Sunday 22 April 2018

Dear Natalie Portman, your liberal Zionism won't save your Jewish values

My latest at Patheos - a letter to the Hollywood actress Natalie Portman

Here's an extract:

If you continue to see Zionism as essentially liberal and progressive you will never understand why it creates in your own words; “violence, corruption, inequality, and abuse of power”. The current Israeli government is not an aberration. When Netanyahu falls, Zionism with all of its violence, corruption and inequality will stay put.
So yes, please snub the Genesis Prize and refuse to go to Israel. But don’t do it in the name of liberal Zionism and don’t defend a fictional Israel that deep down embodies your Jewish values. It doesn’t and it never did. You have to push past it if you want to protect the Jewish values that matter to you.

Read the full letter at Patheos


And you may have missed my previous post to mark Israel's 70th anniversary. You can read it here.

1 comment:

  1. Steve Greenfield1 May 2018 at 20:24

    What is your counterproposal to liberal Zionism? Return to traditional diaspora? How do we un-do Israel? Or, if you're leaving Israel in place because there's no way to get Israelis to do otherwise, are you proposing ending Jewish identification with Israel, and just treat it as any other country, where we diaspora Jews are the ones with "Jewish values," and the Zionists are some new religion or culture derived from our ancient common theological origin, like the Christians and the Muslims? So we have Jews, Zionists, Muslims, and Christians? I truly can't tell where you'd go with Part Two. So far all you've done is identify Portman as well-meaning but naive. Why should we not feel the same way about you? Thanks.

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