The much touted crisis of liberalism is something I'm pretty familiar with as an Israeli.

Liberal Jews - mostly in America - are continually dismayed by their cousins' slide into authoritarianism and ethnic chauvinism. The fact is, this was a long time coming.

The common refrain from liberal diaspora Jews is that Israel cannot be both a liberal democracy and an ethnonationalist military hegemon over 3 million Palestinians.

Despite what the Hasbara might say, the Israeli Right knows this. They just don't care.

in the past few decades, Israel has consciously rejected its founders' vision of a secular, modern state based on 19th century romantic European socialism & nationalism. Instead, they see Israel unabashedly as a Jewish civilisation-state that needn't follow democratic principles.

Far from being a Light Unto the Nations, the return of the Jewish People has involved a rediscovering of their nation's more chauvinistic, sectarian and tribal past. A language that liberal Jews in New York and Tel Aviv no longer understand, but many Arabs, ironically, do.