Before I share these thoughts, I want to be entirely clear: this is a personal statement. It does not represent the official stance of the Federation or its leadership. I am sharing my own perspective after returning to Western Massachusetts after nearly four decades away. Coming back to this beautiful community, I have been deeply surprised by how much the social and political climate has changed. The warm, open-minded progressivism I once knew has shifted into something far more rigid and exclusive, particularly when it comes to Israel. That shift is what compels me to write this.

 

As (what I have always self-defined myself) a liberal progressive, I believe our movement has lost its way on Israel. We built our movement to protect minorities, stand against bigotry, and defend self-determination. Yet, a rigid brand of "us-versus-them" politics now dominates our circles. It reduces a painful, ancient conflict into a flat, American-style cartoon of white oppressors against brown victims. This lazy thinking does not just distort history. It fuels a real, terrifying rise in antisemitism in our streets, schools, and communities.

 

When our framework is used to strip the world's most persecuted minority of their right to a homeland, it is no longer about justice. It is just bigotry under a different name.

 

We have even let political bullies hijack our vocabulary. Take the word "Zionism." To most Jews, it has always meant a simple, beautiful thing: the right of Jewish people to survive and govern themselves in their ancestral home. But critics have twisted it into a dirty word, equating it with colonialism and racism. This intellectual bullying has worked. In deeply progressive areas like Western Massachusetts, people who value nuance and human dignity are staying quiet. They are afraid of being canceled, losing friends, or being targeted in their businesses and schools simply for believing Israel has a right to exist.

 

This quiet conformity is a tragedy, and it leads straight to bad politics. Look at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The DSA and several of its chapters now require political candidates to sign anti-Israel pledges to get an endorsement. They demand that candidates support boycotts and cut ties with mainstream Jewish groups, even progressive ones like J Street. This is undemocratic. It forces local candidates running for school board or city council to sign a loyalty oath on a foreign conflict. It forces them to lock out their own Jewish neighbors. When you demand absolute purity and exclude an entire group from the table, you are not acting like a progressive. You are acting like an autocrat.

 

It is time to look at the facts and reclaim the truth. Israel is not a white colonial enterprise. That claim is historically and demographically illiterate. More than half of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi and Sephardic. Their families lived in Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, and Morocco for generations. After 1948, Arab governments confiscated their property and expelled them. Over 850,000 of these Middle Eastern Jews fled to Israel as penniless refugees. To label this diverse population as "white colonizers" is a supreme act of historical erasure.

 

The Zionist movement was actually a classic national liberation movement. For two thousand years, Jews were a defenseless minority, chased from country to country, culminating in the Holocaust. Building a sovereign state where they could finally defend themselves was the ultimate realization of "Never Again." To deny Jews the right to self-determination—while defending it for Palestinians and every other nation—is a glaring double standard.

 

More than that, Israel is a vibrant, pluralistic society built on social-democratic values. It has universal healthcare, a strong labor legacy, and a free press. In a region where LGBTQ+ individuals face prison or death, they have full legal protections in Israel. Arab citizens serve as Supreme Court justices, fly planes for major airlines, and vote in free elections.

 

Does the Israeli government have deep, painful flaws? Of course. We must speak out against the military occupation of the West Bank, the expansion of settlements, the attacks of rogue gangs, and the rhetoric of far-right ministers. But a government’s bad policies do not invalidate a country's right to exist. We do not call for the destruction of the United States because of its systemic racism, nor do we deny Palestinians a state because of the corruption of their leaders. We must hold Israel to high standards precisely because we believe in its democratic promise.

 

We do not have to choose between Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom. We can, and must, champion both.

 

Supporting a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people is not a betrayal of progressive values. It is the very definition of them.