January / February Edition

In “The Playwright’s Politics,” Tony Kushner says that I and others who have described him as hostile to Israel “work very hard, by taking things out of context, to make you sound nuts.” Really?

Kushner has called Israel’s establishment a “mistake” (Haaretz, April 7, 2004) and stated plainly, “I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state It would have been better if it never happened” (New York Sun, October 14, 2002). He alleged that Israel was involved in “A deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people” (New York Sun, April 4, 2002), and accused the Israeli government of “ethnic cleansing” (Yale Israel Journal, Winter 2005).

Perhaps Kushner can explain how these words and deeds are not hostile to Israel.

Morton A. Klein
National President, Zionist Organization of America
New York, NY