A letter from an old friend:

This is from an interview in The New Yorker with Avraham Burg, an Israeli Labour politician who recently recanted his Zionism. He is speaking of his retirement from political strife and his longing for European cosmopolitanism as a relief from Israeli self absorption and fanaticism.

“Life is not just to be a pioneer with a hoe and a bold fighter at Lion’s Gate,” he said. “Life is also to be a merchant in Warsaw. Unequivocally, that is a richer totality in life.”

This from a man who was once Speaker of the Knesset. The rest of the article doesn’t offer much, but this quote: “There’s richer life to be had in being a merchant! It is inexpressibly good.” It’s so rare to see a truth appear in the popular press.

That truth is the same truth that separates red states from blue ones.