Your piece on how do we “make” the young generation become attached to Israel, appreciate and identify with it. etc. is a pressing question. I am one of those old boomers, one year older than the founding of the state, and find myself much less interested , attached to or caring about Israel for all of the reasons you mentioned. How much more so it must be for the younger kids? Sadly Israel has become just another country for many American liberal Jews and in general for the world . And age- old antisemitism has made Israel a pariah, for many of the young.not. And we have our own, constant political turmoil to be confronted with on a daily basis. It’s hard to keep up.
I read Ha aaretz, follow the news daily about Gaza and the West Bank and mostly feel that the Israelis blew it much as we have. For me where Israel was always a fall back, a safe place for all Jews, I’d more likely consider a move to Canada if things got more ugly here in the US. The other important question for all of us Jews now that the cracks have appeared and being Jewish means more than Israeli nationalism as a surrogate religion for some, what does Judaism, as a religion, mean to us.
Can there be a return, a teshuvah , to spirituality here in the diaspora?
I have two seven year old grandchildren. What could Judaism mean for them? Learning Jewish history? Celebrating holidays together? alternative services when they are older as, for example, a group like Wilderness Torah created in the Bay Area or traditional services perhaps?
I don’t have the answers, but the centrality of the state of Israel, while an important part to understand it would not necessarily be paramount. The purpose of its creation for good and ill, has been served. They need to come to terms with their new reality. As do we here in the US.
Complicated and changing times we live in, changing before our very eyes.
you can start by explaining to them that just like America Israel is a democracy that has been taken over by a group of fundamentalists who are out of step with the values that created it. Remind them that over 40% of Israeli voters did not vote for the current regime and have been protesting in the streets like we have by the millions. Democracy is not some static beautiful thing, it's forged out of struggle between various factions view of it if they dislike Israel, then they dislike America because we're both facing the same fundamental crisis of confidence. The underlying dream to both of these societies needs to be remembered and that complacency and indifference supports the very forces they dislike. they also need to be taught or reminded that the Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to work in peace with the Israelis and that it's their leaders who have and are leading them into this nightmare. The Palestinian people have the ability to change the equation just as much as the Israelis do.
To be exact, over 50 percent of Israeli voters did not vote for the current governing coalition, whose four parties got just over 48% of the vote.
The path any society paves to the future will be determined by their internal struggles - the US and Israel are but two examples.
For Palestinians, one of the tragedies has been the lack of any opportunity to choose new leadership. There is a huge desire for elections and change within Palestinian society and elections are a vital part of their future as well.
You will not persuade another generation “you should love Israel because Palestinians living in the territory occupied/administered/surrounded/subject to military oversight/subject to eminent domain theft have a desire to elect different leaders who have power over death and living conditions.” It is not the same as saying “do you hold non-Trump voters responsible for Trump’s policies?” We (non-Trump voters) certainly have responsibility to push back against his reign, protect our neighbors, and persuade those who support him to desist. Among Jewish Israelis, the obligation for contestation is far higher. Israeli adults must not participate in the military, regardless of for whom they voted. They must actively fight against their countryfolk who do. If not, they are implicated to varying degrees.
My math is shaky here. If 20% of Israeli citizens are Palestinians, do they make up 20% of the electorate? Is it fair to assume very few of them voted for the current governing coalition? If that is indeed the case, you need to significantly lower the percentage of Israeli Jews who did not vote for one of the coalition parties, no? Support for the current government is therefore quite a bit more than a majority. More to the point, participation in the mechanism of abuse is near-total. Even those securing a religious exemption benefit from tax policies and a disproportionate share of state services only possible when apartheid rules are in place and a supremacist policy governs immigration.
You cannot sell a piece of an old leather belt and call it Wagyu beef, especially when the blood on the belt from those it has struck is not yet dry.
“The lack of any opportunity to choose new leadership” is on Palestinians and their leaders, period. I fail to see what Israel and its terrible government has to do with that. Also, what evidence is there that there is a “desire for elections” in Palestinian society? There may indeed be a desire for a change in leadership (from Hamas or the PA…?), but no Arab society in the ME regularly uses democratic elections as a means to solve political problems.
Democracies allow ALL adult members of the polity to participate in self-governance. Israel is, clearly, not a democracy. While a minority of Israeli Jewish voters did not vote for Netanyahu (of the 40% opposition vote, we can assume very few of the 20% of Palestinian Israelis voted Likud), the more salient questions are “what percentage of adult Jewish Israelis have refused conscription or reserve duty? AND What percentage of Jewish Israelis have acted to stem the tide of abuse by Israelis against Palestinians?
of adult Jewish Israelis have refused conscription?
