Judaic Challenges to the Legitimacy of Israel

Abstract Legitimacy implies the existence of a framework within which it is assessed. The framework chosen for this paper is the religion of Judaism. This is, of course, contingent on the assumption that the state of Israel is related to Judaism, whatever its stream. Both the founding fathers of Zionism and their detractors emphasized the discontinuity and the revolutionary nature of the new political movement in Jewish history. Traditional leaders of Judaism almost unanimously condemned Zionism as an alien and perfidious import. They refused it all legitimacy. However, the policy of centrality of Israel exported around the world by Israeli educators for several decades has borne fruit. Many Jews find it difficult to separate Zionism from the Jewish identity as it has been taught to them. Their identity is often centred on political support for the State of Israel, and they see advocacy for Israel — a special course in the curriculum of many private Jewish schools — as a key part of being Jewish. The question of Israel divides the Jews more than any other. In view of the vast diversity of views, Judaic legitimacy of Israel depends of the kind of Judaism in question. In terms of traditional Judaic scholarship, espoused by most Haredim, Zionism and the state that embodies it are at best irrelevant to their Judaism. Yet, more modernized Jewish communities embrace the centrality of Israel with a lot of emotion. They cannot imagine a Judaism without Israel. In their often romantic view of Israel they cannot understand how a pious Jew can live in Jerusalem and remain intransigent in his rejection of Zionism.