The kippah in the confessional

This is lifted from Stephanie Rhodes' blog -- with permisison, of course. You should just bookmark her blog so you can keep checking back and getting her take on life in the occupied territories:

"Here's the hardest thing for me about being in palestine: i don't identify with the palestinians.

i identify with the jews.

more specifically, i identify with the israeli leftists who use their privileged identities to call for an end to the occupation.

as the southern white girl, i identify with the unwitting occupiers. the ones who abhor the system and look with guilt at their undeserved privilege. that sense that, whether i wanted this privilege or not, i have it because of what my people did to their people.

it reminds me of standing outside the national civil rights museum in memphis. for those of you who've never been, just walking to the entrance is an incredibly visceral experience. you literally happen upon the assassination scene, and it's tough to be prepared. i remember fighting back tears as i looked at it. i fought them back because i was embarrassed, because i didn't feel entitled to such an emotional response. i felt like the good white liberal who, nice as she was, just didn't get it.

what the hell did i have to be crying about, except maybe guilt. guilt that masks all the ways i don't work to end racism and white privilege. i don't do much about it, but man do i feel bad about it.

the more courageous israelis here remind me of the white person that i want to be."