“Your fellow is your mirror. If your own face is clean, so will be the
image you perceive. But should you look upon your fellow and see a
blemish, it is your own imperfection that you are encountering—you
are being shown what it is that you must correct within yourself.”

—Ba’al Shem Tov

The Ba’al Shem Tov, an eighteenth-century Jewish sage, is credited with these words of wisdom. It is easy to find fault in others, to criticize and thereby differentiate ourselves from those whose beliefs and practices we deplore. But beware, the Ba’al Shem Tov warns; when you find fault with others, it may well be your own imperfections you see. Sigmund Freud, in his theory of the narcissism of minor differences, offers a very similar insight (although he does not credit the earlier sage), suggesting that we often project negative feelings onto others who in fact resemble us. These ideas, their similarities, and the fact that they are traced to both religious and secular sources stand as a metaphor for the story that unfolds in the course of this book. It is a story about settlement in Israel, about antagonism between Israelis, and a story of the discomfort arising through that antagonism.

Because the book emerges from a place of discomfort it has been the kind of work that led some to ask why I was writing it and others to suggest abandoning the project. But throughout the process that eventually led to this volume, family, friends and colleagues provided . . .