Why I Am a Zionist

A few weeks ago, I wrote that American Jewry’s Israel advocacy needs to change – that we must free ourselves from our obsession with responding to our critics and focus instead on understanding and articulating our own core beliefs.

Let me do so here, and explain, on my own terms, why I am a Zionist.

I am a Zionist because I am a Jew. Being a Jew means believing in a G-d who created the world, retains dominion over it, and actively participates in its history rather than observing it from afar. Our reality is not a series of random occurrences, but a reflection of Divine design.

I am a Zionist because I believe the Land of Israel was given, not merely settled – and that this gift was bestowed long ago, when G-d promised the land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants.

I am a Zionist because I believe history and geography are inextricably linked. Jewish history did not simply happen to occur in the Land of Israel; it unfolded because of it. It is where we transformed from a family into a nation, and where we achieved the highest and most complete expression of a Jewish society.

I am a Zionist because Jewish law, which I follow, finds its fullest expression in the Land of Israel. Consequently, Jewish resettlement and self-determination there are Judaism's natural destination. An entire body of Jewish law – from agricultural mandates to the sabbatical year – applies exclusively to the Land, bound to its soil and seasons in ways that have no application anywhere else. Nachmanides went even further, arguing that Jewish observance itself is fundamentally transformed inside the Land compared to outside it.

I am a Zionist because longing for the Land of Israel predates modern politics. Zionism did not invent the Jewish bond to Israel; it inherited it. Abraham left his father's house for it. The Israelites wandered the desert for forty years to reach it. For two millennia, exiles turned toward the East and prayed for it, generation after generation, with no reasonable expectation of living to see it. That kind of devotion cannot be manufactured. It is older than any of us, and it will outlast us all.

I am a Zionist because I believe Jewish self-determination is not a nationalist luxury, but a fundamental necessity. Well before the Holocaust, Theodor Herzl argued that Jews relying on the hospitality of other nations would always, eventually, be subject to their cruelty. He was right.

I am a Zionist because Israel is not a reparations payment for the Holocaust, but the answer to the condition that made the Holocaust possible: the necessity for Jews to have a place that is unconditionally their own. The Holocaust did not create the need for a Jewish state; the absence of a Jewish state made the Holocaust possible.

I am a Zionist because I believe the contemporary Golden Age of Jewry – and it remains a Golden Age, despite its challenges – is no accident, but a direct consequence of Israel’s existence. Even if we in the Diaspora are hesitant to admit it, Israel is the bedrock upon which we stand. Its establishment transformed the image of the cautious, diminished "ghetto Jew" into a people with the license to be bold and assertive. Our modern confidence stems from having a home – a dignity that never existed when we were stateless.

I am a Zionist because I do not believe in utopias, and because loving Israel does not require me to pretend it is perfect, blindly accept its actions or serve as an apologist for its government. On the contrary, Zionism is nationalism grounded in realism. It is the political philosophy of a people for whom self-examination, self-criticism and debate – reflected in the Bible and across the pages of the Talmud – are fundamental values, who recognize that criticism and love need not be mutually exclusive, and who can acknowledge Israel’s flaws while remaining committed to its cause – choosing to draw inspiration, rather than frustration, from its ongoing pursuit of betterness.

I am a Zionist because, flaws and all, there is no country in the region more committed to decency. None of the states surrounding Israel – including those openly dedicated to its destruction – come close to matching its openness, pluralism or its protection of the rights of women, minorities and dissidents. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where many of those who ironically march against it could openly live.

Finally, I am a Zionist because I believe in the truth. Because opposing the Jewish state – as so much of the world does today – may be easy, but requires accepting distortion as fact and trading away moral integrity for social acceptance. That is a price no principled person should be willing to pay.

To be principled means to stand with the truth rather than conform to comfortable lies, even if that means standing alone. Which is why I proudly stand with Israel.