Conservative: Israelis a Literary ‘Crime’? Popular novelist R.F. Kuang is in an “awkward situation” as she “faces a serious allegation” that “she is giving credence to the idea that Israeli people exist,” because her latest book “includes a page with an Israeli character,” snarks Commentary’s Seth Mandel . Though she gives the character a “negative portrayal,” including any Jewish Israelis is “still a woke infraction.” Past critical outrage moved another “author to bowdlerize her own book