Mrs. Felisa used to sew on Wednesdays at my girlfriend's house. A preacher and Catholic, one afternoon she let go of the needle when she learned that Jesus Christ was Jewish. For God's sake: he couldn't believe it. I still remember when in Spain on Maundy Thursday he went out on the balcony to "kill Jews" by swinging the racket without having any idea.
But being Jewish, like being Arab, or European, etc., is an apparently clear, but actually complex concept. When we talk about the "Western world", or the "Arab world", or the "international community", what do we mean? Iran or Afghanistan are not "Arab" and Australia or Japan are not "Western". The Philippines and Ethiopia are Christian, but not "Western". It is the same today with the concepts of gender. It is clear what "being gay" is, but we find it hard to believe, like Ms. Felisa, that a gay man can fall in love with a woman, as sometimes happens. It's easy to get lost in the categories. And one or one is not his name, nor are things his name. But politics and communication confuse it and we all live in the maze of identity.
Culture is a permanent reconstruction of the categories by which we judge things. If I have to address the person in charge of "human resources" it will be less welcoming than if I have to speak to the person in charge of "human values", because no one is a "resource" for anyone else. But the critical intelligence, the one that eats the "artificial intelligence", has the cultural role of constantly denying that the name does the thing and that each person is the label with which he is classified and that he alone to believe
And since the war in Israel will not end until the Western powers come to an agreement, it is useful today to ask ourselves how we should refer to the parties in conflict. Palestine is not Hamas or Israel its extreme right. Neither one is the East nor the other is the West. For now, the political classification of states and peoples can only be between those who defend human rights and adhere to international law and those who do not. The latter are without exception dictatorships.
