Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens.The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
I used to write a lot more about the Israel/Palestine issue than I do today. My main conclusion from those arguments was that the real dividing line was not sympathy for the Palestinians or support for Israel, but whether you fundamentally understood Israel to be the most powerful country in the Middle East and the stronger party in the struggle with the Palestinians or whether you understood Israel to be a small and threatened nation that was locked in a war for its survival with a powerful enemy.posted by callmejay at 10:22 AM on May 18, 2010 [14 favorites]
This disagreement often falls across generational lines. As Beinart says, young Jews do not remember Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria massing forces in the run-up to the Six-Day War. They do not remember a coalition of Arab forces streaming across the Sinai on Yom Kippur in order to catch the Jewish state by surprise. Their understanding of Israel was not forged watching the weak and threatened state improbably repel the attacks of potent adversaries.
The absence of such definitional memories has contributed to a new analysis of the Israeli situation. Today, Israel is far, far, far more militarily powerful than any of its assailants. None of the region's armies would dare face the Jewish state on the battlefield, and in the event that they tried, they would be slaughtered. Further stacking the deck is America's steadfast support of Israel. Any serious threat would trigger an immediate defense by the most powerful army the world has ever known. In effect, Israel's not only the strongest power in the region, but it has the Justice League on speed dial.
I'm only Jewish via my mother; the trip included a lot of lecturing on the dangers of interfaith marriages and how the children of Christian mothers would never be allowed to make aaliyah.I'm a secular, liberal Jew who ended up randomly working for a mainstream Jewish educational establishment, and I came away with the belief that this is the single biggest issue facing the American Jewish community. It's bigger than Israel, even. They're actively driving away the offspring of interfaith marriages, and they can't stop Jews from intermarrying. It's a recipe for demographic disaster, and I can't understand why they refuse to see it.
"...all proceeds from the show will go to organizations that promote peace...Most of the money will go to the Parents Circle, a joint Israeli-Palestinian group of bereaved parents that helps families from both sides who lost loved ones in the conflict."I'm with Israeli Sports & Culture Minister Limor Livnat on this:
Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, Zionist leadership whose naked hostility to Arabs and Palestinians scares even them, and a mass of secular American Jews who range from apathetic to appalled. Saving liberal Zionism in the United States—so that American Jews can help save liberal Zionism in Israel—is the great American Jewish challenge of our age. And it starts where Luntz’s students wanted it to start: by talking frankly about Israel’s current government, by no longer averting our eyes.He's going to get flamed out of existence by the Right. But this absolutely needs to be said. Heck, it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
Because they marry earlier, intermarry less, and have more children, Orthodox Jews are growing rapidly as a share of the American Jewish population. According to a 2006 American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey, while Orthodox Jews make up only 12 percent of American Jewry over the age of sixty, they constitute 34 percent between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four.WP:
In contrast to the ongoing trends of assimilation, some communities within American Jewry, such as Orthodox Jews, have significantly higher birth rates and lower intermarriage rates, and are growing rapidly. The proportion of Jewish synagogue members who were Orthodox rose from 11% in 1971 to 21% in 2000, while the overall Jewish community declined in number. [49] In 2000, there were 360,000 so-called "ultra-orthodox" (Haredi) Jews in USA (7.2%).[50] The figure for 2006 is estimated at 468,000 (9.4%).[50]
The number of elementary school pupils in the Arab education system has risen 33% in the same period, and in ultra-Orthodox schools the increase was 51%. As of 2008, because of these demographic changes, 48% of all elementary school children were either Arab or Haredi.posted by psyche7 at 1:37 PM on May 18, 2010
"In order for these elementary schoolers to be integrated into the labor market, they must receive an education appropriate to the needs of a modern economy," said Ben-David. "But the situation in Israel is such that the level of elementary education in basic subjects is lower than in the West, and among these two groups it is much lower."
It does mean that I expect Israel not to commit them precisely because their founding citizens were victims themselves and therefore know what it's like to be oppressed.That seems a little psychologically tone-deaf, though. If you knew viscerally that the rest of the world would sit back and do nothing while you and your family were slaughtered, and if you or your very close relatives had actually had the experience of watching your friends and family be so slaughtered, do you think that would make you feel sympathy for your perceived enemies, or do you think it would make you think that you'd better do whatever necessary to protect you and yours?
« Older Yesterday, the New York Times published an investi... | Amazing hailstorm video... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:40 AM on May 18, 2010 [3 favorites]