You forget nother "categories" of Jewish people who don't care...or wish they didn't have to..... Israel is, after all, a FOREIGN COUNTRY, if one does not live there. I know, I know....everyone in the USA has an "old country"....so why not be proud of Israel being your "old country" if you are Jewish?
One good reason is, there is no other group in the USA that I know of, some of whose members are always telling others to move back to the "old country". What other immigrant group in the USA is continually being told, by their leaders, that they are "in exile"? In the movie, The Ten Commandments, a line went, "Blood makes poor mortar". Well, Jewish leaders....I would also say that "Guilt makes poor alegiance!"
I mean, what is a normal, happily-assimilated American-Jewish, (notice I put 'American' first!) person to do? Anti-semites want you to get out of the USA, so it can be safe for "pure" white people. Overly-religious Christians, (who are NOT necessairly anti-semites), want you to get out of the USA because doing so would co-inside with their ideas of things that will happen when Jesus' Second Coming' arrives. ( Please note, dear overly-religious Christians, that "the Jews havng their own land" does not necessarily mean all Jews have to, (or even want to) go there! Just having the land is enough to fulfill the prophesy, I think!) And then, of course, there are the "Super-Semitic" Jews who want EVERY Jew to go to Israel....and out of the horrible 'galut' or diasphora! Israel is a real country again, they argue....to be a real Jew,. you have to go and live there!
Well, I'm glad Israel is a country.....because it's very existance helps fend off anti-semitism. But I don't like what's happened to it: it's become less of a Utopia, and more of a "theocratic monstrosity", if you ask me. Besides, I LIKE living in the USA! I LIKE Halloween, and have a continuing case of "Christmas Envy"....which is bitter-sweet, to be sure....but better than living in Israel, where Christmas is kept totally in tiny house-parties, (no public Christmas celebration allowed to anyone -- even Christian citizens of Israel! And the "Gregorian" New Year is likewise not allowed to be celebrated....too close to the celebration of Christmas, you see! Contrast that to the good ol' USA....where at least a token effort is made, every year, to show Chanuka, (and Kwaanza), as well as Christmas, to be an important religious holiday, (too!) Freedom of Religion in the US also can mean "freedom from religion"....we try very hard, here, to celebrate our diversities, and to give each group of people honour and respect. I really do wish the Israelis would do the same....for Moslems and Christians living in Israel!
I could go on. The intragegence of Israeli's ruling class....the rabbis, the Orthodox, eats into people's lives, and makes them want to leave. Guilt-mongering at leaing Israel tugs at the hearts of would-be emigres out.....but the fact is three times as many people leave Israel as migrate to it. And no wonder! It appears, to many, that they have left anti-semitic tyranny, only to find super-semitic tyranny! ( No wonder the young, teen-aged Russian immigrants dressed as skin-heads last year, and demonstrated! They are youngsters, and moved to Israel, mostly at their parents' behest. But many of them -- and perhaps many of their parents too -- did not like the Jewish Theocracy that they found there.
Give me the USA....with it's diversity, it's very hard trying to include all traditions in honour and respect. It allows even a little Jewish girl to dream of following in Grace Kelly's footsteps....and why not? The "American Dream" is for the ambitious, the daring.....those that want to, individually, make something of themselves! The "Israeli Dream" is for those who honour hoary tradition above individualism, and who want to force every person, (especially every Jewish person), to think in their way.
As I said to begin with, Israel to me is a foreign country. And it is becoming more and more foreign every day! I'm glad Israel exists.....as an "out" for God forbid, any future Holocaust, I only wish it existed as an egalitarian state, a true democracy, as it always boasts it is. Until Israelis are alllowed to celebrate Kwaanza, (and Christmas, and the "Gregorian" New Year), with as much respect and honour as is now given to Chanuaka, it can never be a real democracy, in my opinion.
No, I cannot forget thee, Oh, Jerusalem. I only wish you were a little more of the egalitarian Utopia, of which the first settlers to YOUR country, once dreampt.
