JStreetJive: Giving Us The Skinny On.....Us!

    JStreetJive is a blog that covers the new "pro-Israel?" organization JStreet.  One wonderful quote that is listed in the margins of the blog is:

"I can't help fearing that the Zionist enterprise will one day be seen to have done the Jewish people more harm than good. Our tenacious hold on this strip of homeland has become the scapegoat for the world's terrorism and this wouldn't be the case if we remained a people of the diaspora." --
Ayelet Waldman

I am so glad that Ms. Waldman made this statement.  It clearly shows the ignorance and confusion that is going on amongst some of Diaspora Jewry, and the leadership that perpetuate it.  Israel is the only country in the world that will accept Jews-unconditionally.  The PBS documentary Albert Einstein:  How I See The World describes how even Einstein, the most illustrious scientist of his times, struggled to have Jews admitted to America during The Second World War.  Such is not the case in the "Zionist enterprise," as it is sarcastically described by Ayelet Waldman. 
    Ms. Waldman's comments are, however, familiar to me.  In my discussions with Jews around the U.S., some have voiced a veiled feeling that the State of Israel is a threat to their identity and presence as Diaspora Jews.  When I studied Hebrew with a beginning congregation in Northern Virginia, I got a strong feeling that some of the congregants deeply resented Israel.  They perceived the government of Israel as being difficult with regard to the "Palestinian" issue.  More significantly, they were all deeply rooted in America-its land, history, and ideals.  Being a Jew meant being associated with something (Israel/Zionism) that could only put a barrier between then and the bosom of their beloved native born country.  I think that this last point-the identity of Diaspora Jewry is a major factor to consider when weighing the meaning of Waldman's statement.
    Certainly the final words of her statement "this wouldn't be the case if we remained a people of the Diaspora," is the most ludicrous aspect of her comment.  When Jews stayed in Germany and the rest of Europe, they were decimated by murder.  Not that Jews remain in the U.S., they are being decimated by assimilation, which has been fueled by the Haskala (the Jewish Enlightenment) and by weak, selfish, self-serving, heretical leaders.