The young progressives do not have this luxury. They inherited a form of Judaism that already incorporated Israel into its theology. They do not know how to be Jews without engaging Israel. Yet the content of their broader theology — their beliefs about Jewish morality and tikkun ‘olam — make support of Israel difficult or even repugnant.
Their solution — their Jewish, progressive, sincerely felt solution — is to express their belief in social justice by criticizing or condemning Israel for its failures of equality, liberty, dignity and human rights.
What is this supposed to mean? He won't come out and say he doesn't approve of the security fence, doesn't approve of the checkpoints and might think that 12.5 million Palestinians should be given Israel citizenship, and are suffering under Apartheid.
But how is Israel even remotely responsible for the position Palestinians find themselves in? They have rejected a half a dozen peace offers, spent the last 100 years trying (and succeeding) to kill Jews and Israelis, but this joker thinks Israel is failing at "equality, liberty, dignity and human rights". Fuck that shit. Again, he refuses to state what his expectations are, because he knows he's promoting some far leftist bullshit. The reality is that Israel most certainly embodies the values of equality, liberty, dignity and human rights. He can't see that because he doesn't want to, his made up progressive ideology gets in the way.
If there are "progressive Jews" who actually think that:
"criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian cause is the essence of their progressive Jewish self-expression"
then they (and the author) need to dig a little deeper into Jewish thought because what they are practicing isn't Judaism. Israel and Zionism didn't just start with "progressive" European Jews and Zionists, it started in the Torah, which makes it clear that Israel is a foundational aspect of the religious tradition known as Judaism. He and these so called young progressive Jews need a effing Jewish education, which they are clearly lacking.
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