Dear Duha,

Thank you for your beautiful letter. As I was reading your words from the heart, I felt that it was worth writing this book, if only to get your response. 

I especially appreciated your observation that I tried to be sensitive to Palestinian suffering even as I was explaining what my own people has experienced.

For me, the key to the success of this work is genuine empathy — the ability to care about your neighbor’s life. I feel deeply that our future depends on that empathy. 

The world situation only reinforces how entwined we are with each other, even if we are separated by borders and walls. The coronavirus has reminded us how fragile we all are, and how we all breathe the same air and share the same fate. 

With blessings and with the hope that you stay safe  

Yossi

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Dear Duha,

Thanks so much for your follow-up letter, which I appreciated as I did your first response. 

You note that I didn’t deal with the Deir Yassin massacre in my book. Perhaps I should have gone more deeply into the history of 1948, when there were massacres committed by both sides against each other’s civilians. One of the ways in which both sides distort the past is by only focusing on massacres that happened to them, and ignoring the massacres that their side did to the other. 

I share your hope and prayer that we look more to the future than the past. 

Blessings to you and your family –

Yossi