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What Connects Me So Strongly To Israel Is The Fact That I'm Second Generation. My Parents Said, "we Have A Place Where We Can Just Be Ourselves And Nobody Says, 'don't Tell Me Your Opinion, You Damn Jew, Go Somewhere Else.'" Then You Go To This Country And Other Jews Tell You To Shut Up. It's Frustrating. I Think That We Have A Bad Government And That Some People Are Fearful. They're Going With The Class Bully. But I Really Truly Believe - You Read It In My Stories - That Deep Inside, People Have Goodness.

-Etgar Keret

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What Connects Me So

Etgar Keret

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What Connects Me So Strongly To Israel Is The Fact That I'm Second Generation. My Parents Said, "we Have A Place Where We Can Just Be Ourselves And Nobody Says, 'don't Tell Me Your Opinion, You Damn Jew, Go Somewhere Else.'" Then You Go To This Country And Other Jews Tell You To Shut Up. It's Frustrating. I Think That We Have A Bad Government And That Some People Are Fearful. They're Going With The Class Bully. But I Really Truly Believe - You Read It In My Stories - That Deep Inside, People Have Goodness.

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In Israel, There Is This Reduction Of The Political Discourse To Something That Is Very Limited. It's As If You Have That Pitch That Only Dogs Can Hear. Sometimes I Feel I Speak At Such A Pitch That Very Few People Around Me Communicate With What I'm Saying.

You'll Never Know What's Happening Inside The Heads Of Other People.

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Generally, All My Life, I Have Had Strong Friction With Life - I Was A Problematic Soldier, I Was Kicked Out Of The Army, I Was In Fights. There Was Something About Writing That Was A Way Of Experimenting With This Emotion.

I Have To Admit That Talking Authoritatively About My Students' Stories Can Make Me Feel, At Times, Like An Astronaut Who Has Just Landed On A New Planet And Insists On Giving Guided Tours To Its Inhabitants.

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