The Closest I'll Get to an Essay About Israel Right Now

 We're kidding ourselves that Israel hasn't been heading the same direction since 1977. They've been pushed this way by worldwide anti-Israel sentiment, but that does not absolve or excuse them any more than it excuses Palestinians or any Arab country. They're heading the same dictator direction every first-world country is, and they're clearly further along the path than nearly anywhere except Italy. The Israel we Day School Jewish kids were all pushed (bullied) into loving as children was always 3/4ths a lie. Anybody with an IQ over 110 even knew it at the time, but what could we do? They weren't wrong that hundreds of millions of people want to kill us, and there's not a single thing we can do to make them stop except go back into the ghettos and camps from which we came, and if that's where we put Palestinians? Well.... better them than us. We didn't undergo what we went through just to lay down our weapons when we know we're all going to die if we don't just because of a .01% chance we're wrong about that. Iran's current missiles and weapons systems are so good now that Russia is buying them to use in Ukraine. Do not think there is no conceivable reason to vote someone like Netanyahu at all.

I'm still a proud Zionist, because I don't see any other option. There isn't a single good political movement on earth that is not eventually perverted into something unholy the moment it evolves in the wrong direction, including liberalism, including the Democratic party. But the idea that Jews should rally behind Israel right now and say that we support Israel in spite of its current authoritarian trend is outrageous.

I will continue to support a liberal vision of Israel wherever I see it. Zionism is not exclusive from liberalism, it is not inherently racist, and the idea of a Jewish state is not exclusionary, it is claiming for the Jews what every other peoplehood on earth takes for granted. The powerful among you never advocated for us, the powerless among you never included us in your demands. You are not us, you do not speak for us, you never wanted to speak to us, and if you claim to speak for us now, we do not believe you.

But anything less than a liberal vision of Israel is destructive to the future of the Jewish people, and can only end in more death - whether that destruction happens now or in 150 years, lapsing into the dysfunction of dictatorship will still shoulder a large share of the blame, and can only end in chaos. So insofar as I can undermine Israel while Netanyahu is still in power, I'll do so happily.

Am Yisrael Chai, and go to hell.