(No, they haven’t)
Plenty…
Of adult Jewish Israelis have refused reserve duty?
(Some. I do not know the %. I will set an arbitrary sub-majority % as definitional for “plenty.” 30%? 25%? 20%? (I feel a lot like Abraham with similar results))
Plenty…
of Jewish Israelis have acted to stem the tide of abuse by Israelis against Palestinians?
(Depends what “stems the tide” might mean. Does this mean gathered and called on an end to the settlement? Practiced protective presence in West Bank or East Jerusalem to stop dispossession and anti-Palestinian violence? Lobbied in the US or Germany or international media to encourage accurate reporting and strong criticism of Israeli actions and policies? Supported BDS or other non-violent strategies? Attempted to physically restrain aggressive settlement efforts or sabotage military campaigns? If no e of these, what then?)
I agree with you until your conclusion. Clearly the Israelis have the upper hand. Yes it’s up to the Palestinians to “get it together” and put forth a way to live together but they hardly have a bargaining position. And the Gaza tragedy and Israeli policy to annex the West Bank and kick out the Palestinians hardly gives them any power. We are being fed the myth, Israel has the right to do anything , it is their country, which it is. So it’s up to them, the Israelis.
yeah, I'm not denying that Israel has the upper hand in this situation at all. However, the narrative seems to make it sound like they're the only ones that have any agency in this situation. Einat Wilf has written extensively on what I'm talking about
Two of my nephews went to Israel via Birthright. It changed both of them. We visited Israel when our kids were very young. It is a magical place x you can “feel” the history and the struggles. But, since then, we have not gone back solely because of the Israeli government. Israel no longer feels like a refuge. It does not feel “safe”. For American youth, I doubt there will be a change until Israel feels like it is their moral center, a refuge, a place where peace and prosperity for all who live within its borders are paramount.
Thanks for this piece. I’m a Gen Xer raised on the myth 30 years after the Holocaust and I bought it. We brought our kids to Israel and they understand how deeply I’m connected to this place. But they aren’t and rightfully so: they’re horrified by Israel’s abuse of power and deeply racist government. So, keep fighting the good fight J St. I’m grateful for you during this very dark time.
I'm horrified about the U.S.'s abuse of power and deeply racist government. It's important to separate an extremist government from the people of the country.
Israeli born son of Holocaust survivors, proud IDF veteran, staunch Zionist here.
Jeremy espouses telling the painful truths, yet no mention of the foundational issue - the Nakba.
It's time for a Zionist Apology for the Nakba. This apology does not imply sole responsibility for our conflict, nor does it absolve the Arabs of their own culpability and many crimes.
An Apology for the Nakba acknowledges a painful historical truth, and opens the door for a more promising dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
Does J Street have the integrity to join us in the "Zionist Apology for the Nakba"?
US born son of a holocaust survivor and ex- Zionist here. Even if J-Street were to acknowledge the (ongoing) Nakhba and, more importantly, exhort US Zionist institutions and Israelis to get started with material reparations, they are unwilling to endorse the most basic demand flowing from reckoning with expulsion: return. Start here: www.zochrot.org J-Street was, is, and will remain a drag on progress towards justice.
How can I get Israelis to love justice and respect all life, rather than enforce supremacy rooted in fear?
There is no media diet, propaganda trip, documentary book or film, Jerusalem Shabbaton, summer camp, family history, or transcendent religious experience we can offer our children capable of countering the ugly truths they have grown up seeing.
The issue is not messaging, counter-messaging, or acknowledging selected excesses. Israeli Jews (not the disembodied ‘state of Israel’ or a handful of rotten leaders) must reckon with the violence they have visited upon generations of Palestinians. Individual Jewish Israelis and their external enablers (like Ben-Ami and members of J Street) must take responsibility for the immense harm you have caused.
It will take lifetimes to amend the behavior of Zionists over the past century. Hopefully you can “get your kids” to participate in repair and building justice. Be an example to them of real compassion, deep Jewish values, and solidarity. They will follow you proudly if you head in an ethical direction.
