspective shift between seeing Arabs as a faceless, undifferentiated, enemy collective, and a more complex view that recognizes their human individuality without glossing over the real hostility and conflicting interests between Palestinian Arab and Israeli Jew. Trying to maintain this kind of perspective – avoiding the simplistic “enemy Arab” stereotype without becoming caught up in the equally simplistic “noble oppressed innocent Arab” stereotype (or, if you like, balancing between the gravitational fields of Planet Yitzar and Planet Sheinkin) – is one of the most difficult mental feats for me; but I believe it’s a challenge all Israelis and Palestinians need to address if we’re ever going to lift ourselves out of our current quagmire and move forward into our next quagmire. Enjoy!