Trying to navigate a changed Jewish landscape (part 1)
In the small Jewish community of my childhood, it was simply taken for granted that Jews were Zionists.
That's
no longer necessarily the case. If my personal experience of recent
years is any indication, it's becoming more and more difficult to find
Zionist Jews under the age of 45.
Naturally,
our 36-year-old son had an explanation. (Be careful what you complain
about, and/or to whom you complain). It's one of many explanations, no
doubt, so if you have another one, feel free to post it in the
comments.
According to our son, the
status of the West Bank would have been settled decades ago if Israel had simply declared the entire West Bank to be part of Israel when they first
conquered it, because that approach would have forced the former "owners" to negotiate. But
because Israel itself has always considered the West Bank "disputed
territory," the creation or enlargement of "settlements" is viewed as an
invasion.
posted by Shira Salamone at 10:09 PM
7 Comments:
Correct. I won't engage with the Progressive Left because they are anti-Israel. With their brand of intersectionality, if you want to close the detention centers (which Obama used quite frequently too), you have to be anti-Israel. The hell with that.
My perspective is that this is like working with members of other parties in a legislative body--if you don't work with people with whom you disagree, you may find it difficult to accomplish anything.
I’m going to offer a different explanation from your son’s for the anti-zionism we see in younger Jews. The narrative, too often used by the preceding generation, that Israel exists because Jews need a place they could flee in case anything like the holocaust should happen again, and the notion that Israel’s raison d’etre is the holocaust itself does not sit well with the younger generation that wants to believe they are safe. They are rebelling against the notion that they are not safe and have been trained that Israel is a manifestation of that very lack of safety. So they demonize it, so they do not have to think about the Shoah.
As for intersectionality, well, these idiots conveniently forget that the majority culture of the region is Arab-Muslim, and that Palestinians are members of that majority culture that has been carrying out an extended attack on the nation of the Jewish minority culture since even before the State was founded. And good luck pointing that out, I get called a bigot whenever I do.
The thing I love about Neo-Nazis is that I van oppose them on everything they stand for, but this new brand of useful idiot has stolen my liberalism from me.
Richard, it's past my bedtime, and I'm too tired to look up the instructions that a blogger gave me years ago for creating a link in a comment, but I recommend this distressing article: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/289871/democratic-party-becoming-unsalvageable
"The narrative, too often used by the preceding generation, that Israel exists because Jews need a place they could flee in case anything like the holocaust should happen again, and the notion that Israel’s raison d’etre is the holocaust itself does not sit well with the younger generation that wants to believe they are safe. They are rebelling against the notion that they are not safe and have been trained that Israel is a manifestation of that very lack of safety. So they demonize it, so they do not have to think about the Shoah."
Richard, I would like to post just one major detail--Hertzl's idea in proposing a Jewish state was to try to *prevent* a holocaust! If the State of Israel had existed in the 1930s, the Shoah might never have happened, or, at least, would probably have resulted in the deaths of far fewer Jews.
I know. But try telling that to people who deny the holocaust because they don’t want to believe its repeatability.
Thanks it echoes what I think. Betty McCollum has gotten bad enough that I might just need to throw some Benjamins at her opponent.
Oh, oops! I rarely have plural Benjamins. Maybe Ilhan Omar will lend me her copy of the Protocols so I can learn how to get my Jew-gold.
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