Subsidizing The End Of Zionism

While Israel's defenders like to say, because it's true, that it's the only democracy in the Middle East, that doesn't mean it looks like any other. For instance, In Israel, separation of church and state, not so much. As the New York Times reports, the government pays millions a year to male haredim, or ultra-orthodox Jews, to study and pray instead of working. This category of Torah believers makes up nearly 10% of Israel's 7.5 million people. Some 60% of male haredim don't work at all.

For any number of reasons, the practice is being criticized by Israeli secularists and even a few haredim leaders themselves. But if you think one of the problems is that Israel is undermining the peace process by subsidizing religious extremists, think again. Most of of the haredim aren't Zionists. They don't believe Israel can truly be reconstituted as a nation until the Messiah comes. And guess what parts of Israel's population are growing fastest?:

If current trends continue, [an Israeli research institute] said, 78 percent of primary school children in Israel by 2040 will be either ultra-Orthodox or Arab.

When they reach voting age, what then?

Blaming (Or Crediting) The Protestants

The "Economist" on the Puritan roots of U.S. support for Israel:

[The pro-Israel group] AIPAC would... wield much less influence inside the 21st-century beltway if the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts hadn’t thought of themselves as reenacting the exodus of the Hebrews from bondage in ancient Egypt. When William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower in 1620, he quoted Jeremiah: "Come let us declare in Zion the word of God." Years later, Cotton Mather spoke of the colonies as "an instrument" of the Almighty in establishing "Israel in America". These ideas entered into America’s cultural bloodstream a very long time ago, and they continue to play a crucially important role in predisposing the American people (the vast majority of whom, it should go without saying, are not Jewish) to be receptive to appeals on behalf of the more recently established Zion in the Middle East.

What Israel?

Visit Israel, and you'll learn that its people don't agree on what it stands for. Religion? Ethnicity? Zionism? Democracy? Making sure the Holocaust never recurs? Behaving better than its enemies? More on the question from an LA Times article about Benyamin Netanyahu's effort to persuade the Palestinians to recognize Israel as Jewish state:

Even Israelis don't agree on what "Jewish state" should mean, Palestinians say. Secular Israelis worry such terminology would increase the mix of religion and state. Many Orthodox Jews, meanwhile, believe the Torah forbids the formation of a Jewish state until the arrival of the Messiah. The lack of consensus is one of the reasons Israel never drafted a constitution.

Gospel According To Matthew

After a week in Israel and the West Bank, Matthew Yglesias sums up the holy mother of all political conflicts:

I basically buy the fundamental conceit of secular Zionism and want to see a homeland for the Jewish people. I think the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza are unjust and that the former is killing Zionism as a project to boot. I’m much more skeptical about the efficacy and morality of force as a tool of policy than are Israel or Hamas. I’m convinced that a peace deal is within reach in the short term if Israel is willing to take risks, and I think Israeli politicians and the Israeli public are gripped by a risk-aversion that if not checked will likely lead to national suicide.

That's Why They Call It Zionism

Speaking with U.S. Jewish leaders, Benyamin Netanyahu says Palestinians' recognition of Israel's Jewish identity is essential:

Netanyahu described Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as a key to peace. He said that when Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, he’s willing to recognize Palestine as the homeland of the Palestinians and Palestinians can immigrate there, but not to Israel, which is the homeland of the Jews. Netanyahu also said that there was not space inside Israel for sub-homelands, saying Israel's non-Jewish minority (Israel's Arab population) has full equal rights but could no demand national rights of their own.