No sympathy

My life would be much easier if I'd learn to keep my mouth shut.

Mac and I were taken out for dinner recently - a rare occurrence and usually a pleasurable one. Not this time.

Half way though the food, the conversation turns to Gaza (I didn't bring up the subject) and our host says: "After Gaza, I have lost all sympathy for the Jews". She meant the Israelis. Of course she meant the Israelis. I quickly corrected her, she accepted it and the conversation moved on. To casualty figures, the number of children killed, the scenes of destruction...

I was in the middle of my dinner. I would have liked to have finished it. But no - we had to have this conversation. Which is a pity, because I had hoped that the tone I'd adopted when correcting our host's initial remark might have been taken as an invitation to change the subject. Unfortunately not.

So I weighed in. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. But, like I said, it's not something I've ever learnt to do.

The thing is, I've come across this formulation before: Because of X [insert action of Israeli government] I have lost all sympathy for the Jews. And, when I hear it I always find myself wondering the same thing: What kind of special sympathy did they have for the Jews anyway?