I'm a Gen Z Jew and I'm so glad that my family and synagogue taught me this way - to love Israel but not to give unconditional support for its government. As a result, just as my anger at the Trump government has made me more patriotic as an American, my horror at what the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotritch government has done to Palestine actually makes me more attached to the country and spirit of Israel as I see it drifting further away from my vision of what it could be. And the same values that lead me to be grateful for the realization of the right to self-determination for Jews and reject calls for its revocation also lead me to support the right of self-determination for Palestinians - a right that is currently being denied.
My grandpa was a big fan of Yitzhak Rabin, and so it is essential to me that as part of carrying on my grandpa's legacy, I do not let Rabin's vision of peace die out. I know some people would think that my criticism of the current Israeli government means I'm betraying my family history. But no - to me the worst betrayal of my grandpa would be to give up on the world he never got to see. I do not care how many people say peace between Israel and Palestine is impossible. They will continue to say that until it is done, and the only way they'll become right is if everyone starts to believe it.
Peace between Israel and Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank can happen when the Palestinians have their own state and are deradicalized from the teachings of extremist Islamism and UNRWA. They need a government (e.g., reformed Palestinian Authority) that is focused on services for the people and economic development, not military infrastructure and hardware (i.e., tunnels, bombs, guns and rockets).
“Young Jews caught in that current often feel they must choose between being loyal to their heritage and family or loyal to their values.”
^^^if this is the moral quandary that younger Jews are experiencing for supporting Israel, then it just indicates one thing: their elders have utterly failed to teach them history, civics, and basic Jewish values. I am a liberal Zionist millennial whose intertwined loyalty to my heritage and my loyalty to the Jewish state is a central value. That will never change no matter who represents the Israeli government and how often I criticize said government.
My loyalty to my people is not conditional on who the Israeli PM is, the length of time Israel goes to war after being attacked, or what Al Jazeera decides to publish as today’s misinformation about Jews. If younger Jews don’t get this, their parents have themselves to blame for that. Period.
Just like the US...Israel warts and all. But recent generations see Israel like any other small foreign country. Do young Jews love Norway? Pakistan? Nigeria? Ecuador? They don't see a "Jewish State" as something special as those of us with longer memories do. And Netanyahu and Israel's recent actions don't have much to do with those feelings.
The "whole truth" is that Israel has engaged in Genocide since 1948. Our President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General George Marshall opposed its creation; and they were correct and omniscient.
Decades ago, Benjamin Netanyahu, the "Settlers" and rabid Zionists morphed into their ancestors' Nazi oppressors. And anti-Semitism has reached levels that have not been seen since World War II, with much worse yet to come. Tragically, no Jew is safe anywhere.
Yet, American Jews are Americans, every much as I am. And censorship does not help your offspring, J Street U students, or anyone else.
I love how people think that getting Bibi out of power is going to be some kind of magic bullet and the world will suddenly love Israel and Jews again after that happens. Don’t get me wrong, I loathe Bibi too and want to see him gone. But it’s not some blanket solution.
Of course not, but it would be a start, which is what I said. Just as getting rid of Trump in the US would be a start. These problems of right wing nationalistic extremism are NOT about one person in a position of power. I certainly understand that. But ya gotta start somewhere.
Get rid of Netanyahu. Tell them Netanyahu is Trump and Israelis don't approve of him any more than most Americans approve of Trump. That's how you could make this baby boomer, who remembers our J group sending money to plant trees in Israel in the ’60s and going to see "Exodus," feel more positively about Israel.
Assuming that your children find value in those who choose to provide assistance to other countries and peoples in need, explain to them that Israel has a humanitarian aid organization called IsraAID that is in coordination with Israeli authorities and international organizations/partners to provide aid to Gazans (and minimize the diversion of these resources by Hamas). IsraAID has more than 15 years of experience leading crisis response efforts in more than 60 countries. An example of tikkun olam! The October 7 Hamas/Palestinian attack on Israel resulted in IsraAID being used for the first time inside Israel.
Jeremy j would love to talk with you about this—-a) the idea that 10/7 was the beginning of something rather than a result of very clear and ongoing political analysis doesn’t count for the depth of thought and learning that most young people have been doing for quite some time. And b) as an educator, the whole concept of loving something because someone taught you to completely misses any framework in pedagogy. The question, I’d posit, isn’t about love—we have to try and leave that framework behind.
Your piece on how do we “make” the young generation become attached to Israel, appreciate and identify with it. etc. is a pressing question. I am one of those old boomers, one year older than the founding of the state, and find myself much less interested , attached to or caring about Israel for all of the reasons you mentioned. How much more so it must be for the younger kids? Sadly Israel has become just another country for many American liberal Jews and in general for the world . And age- old antisemitism has made Israel a pariah, for many of the young.not. And we have our own, constant political turmoil to be confronted with on a daily basis. It’s hard to keep up.
