To the Editors

While you have published several responses to Burston and Nelsons recent article, Burston, D., & Nelson, C. . Under Siege: Political Activism and Psychoanalysis. Free Associations, (89), I felt compelled to add my voice to those that support the scholarship of these two important academics. I have had the privilege of meeting with these two on a weekly basis over the past year to discuss the impact of the current antisemitism within both academia and psychoanalytic training and theory. Make no mistake, I believe any attempt to extricate anti-Zionism from antisemitism is a false dichotomy and falls apart under the actual lived experience of Jewish people throughout the world.

While my colleagues have done an excellent job of meeting the attacks against them and their integrity in their follow-up comment, I feel compelled to point out and highlight a few other examples of misrepresentation. As I read the critiques, I was struck by a narrative approach that most of the detractors tried to employ. First, you ignore facts that do not fit with your point of view. None of the detractors have directly addressed the hate speech that Dr. Sheehi has regularly encouraged, initiated, supported. If it is acknowledged it is given a pass as the outcome of “occupation”. Which leads to my second point, It is assumed with certainty that Israel is an occupier that has created a settler-colonialist relationship with the Palestinian people. There are no facts that are allowed that dispute this “certainty” so everything that comes from that assumption is fair game. The “big Lie” is that Israel is a powerful world dominating force. Anyone who was not educated in history would assume Israel can control the entire world. The reality is ignored, the psychic fantasy that Sheehi and the like adhere to is that they are powerless and voiceless and unable to get what they want. The projection on this situation is astounding, as here is the reality- there are only 8 million people in Israel, there a