Zionism Does Not Need an Asterisk
It is absolutely right that American Jews are not subjects of the State of Israel. We do not owe allegiance to any Israeli government (nor do Israeli citizens, who likely would agree with Mark Twain’s definition of patriotism: ‘loyalty to country always, to government when deserved’). Our covenant is with the Jewish people, with Torah, and with the societies in which we live as loyal citizens. That distinction matters and should never be blurred.
But the current moment asks something more and different of us.
The challenge facing American Jewish Zionism today is not primarily that too many Jews are confusing support for Israel with support for its government. It is that Israel’s very legitimacy, not merely its policies, is increasingly under assault. In that context, the instinctive addition of “but of course I oppose the current government” or “but of course my Zionism is critical” can unintentionally concede the rhetorical ground before the conversation has even begun.
Of course my Zionism is morally accountable. Of course Jewish power must answer to Jewish ethics. Of course the prophets still speak.
But that has always been true.
The first thing I want to say today is not an apology for Zionism. It is an affirmation of it.
Zionism is not the current leadership of the State of Israel, which of course merits significant criticism, at the very least.
Zionism is the modern expression of Jewish peoplehood, the rebirth of Jewish collective dignity after centuries of statelessness, and the conviction that Jews have the same right to collective existence as every other people.
Once that is established, we can and should argue about governments, wars, settlements, occupation, constitutional reform, Palestinian rights, and the moral obligations of sovereignty. We (Israelis and Jews around the world, together comprising Am Yisrael) should argue vigorously.
But I worry that American Jews increasingly feel compelled to begin every public affirmation of Israel with a disclaimer, as though support for Jewish self determination is presumptively suspect unless immediately qualified.
That rhetorical posture weakens rather than strengthens the Zionist center.
The irony is that Zionism itself has always contained self-critique. Ahad Ha’am, Buber, Kaplan, Rav Kook, Ben-Gurion, Greenberg, and countless others understood that Jewish sovereignty would create unprecedented moral responsibilities. Self-accountability is woven into Zionism’s DNA. It does not need to be imported from outside.
So yes, American Jews are not subjects of Israel. But neither are we detached observers.
We are part of one Jewish people whose fate remains profoundly intertwined with the existence of the Jewish state. That relationship demands independence of judgment. It also demands solidarity.
In this historical moment, I believe our first obligation is not to reassure the world that we are critical enough. It is to state, without apology, that the Jewish people’s return to sovereign life in our ancestral homeland remains a profound moral and historical achievement.
Everything else follows from there.
