Sublime

which Zionists from Europe would bring with them, were about to clash with the tribal, clannish, local system of the Palestinian Arabs.

for Jewish ethics, the path to universal love is through partiality rather than around it.

“Why should terrorists target the Jewish State?” was supplanted by “What has Israel done to the Palestinians to drive them to such desperation?”

The freedom that remained was the decision how to respond.

the fear that the very legitimacy of the Jewish state is eroding;

While Shimen wants freedom to participate in a specific communal project that connects the past with the future and that gives his life meaning and purpose, Heidi wants freedom from such projects.

If the pursuit of a lasting peace could no longer be many Israelis’ source of inspiration and meaning, they would have to turn elsewhere.

Judaism is God’s perennial question-mark against the condition of the world.

That was true if being Jewish in America meant recoiling from military power, territorialism, nationalism, and a sense of tribe.