Will the Israeli left embrace Judaism?
That's what a teacher working in Berlin thinks, if leftists want to remain relevant:
As long as the secularist camp enjoyed a clear demographic hegemony, the latter definition of Zionism remained dominant and unchallenged in the corridors of power. Nevertheless, many of Israel’s elites in the early 21st century are no longer secularist as in the 1950s.But is it a good thing? Depending how their approach is built, it'll either recognize the Jews' birthright includes Judea/Samaria/Gaza, or it won't. We have to hope it'll be the former, because if it's not the latter, and it's some belief system that's got a lenient standing on Islamofascism, and the belief in a "palestinian" Arab/Islamic nation, then nothing's been improved at all.
The burgeoning religious and traditionalist sectors have built a flourishing religious education network with flagship schools like Bar-Ilan University, the Shalom Hartman Institute and others. These institutions have strengthened the influence of voices calling for Israel to embrace a traditional Jewish identity neither defined by the secularism of yore or the internationalist post-Zionism that minimizes the particularism of Israel among the family of nations.
In essence, the debate is very simple: On the one hand, the secular left pines for a state as similar as possible to advanced and egalitarian Gentile societies. The religious right, while conscious of the merits of absorbing Gentile wisdom, adamantly insists that a traditional Jewish character needs to lie at the core of the country’s identity.
Now that the “particularistic” camp enjoys a steadily growing demographic majority, the Israeli left has two choices: It can either move to Barcelona and Berlin or it can advance a vision of Judaism with whichi it can identify and a Jewishness able to engage and re-enchant leftist Israeli voters with its arguments.
Although developments in this sphere are still incipient, it is clear that both trends are starting to crystallize.
Labels: Israel, Judaism, Moonbattery, political corruption
