Patriotism Is Not Blind Loyalty: Why Jews Should Challenge Israel to Live Up to Its Highest Values

A profound difference exists between loving one’s country and believing it can do no wrong.
The old slogan, “My country, right or wrong,” asks citizens to put national loyalty above conscience. But that is not the highest form of patriotism. A more meaningful principle is: “The highest form of patriotism is to respectfully challenge your country to live up to its highest values.”

For Jews, this principle has special significance. Jewish history and tradition have never treated moral criticism of those in power as disloyalty. The prophets repeatedly challenged kings, priests and the nation itself when they believed injustice was being committed. Their message was not that the Jewish people were unworthy of their homeland, but precisely the opposite: because Israel was supposed to represent justice and righteousness, its failures had to be confronted.

That principle is particularly relevant today.

Israel’s Moral and International Challenges

Israel is facing serious challenges to its international standing. Among them is continuing violence by extremist Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. Israeli human-rights organization Yesh Din reports that 62.6% of the settler-violence incidents it documented in 2026 occurred in Areas A or B, where Palestinians live under varying degrees of Palestinian jurisdiction. Yesh Din has documented attacks involving assault, shooting, stone-throwing, threats, arson, theft, damage to crops and destruction of property. Their statistics are similar to those from the UN and other organizations.

These are not abstract statistics. They involve attacks affecting Palestinian homes, farms, livestock and livelihoods. The IDF itself has publicly condemned recent incidents in which Israeli civilians entered Palestinian homes and land, describing such activity as illegal and unacceptable.

Palestinian violence against Israelis must also be condemned. Protecting Israeli civilians is an essential responsibility of any government. But condemning Palestinian terrorism does not require Jews to excuse violence committed by Jews. Moral consistency demands opposition to violence regardless of the perpetrator.

Indeed, Jews who care deeply about Israel have a particular reason to speak out.

Silence Does Not Protect Israel

Some Israelis and Jews abroad fear that criticizing Israeli policies gives ammunition to Israel’s enemies or contributes to antisemitism. There is certainly a legitimate concern that Israel’s critics sometimes cross the line from criticism of Israeli policies into hostility toward Jews.

But opposition to antisemitism should never require silence about genuine wrongdoing.
Jews who condemn attacks on Palestinians can demonstrate that Jewish concern for human rights is not conditional upon who is committing the injustice.

When Jewish voices condemn attacks on Palestinians, they make clear that opposition to antisemitism and concern for Palestinian rights are not contradictory. Both can arise from the same principle: every human being deserves dignity, security and justice.

That is deeply consistent with Jewish teachings.

The Torah commands, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” It does not say that justice should be pursued only when the victim is Jewish. The command to love the stranger appears repeatedly in the Torah, accompanied by the reminder that Jews themselves once experienced the vulnerability of being strangers in another land.

And the prophetic tradition repeatedly insists that religious observance without justice is inadequate.

Criticism Can Be an Act of Love

There is nothing inherently anti-Israel about demanding that Israel enforce its own laws against extremist violence.

Quite the contrary.

A country that permits extremists to intimidate, assault or dispossess Palestinians risks weakening the rule of law upon which a democratic state depends. Israeli security forces and authorities have a responsibility to protect Palestinian civilians as well as Israeli citizens.
Speaking out need not mean rejecting Israel. It can mean insisting that Israel be more fully Israel—a Jewish and democratic state committed to security, justice, human dignity and the rule of law.

The distinction between patriotism and nationalism is important here. Nationalism can demand loyalty to the nation regardless of its conduct. Patriotism can demand something more difficult: that the nation live up to its ideals.

For Jews, that second form of patriotism has deep historical roots.

Israel’s International Relationships Matter

There is also a practical dimension.

Israel’s treatment of Palestinians affects its relationships with countries whose cooperation could be strategically and economically important. Saudi Arabia is a particularly significant example.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Muslim governments have repeatedly emphasized Palestinian statehood and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their approach to normalization.
This does not mean that Israeli actions in Judea and Samaria are the sole obstacle to normalization, nor does it guarantee that changing those policies would produce an agreement. Regional politics are complicated, and Saudi leaders have their own strategic calculations.

But it does mean that the treatment of Palestinians is not merely a domestic Israeli issue. It has international diplomatic consequences.

A Jewish state seeking broader acceptance in the Middle East therefore has an interest in demonstrating that Jewish sovereignty can coexist with justice for Palestinians.

Migration Is Another Concern

Israel also has a demographic and social interest in maintaining a society in which people want to live and build their futures.

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s international migration balance was negative by approximately 28,000 people in the year preceding Rosh Hashanah 2025.
Migration decisions are influenced by many factors—security, economic opportunities, family considerations, politics and quality of life. It would therefore be simplistic to attribute emigration to any single Israeli policy.

Nevertheless, a country benefits when its citizens believe that their society is secure, democratic, morally defensible and capable of building a peaceful future.

Israel’s future cannot depend solely on military strength. It also depends on the willingness of Israelis and Jews around the world to defend the values that make Israel worth defending.
What Should Jewish Patriotism Look Like?

Jewish patriotism should therefore reject two extremes.

One extreme says: Israel can do no wrong, and criticism is disloyal.

The other says: Israel’s failures invalidate the legitimacy of the Jewish state itself.

Neither position is necessary.

There is a third path: love Israel enough to challenge it when it falls short of its highest ideals.

That means condemning terrorism against Israelis and violence against Palestinians. It means opposing antisemitism while also opposing discrimination and injustice. It means supporting Israel’s security while recognizing that Palestinian security and dignity are also essential to a durable peace.

And it means believing that Jewish sovereignty should ultimately be accompanied by Jewish responsibility.

The Jewish people have survived for thousands of years not because Jews were taught to accept injustice silently, but because Jewish tradition cultivated people willing to challenge injustice—even when doing so was uncomfortable.

Israel does not need Jews who will say, “My country, right or wrong.”

It needs Jews who will say something more constructive:

“My country is precious to me—and precisely because I love it, I will respectfully challenge it to live up to the highest values of Judaism, democracy, and human dignity.”

That is not betrayal.

It may be the highest form of patriotism.