Word: ares
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Instead of acting as sympathetic critics and trying to keep Israel on the straight and narrow, the Zealots are busy apologizing for actions that non Zionist Americans can never condone.
FOR Zealots who are too intellectually honest to deny that Israel has done anything morally offensive, another mechanism is available--"rationalization." To psychologists, this means attributing inordinate importance to evidence that fits one's own prejudices.
In politics, people who rationalize human rights violations are called apologists. Professor of Law and noted civil libertarian Alan M. Dershowitz, who attacks public nativity scenes as grave threats to the U.S. constitution, has no trouble rationalizing egregious curtailments of civil liberties in Israel.
Zealots also rationalize Israel's antidemocratic actions by pointing out how much more morally palatable Israel is than the neighboring Arab states. The Crimson can scarcely print an opinion piece criticizing Israel without drawing letters about how much worse the human rights violations are in Jordan.
But when American Jews' enthusiasm for the Jewish state exceeds their enthusiasm for Israeli democracy, they do a disservice to both Israel and democracy. When American Jews fail to take a critical stance toward human rights violations in Israel, they squander the support of non-Zionists in the U.S. who...