Dangerous myths have grown up among the American Jewish community, myths that are totally detached from the reality in Israel, the day to day life, the complexity, the diversity. When one’s view of Israel is entirely a view of the European-origin old elites, one has as ill an understanding of the country than someone who thought the whole of US history was related to George Washington. For instance how many of those in this formerly-Shavit worshipping group know that 850,000 Israelis attended the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and only 50,000 came to see Peres. More than ten times more for a rabbi than a president. Not because of schadenfreude is it a good thing that Shavit myth has been broken, but because it’s time for people to start asking hard questions and have a complex understanding of Israel. Not a “complex” relationship, wrestling with Israel, as they often want to have, but rather an acceptance that the stories about the nostalgia for history are wrong, and there is a need to have a mature relationship with the country and those who “tell its story.”
Seth J. Frantzman, “The American Jewish Community and the Myth of Ari Shavit”, Terra Incognita (30 October 2016) [https://sethfrantzman.com/2016/10/30/the-american-jewish-community-and-the-myth-of-ari-shavit/]