Sam Green in New Voices, the Jewish student magazine, pleads with anti-Zionists to get in line (and even join J Street):
When the Jewish community would decry anti-Zionism within its own ranks years ago, the target would be a few small ultra-Orthodox sects in Brooklyn awaiting the messianic era; the mainstream American Jewish community could be counted on to support the Jewish state. But when we speak of Jewish anti-Zionism today, we refer to a growing number of secular, disaffected Jews—many of them students—who oppose Israel on what they claim to be a foundation of humanitarian, liberal and democratic politics: a desire to have the Palestinians’ basic human rights respected and for all groups to have a measure of self-determination in the land.
But these students, like one who said—at a Shabbat dinner, no less—that she believes that Israel “shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state,” maintain a confused ideology….
Such anti-Zionist Jews need to rethink their ideology. No matter how disconnected a Jew may feel from the Jewish people or Jewish culture and religion, she should strive to retain some semblance of group identity and belonging. The Jewish communities inside and outside of Israel support each other financially, spiritually, religiously and infrastructurally. Israel needs the Diaspora, and the Diaspora needs Israel.
