“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 […] continued…
“Religious Zionism, the brand of Zionism that benefited the most from the triumph in the 1967 war, is the strangest hybrid of all”
Religious Zionism, the brand of Zionism that benefited the most from the triumph in the 1967 war, is the strangest hybrid of all. An ideology that seeks to bridge traditional, lived Judaism and the political revolution of modern Zionism is predicated on the decidedly untraditional idea that Judaism as we know it can be corrected: […] continued…
“…how did a people that envisions itself in prayer as a community of tents, itinerant in the wilderness, become so fixated on construction projects?”
The fact that Oz is an outspoken opponent of occupation and the policies required to attend to it cements his bona fides in making this argument, which is the strongest I know against the moral perversity of the kinds of anti-Zionism that discredit the right of Jews to a nation-state and that subject Israel to […] continued…
“There are a lot of vigorously debated hypotheses about why American Jews appear to be distancing themselves from Israel”
There are a lot of vigorously debated hypotheses about why American Jews appear to be distancing themselves from Israel. Is it the policies of the government and the cover given to them by the Jewish “establishment?” Is it the naïve embrace by American Jews of the feel-good liberalism of tikkun olam that makes them oblivious, […] continued…
“The people of Israel will not prove itself worthy of its land by listing more companies on NASDAQ or with an increased number of start-ups…”
The State of Israel exists, first and foremost, as the nation-state of the Jewish people, not because the Jewish people is particularly deserving or fit for it, but by the grace of God toward a people that suffered unspeakable and interminable cruelty. But just as God, in His grace, took the land from the Emorites […] continued…
“The Zionist movement succeeded in creating a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel over sixty years ago”
The Zionist movement succeeded in creating a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel over sixty years ago. Its current challenge is to become a truly liberal democratic country of all its citizens and work towards peace with a homeland for the Palestinian people in Palestine. It is immoral to deny the […] continued…
“…for those who believe that a two-state solution is in the best interest of Israel, the Palestinians and the world, how exactly is one able to oppose settlement expansion without being labeled anti-Israel?”
For progressively-minded Zionists, our love for Israel is not the same as blanket support for every policy of Israel’s government. There are times — be it on matters of religious pluralism or, in the case of the last few weeks, the settlements — when American Jews believe that the present policies of the Israeli government […] continued…
“…by denying liberal principles, Zionism immediately becomes continuous with…the anti-Semitic politics of the sort promoted by the alt-right”
…by denying liberal principles, Zionism immediately becomes continuous with — rather than contradictory to — the anti-Semitic politics of the sort promoted by the alt-right. The idea that Israel is the Jews’ own ethnic state implies that Jews living outside of it — say, in America or in Europe — enjoy a merely diasporic existence. […] continued…
“…the comparison between the alt-right’s white-Christian ethnic politics and the Jewish State is not just misleading, but sinister”
It is important to emphasize that, in some crucial respects, the comparison between the alt-right’s white-Christian ethnic politics and the Jewish State is not just misleading, but sinister. The history of the Jews — a tiny minority that has faced persecutions, pogroms and the Holocaust — isn’t analogous to that of white Christians. This is […] continued…
“Bannon and the Trumpian right have discovered what Jews have known for a century: That Zionism is built, in part, on the rejection of Diaspora Jewish identity”
Bannon and the Trumpian right have discovered what Jews have known for a century: That Zionism is built, in part, on the rejection of Diaspora Jewish identity. That’s especially true today, as a rising Orthodox population pushes Israel toward greater nationalism and secular millennial Jews push American Jewry further away from nationalism. The real question […] continued…
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