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Israeli Says Jews Shouldn’t Celebrate the Fourth

Americans are apparently not in God’s country

by
Marc Tracy
July 03, 2012
(Prometheus Unbound)
(Prometheus Unbound)

“Hearing which song gives you more goose pimples and a greater feeling of patriotism? The Star Spangled Banner or HaTikva?”

“If there was a war between the United States and Israel, which army would you join?”

“Which of these foods do you consider your nation’s favorite?” (Pictured: a cheeseburger and a falafel sandwich.)

These are some of the questions Israeli novelist and provocateur Tzvi Fishman asks in his “Jewish Identity Quiz” in The Jewish Press, the Brooklyn-based Modern Orthodox newspaper. It’s a follow-up to his screed against Jews celebrating the Fourth of July. “Yom HaAtzmaut is Independence Day for the Jews, not the 4th of July,” he wrote. “Boker tov, my friends, but Israel is our nation, not America.”

You should read the whole thing, and give Fishman a piece of your mind (with civility!) in the comments if you like. I’d only observe that it’s striking and scary to me how those who subscribe to the mutated, radical Zionism of Fishman—the belief not merely that Jews have the right to a state of their own in the Holy Land, but that it is the sole state of all Jews whether they like it or not—can sound like the anti-Zionists. “Thank you for giving me wonderful children who are all growing up as Jews from the tip of their kippot down to their sandals and Crocs, without dual loyalties and schizophrenic identities,” Fishman writes, and here is betting that if blogs like Mondoweiss see this article, they will highlight it, too: Fishman is making their point for them.

Here is the first radio broadcast of “God Bless America,” a great American song written by Irving Berlin.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.