A colleague in the Israel advocacy field (on the right from me…far right) complained that negativity about Israel will drive young Jews away from caring about Israel. Meaning progressive Israel advocacy is bad for Jews, bad for the Jewish state.
Dude, the negativity is already there! The news is full of negative stuff regarding Israel — just open up Ynet or Haaretz or the Forward or even NY Jewish Week. Watch the Daily Show or NBC News or CNN. And the pro-Israel “education” reportage is PR fluff — fake smiley faces tacked up with predetermined agendas, transparent as the eye can see. Wishing the negativity away makes the existing pro-Israel groups look out of touch.
Any Israel advocate worth their weight in salt will not bother with this outdated and failing mode of outreach. All the outreach today has been saccharine sweetness. And young Jews are still walking away. Worse, it’s their number one complaint getting out the door. Savory and salty is needed in this mix.
The moral of the story is “be human.” If Israel pisses you off, own it. Don’t hide behind a laughable belief that a critical word from you, a Jew, will dismantle the Jewish state. If you as a pro-Israel advocate “seig heil” everything Israel does, you show that you’re not human, you’re an automaton. And no young person aspires to be an automaton. Be human, folks. Israel is a state, not a god.