Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

“American Zionism is in a downward spiral”, argues Peter Beinart in an article titled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment” which recently appeared in the New York Review of Books. According to Beinart, fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists – particularly in the younger generation. This trend will only be exacerbated unless Israelis and American Jews take joint action.

According to Beinart, one reason for this growing rift is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinians and its Arab citizens. He summarizes: “For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.” The great American Jewish challenge of our age, therefore, is “saving liberal Zionism in the United States—so that American Jews can help save liberal Zionism in Israel.”

Part of Beinart’s analysis is related to Reut’s conceptual framework regarding Israel‘s relations with the Jewish World. For decades, Israel was struggling to exist, and a “rich uncle-poor nephew” relationship has emerged. Jews around the world assumed the role of helping their ‘poor nephew’, and Israelis in turn learned to depend on this help.  But today, being relatively secure and prosperous, Israelis need to think in a way they are not accustomed to: what can we do to preserve liberal Zionism, so that support for Israel in the US does not become a partisan issue?

In this context, we should keep in mind that this is not a solely Israeli or American problem. We are all responsible for defining the nature of this relationship.