I read Ha aaretz, follow the news daily about Gaza and the West Bank and mostly feel that the Israelis blew it much as we have. For me where Israel was always a fall back, a safe place for all Jews, I’d more likely consider a move to Canada if things got more ugly here in the US. The other important question for all of us Jews now that the cracks have appeared and being Jewish means more than Israeli nationalism as a surrogate religion for some, what does Judaism, as a religion, mean to us.
Can there be a return, a teshuvah , to spirituality here in the diaspora?
I have two seven year old grandchildren. What could Judaism mean for them? Learning Jewish history? Celebrating holidays together? alternative services when they are older as, for example, a group like Wilderness Torah created in the Bay Area or traditional services perhaps?
I don’t have the answers, but the centrality of the state of Israel, while an important part to understand it would not necessarily be paramount. The purpose of its creation for good and ill, has been served. They need to come to terms with their new reality. As do we here in the US.
Complicated and changing times we live in, changing before our very eyes.
Thanks for the very thoughtful engagement - and of course for your support!!
you can start by explaining to them that just like America Israel is a democracy that has been taken over by a group of fundamentalists who are out of step with the values that created it. Remind them that over 40% of Israeli voters did not vote for the current regime and have been protesting in the streets like we have by the millions. Democracy is not some static beautiful thing, it's forged out of struggle between various factions view of it if they dislike Israel, then they dislike America because we're both facing the same fundamental crisis of confidence. The underlying dream to both of these societies needs to be remembered and that complacency and indifference supports the very forces they dislike. they also need to be taught or reminded that the Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to work in peace with the Israelis and that it's their leaders who have and are leading them into this nightmare. The Palestinian people have the ability to change the equation just as much as the Israelis do.
To be exact, over 50 percent of Israeli voters did not vote for the current governing coalition, whose four parties got just over 48% of the vote.
The path any society paves to the future will be determined by their internal struggles - the US and Israel are but two examples.
For Palestinians, one of the tragedies has been the lack of any opportunity to choose new leadership. There is a huge desire for elections and change within Palestinian society and elections are a vital part of their future as well.
You will not persuade another generation “you should love Israel because Palestinians living in the territory occupied/administered/surrounded/subject to military oversight/subject to eminent domain theft have a desire to elect different leaders who have power over death and living conditions.” It is not the same as saying “do you hold non-Trump voters responsible for Trump’s policies?” We (non-Trump voters) certainly have responsibility to push back against his reign, protect our neighbors, and persuade those who support him to desist. Among Jewish Israelis, the obligation for contestation is far higher. Israeli adults must not participate in the military, regardless of for whom they voted. They must actively fight against their countryfolk who do. If not, they are implicated to varying degrees.
My math is shaky here. If 20% of Israeli citizens are Palestinians, do they make up 20% of the electorate? Is it fair to assume very few of them voted for the current governing coalition? If that is indeed the case, you need to significantly lower the percentage of Israeli Jews who did not vote for one of the coalition parties, no? Support for the current government is therefore quite a bit more than a majority. More to the point, participation in the mechanism of abuse is near-total. Even those securing a religious exemption benefit from tax policies and a disproportionate share of state services only possible when apartheid rules are in place and a supremacist policy governs immigration.
You cannot sell a piece of an old leather belt and call it Wagyu beef, especially when the blood on the belt from those it has struck is not yet dry.
“The lack of any opportunity to choose new leadership” is on Palestinians and their leaders, period. I fail to see what Israel and its terrible government has to do with that. Also, what evidence is there that there is a “desire for elections” in Palestinian society? There may indeed be a desire for a change in leadership (from Hamas or the PA…?), but no Arab society in the ME regularly uses democratic elections as a means to solve political problems.
Democracies allow ALL adult members of the polity to participate in self-governance. Israel is, clearly, not a democracy. While a minority of Israeli Jewish voters did not vote for Netanyahu (of the 40% opposition vote, we can assume very few of the 20% of Palestinian Israelis voted Likud), the more salient questions are “what percentage of adult Jewish Israelis have refused conscription or reserve duty? AND What percentage of Jewish Israelis have acted to stem the tide of abuse by Israelis against Palestinians?
plenty
Plenty…
of adult Jewish Israelis have refused conscription?
