As a Jewish person via my maternal grandmother (technically that makes me fully Jewish, though my family background is an immensely complicated mixture taking in Scottish, German, Jamaican, and of course English), and as someone who has visited Israel more times than I can remember (I had a lot of work trips there in my former TV days), I unrepentantly and emphatically have Israeli interests at heart. I also emphatically want the best for the Palestinians. The current Israeli government is helping neither.

I could give you tons of examples from the comparatively trivial (the soul-crushing bureaucracy of the Ministry of Interior, of which my Israeli best friend and her Finnish husband have bitter personal experience) to the more serious (such as recent attacks from far right Jewish groups on Armenians, which threatens another great Israeli friend of mine, of Armenian descent). That's without getting into the bigger, extremely complicated questions of who is right and wrong (neither side is blameless). Suffice it to say, as the Bible instructs, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I ultimately place my trust in God to bring that peace, as he is above politics, media bias, religious propaganda (again, from both sides), and so forth.

To your other comments, I want to visit Krakow some day, and yes, I'd want to visit Auschwitz. My parents had that opportunity and told me how sobering it was.

I hope you do give Schindler's List another watch, when you feel able. To my mind, the film is above the current political situation in Israel, and the message is important, empowering, and relevant to many situations in life, not just those that affect Jewish people. :)