Saturday, October 9, 2010

Are Americans Jews Tired of Israel?

The High Holiday season is traditionally a time of contemplation, and often our thoughts turn to Israel, which, as Rabbi Geoff Basik of the Kol HaLev Synagogue Community puts it, is “the major project of the Jewish people.”

But are American Jews simply tired of Israel? Only 62 years after the Jewish state’s founding, are its biggest supporters and cheerleaders running out of steam? Or can Israel still do no wrong in the eyes of most American Jews?

For years now — some would say decades — a phenomenon referred to as “Israel fatigue” has crept into American Jewish life, say some observers. The tolls of an intractable conflict and the frustrations with some of Israel’s foreign policies and internal decisions have left some Jews at an impasse, weary of continuing to wage battle for a cause they often struggle to recognize. Worse yet, some American Jews openly view Israel as a bully and scoff at its onetime image as an underdog.

Read it all here.

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