(No, they haven’t)
Plenty…
Of adult Jewish Israelis have refused reserve duty?
(Some. I do not know the %. I will set an arbitrary sub-majority % as definitional for “plenty.” 30%? 25%? 20%? (I feel a lot like Abraham with similar results))
Plenty…
of Jewish Israelis have acted to stem the tide of abuse by Israelis against Palestinians?
(Depends what “stems the tide” might mean. Does this mean gathered and called on an end to the settlement? Practiced protective presence in West Bank or East Jerusalem to stop dispossession and anti-Palestinian violence? Lobbied in the US or Germany or international media to encourage accurate reporting and strong criticism of Israeli actions and policies? Supported BDS or other non-violent strategies? Attempted to physically restrain aggressive settlement efforts or sabotage military campaigns? If no e of these, what then?)
Nu?
I agree with you until your conclusion. Clearly the Israelis have the upper hand. Yes it’s up to the Palestinians to “get it together” and put forth a way to live together but they hardly have a bargaining position. And the Gaza tragedy and Israeli policy to annex the West Bank and kick out the Palestinians hardly gives them any power. We are being fed the myth, Israel has the right to do anything , it is their country, which it is. So it’s up to them, the Israelis.
yeah, I'm not denying that Israel has the upper hand in this situation at all. However, the narrative seems to make it sound like they're the only ones that have any agency in this situation. Einat Wilf has written extensively on what I'm talking about
I’ll take a read, thanks.
Two of my nephews went to Israel via Birthright. It changed both of them. We visited Israel when our kids were very young. It is a magical place x you can “feel” the history and the struggles. But, since then, we have not gone back solely because of the Israeli government. Israel no longer feels like a refuge. It does not feel “safe”. For American youth, I doubt there will be a change until Israel feels like it is their moral center, a refuge, a place where peace and prosperity for all who live within its borders are paramount.
Thanks for this piece. I’m a Gen Xer raised on the myth 30 years after the Holocaust and I bought it. We brought our kids to Israel and they understand how deeply I’m connected to this place. But they aren’t and rightfully so: they’re horrified by Israel’s abuse of power and deeply racist government. So, keep fighting the good fight J St. I’m grateful for you during this very dark time.
I'm horrified about the U.S.'s abuse of power and deeply racist government. It's important to separate an extremist government from the people of the country.
Israeli born son of Holocaust survivors, proud IDF veteran, staunch Zionist here.
Jeremy espouses telling the painful truths, yet no mention of the foundational issue - the Nakba.
It's time for a Zionist Apology for the Nakba. This apology does not imply sole responsibility for our conflict, nor does it absolve the Arabs of their own culpability and many crimes.
An Apology for the Nakba acknowledges a painful historical truth, and opens the door for a more promising dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
Does J Street have the integrity to join us in the "Zionist Apology for the Nakba"?
Https://www.NewZionist.org
US born son of a holocaust survivor and ex- Zionist here. Even if J-Street were to acknowledge the (ongoing) Nakhba and, more importantly, exhort US Zionist institutions and Israelis to get started with material reparations, they are unwilling to endorse the most basic demand flowing from reckoning with expulsion: return. Start here: www.zochrot.org J-Street was, is, and will remain a drag on progress towards justice.
exactly...exactly...exactly! Everything I am thinking.
100%true
This is precisely the wrong question.
Instead:
How can I get Israelis to love justice and respect all life, rather than enforce supremacy rooted in fear?
There is no media diet, propaganda trip, documentary book or film, Jerusalem Shabbaton, summer camp, family history, or transcendent religious experience we can offer our children capable of countering the ugly truths they have grown up seeing.
The issue is not messaging, counter-messaging, or acknowledging selected excesses. Israeli Jews (not the disembodied ‘state of Israel’ or a handful of rotten leaders) must reckon with the violence they have visited upon generations of Palestinians. Individual Jewish Israelis and their external enablers (like Ben-Ami and members of J Street) must take responsibility for the immense harm you have caused.
It will take lifetimes to amend the behavior of Zionists over the past century. Hopefully you can “get your kids” to participate in repair and building justice. Be an example to them of real compassion, deep Jewish values, and solidarity. They will follow you proudly if you head in an ethical direction.
