In this week's issue of The Jewish Week, a major New York-area newspaper of the Jewish community, Gil Troy, a history professor at McGill University, makes a strong argument in favor of the premise that Zionism and liberalism (aka progressivism) are and should be natural allies. As someone who holds that belief, and who has seen a very strong counterview among many here, I think the piece is worth reading and considering.
I may not reproduce the entire piece, of course, but these concluding paragraphs provide a good sample of Troy's thesis:
Those on the left who so demonize Zionism and romanticize Palestinianism to the point that they ignore Hamas’ violence against Palestinians and Israelis, violate liberalism’s core commitments to individual liberty and fair, rational conclusions. Progressives should delight in the vitality of Israel’s democracy, the vigor of its press, the power of its courts, the creativity of its universities, the dynamism of its population, the brashness of its many patriotic critics, the rights of its minorities, the freedom and equality so many of its citizens enjoy.
The Jewish and liberal traditions of development through disputation thrive in Israel, analyzing shortcomings, advancing reforms. Nevertheless, Israel, facing serious challenges, stumbles, like every nation-state, like all human creations. While criticizing Israel’s faults, without pulling any punches, also reaffirming the historic, harmonic convergence between liberalism and Zionism can help redeem Zionism — and liberalism.
Troy is absolutely correct. Those on the American (and Canadian) political right have much less common cause with Israel, for all of its imperfections, than should those of us on the left. To be sure, Israel doesn't not reach all of its democratic goals, but it aspires to them in ways that few if any other countries in the region do, and certainly far beyond how Palestinian society does. The idea of Zionism, and the best of how it has been implemented, should be something progressives get behind rather than from which some of us distance ourselves. {ProfJonathan}