michaelr: In my youth, young Jews would join explicitly Zionist youth movements with grandiloquent Hebrew names (Habonim = The Builders; Hashomer Hatzair = the Young Watchman, Mizrahi - Eastward, &c): sort of scout movements with camps & Hebrew singing & dancing & so on; to emphasise Jewish identity and work tirelessly for the Zionist aspiration of a modern state for Jews in their historic biblical homeland, in their different ways [they had political variations]. We envisioned a state which would bring the modern world to the Mid-East, at peace with its Arab neighbours, governed by enlightened governments, the whole state being run on the sort of benevolent share-&-share-alike characteristic of the kibbutz movement, by then some ½-C old, the socialist basis of the then Israeli commonweal --

wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz

And look what we have now. Totalitarians oppressive of their minorities, in a constant state of war with their neighbours, establishing settlements with pure perversity in land which means further friction when there is plenty of land elsewhere [the Negev hardly settled as yet], which involves destroying the resources & livelihoods of the unfortunate displaced minority populations of ordinary people just trying to live their lives ---

I could go on. The frustration induced by this bloody-minded awkwardness & intransigence & aggression constitutes, as I say, one of the greatest disappointments of my entire life.

Hope that clear.

~Michael~