“Zionism leverages the bravery of the Hasmoneans, but tries to get us to forget the corruption and decline of their ruling class once empowered…”

Zionism — and, here, I mean especially the muscular Zionism of the Six-Day War, the Zionism of power and permanence, with its hints of completing the narrative of Jewish unsettledness—asks so much of us. This Zionism asks of us that the Judaism of wandering that is such a central part of our traditions and our history come to an end. Zionism leverages the bravery of the Hasmoneans, but tries to get us to forget the corruption and decline of their ruling class once empowered; it hearkens to the messianic sovereignty of the Davidic Kings, but asks us to stop the clock of our mythic rerendering in the brief idyllic years of Solomon rather than in the (inevitable) divisive, conflict-ridden shitshow that immediately follows.

Yehuda Kurtzer, “Unsettled”, Tablet (5 June 2017) [http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/235527/unsettled-2]