Word: thats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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The intellectual crisis of the Zealots arises when "Israel the Jewish State" is no longer "Israel the Outpost of Democracy." The Zealots face the embarrassing possibility of acknowledging to their allies in the pro-Israel coalition that they really believe in "My Israel, right or wrong."
AT Harvard, I have seen Zealots react to this intellectual crisis in three ways. The first is to suppress the notion that Israel has done anything wrong. Once during my first year, a Palestinian student posted a sign on the entryway bulletin board that showed an Israeli soldier beating an...
The gesture was more pathetic than vexing. Some poor student wore ideological blinders so thick that he or she dismissed an indisputable photographic record of Israeli brutality as "bullshit."
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.
Most believe that the commitment is still pretty strong. That's why Israel still deserves our support. It has nothing to do with Israel's being Jewish. As Israel's commitment to democracy becomes weaker, America's commitment to Israel must be reduced correspondingly.