#Jstreetisadeadend
#FreePalestine
#youcantputlipstickonapig
I'm a Gen Z Jew and I'm so glad that my family and synagogue taught me this way - to love Israel but not to give unconditional support for its government. As a result, just as my anger at the Trump government has made me more patriotic as an American, my horror at what the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotritch government has done to Palestine actually makes me more attached to the country and spirit of Israel as I see it drifting further away from my vision of what it could be. And the same values that lead me to be grateful for the realization of the right to self-determination for Jews and reject calls for its revocation also lead me to support the right of self-determination for Palestinians - a right that is currently being denied.
My grandpa was a big fan of Yitzhak Rabin, and so it is essential to me that as part of carrying on my grandpa's legacy, I do not let Rabin's vision of peace die out. I know some people would think that my criticism of the current Israeli government means I'm betraying my family history. But no - to me the worst betrayal of my grandpa would be to give up on the world he never got to see. I do not care how many people say peace between Israel and Palestine is impossible. They will continue to say that until it is done, and the only way they'll become right is if everyone starts to believe it.
Peace between Israel and Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank can happen when the Palestinians have their own state and are deradicalized from the teachings of extremist Islamism and UNRWA. They need a government (e.g., reformed Palestinian Authority) that is focused on services for the people and economic development, not military infrastructure and hardware (i.e., tunnels, bombs, guns and rockets).
“Young Jews caught in that current often feel they must choose between being loyal to their heritage and family or loyal to their values.”
^^^if this is the moral quandary that younger Jews are experiencing for supporting Israel, then it just indicates one thing: their elders have utterly failed to teach them history, civics, and basic Jewish values. I am a liberal Zionist millennial whose intertwined loyalty to my heritage and my loyalty to the Jewish state is a central value. That will never change no matter who represents the Israeli government and how often I criticize said government.
My loyalty to my people is not conditional on who the Israeli PM is, the length of time Israel goes to war after being attacked, or what Al Jazeera decides to publish as today’s misinformation about Jews. If younger Jews don’t get this, their parents have themselves to blame for that. Period.
Just like the US...Israel warts and all. But recent generations see Israel like any other small foreign country. Do young Jews love Norway? Pakistan? Nigeria? Ecuador? They don't see a "Jewish State" as something special as those of us with longer memories do. And Netanyahu and Israel's recent actions don't have much to do with those feelings.
The "whole truth" is that Israel has engaged in Genocide since 1948. Our President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General George Marshall opposed its creation; and they were correct and omniscient.
Decades ago, Benjamin Netanyahu, the "Settlers" and rabid Zionists morphed into their ancestors' Nazi oppressors. And anti-Semitism has reached levels that have not been seen since World War II, with much worse yet to come. Tragically, no Jew is safe anywhere.
Yet, American Jews are Americans, every much as I am. And censorship does not help your offspring, J Street U students, or anyone else.
See https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/americas-jews-are-americans/
and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/j-streets-jeremy-ben-ami-engages-in-cowardly-censorship/
Get rid of Netanyahu, at least for starters.
I love how people think that getting Bibi out of power is going to be some kind of magic bullet and the world will suddenly love Israel and Jews again after that happens. Don’t get me wrong, I loathe Bibi too and want to see him gone. But it’s not some blanket solution.
Of course not, but it would be a start, which is what I said. Just as getting rid of Trump in the US would be a start. These problems of right wing nationalistic extremism are NOT about one person in a position of power. I certainly understand that. But ya gotta start somewhere.
Trump and Bibi are symptoms, not the core disease.
Which is what I said, yes?
Get rid of Netanyahu. Tell them Netanyahu is Trump and Israelis don't approve of him any more than most Americans approve of Trump. That's how you could make this baby boomer, who remembers our J group sending money to plant trees in Israel in the ’60s and going to see "Exodus," feel more positively about Israel.
Assuming that your children find value in those who choose to provide assistance to other countries and peoples in need, explain to them that Israel has a humanitarian aid organization called IsraAID that is in coordination with Israeli authorities and international organizations/partners to provide aid to Gazans (and minimize the diversion of these resources by Hamas). IsraAID has more than 15 years of experience leading crisis response efforts in more than 60 countries. An example of tikkun olam! The October 7 Hamas/Palestinian attack on Israel resulted in IsraAID being used for the first time inside Israel.
Jeremy j would love to talk with you about this—-a) the idea that 10/7 was the beginning of something rather than a result of very clear and ongoing political analysis doesn’t count for the depth of thought and learning that most young people have been doing for quite some time. And b) as an educator, the whole concept of loving something because someone taught you to completely misses any framework in pedagogy. The question, I’d posit, isn’t about love—we have to try and leave that framework behind.