An Israeli Conundrum

I read a book over the last weekend that I highly recommend called Saving Israel by Daniel Gordis. He addresses a few issues that have bothered me for a long time regarding Israel. I was always perplexed with the question of why would a secular Israeli who has absolutely no ties to the Jewish religion and in fact mocks it would risk his life to defend the Jewish nation. The entire reason for the existence of Israel is to be a JEWISH homeland so why would this secular Israeli defend it if they negate their Jewishness.

Over the years I asked this question to Israelis only to receive answers which were unsatisfactory. They would answer that these secular Israelis are patriotic to their country as a Finn would be patriotic to Finland. Or they would say they have certain ties to the land and therefore risk their lives to defend it. But truthfully, Israel is located at the site of its ancestral birth which unfortunately places it smack in the middle of a terrible neighborhood. If these seculars see no value in Judaism and do not care about the history of the Jewish people then why would they care to live under constant threat to themselves and their families rather than a comfy house in LA with many other Israelis.

Mr. Gordis addresses this point in his book and states that this is in fact a huge problem in Israel. A large percentage of secular Israelis are attempting to dodge the draft as they see no value in risking their lives for a Jewish homeland. These draft aged teenagers cannot explain why they are defending a Jewish homeland. They have received zero education and exposure to the Jewish religion and as such it is not hard to understand why they would see no value in protecting its homeland.

Mr. Gordis goes on to say that the fault lies in the founders of the country. Trying to reverse the image of the Jew for centuries as a defenseless individual, they sought to create the new Jew as a powerful one who could defend himself. Trying to extend this metamorphosis, they also reversed the heavily ritual based religion as practiced in Europe and replace it with a nonreligious secular Jew who is not just apathetic to the religion but is antagonistic towards it. They view the religion as an old country custom which must be discarded. This is the genesis of the problems that Israel is now seeing. Secular Israelis who have no ties to Judaism and thus will question whether to risk their lives for the Jewish nation.

The Jews could not survive being stateless in Europe. Strong religion in the diaspora sustained us as a people for centuries, but without a state we were doomed. Now we have a strong state but with little religion and this may be equally unsustainable.