The ideological roots of Israel's troubles

Zionism is not without its flaws ...

A man holds an Israeli flag during a mass prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner)

For decades now, American liberals who support the idea of Israel as a Jewish state have been torn up over Israel's behavior. Israel's politics have veered increasingly hard right. It has caused the United States no end of trouble. And it refuses to give up its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — the latter of which has become a hellish open-air prison camp under a strangling Israeli blockade.

This prompted The New York Times' Michelle Goldberg to write that "liberal Zionism" — or the idea of an Israel that is both Jewish and democratic — is basically dead. She is surely right. But it's also time to consider the idea that Zionism itself was a flawed idea from the start.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.