Alright, I'm going to thread on this once so that I can just point here and never talk about it again. https://twitter.com/JustSayXtian/status/1280359403846111232

I believe, very much, that there should be a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel, where Jews have autonomous governance and social structure and the right to self determination. I don't believe that gives us the right to force it into existence by any means necessary.

I think the particular way in which Medinat Israel came into existence was an atrocity. I can understand why it seemed necessary, I can understand the urgency, but I still don't think that the political mechanisms used were ethical or moral ways of forming a country.

The violence and colonialism with which Israel came to be are complications to the ethical claims of Jews to their right to live on that land in freedom and autonomy. The morality of Jews' claim to sacred sites and our heritage on the land is damaged by recent politics.

Despite that, we can't get a do over. The past 80 years happened, and we have to live and work with the world as it is. I don't think dissolution of the State of Israel is a realistic goal, and I don't think it's any cleaner, ethically, than the way it came to exist.

I don't know what the path forward is, morally or politically. There must be a reckoning for the violence of the past. A reciprocation of violence won't bring justice, or a lasting resolution.

And the fact of the matter is that even if I *did* know what the path forward is, I have no power or influence to guide the world down that path. I am not Israeli. It's not my country. It's a political entity I have no say in.

So - if by "Zionist" you mean "a person who thinks Jews should be in Eretz Israel", yes, that's me. If by "Zionist" you mean a person who supports Medinat Israel as it exists, no, that's not really me - though it's complicated, because it's a whole country, with diverse views.

If by "anti-Zionist" you mean someone who opposes further encroachment into Palestinian territories and the granting of concessions - even significant concessions - by Israel in pursuit of peace, yes, that's me.

If by "anti-Zionist" you mean someone who thinks Jews have no business having an autonomous State on that land at all, and that the only ethical outcome is the complete erasure of Israel - no, I'm not your guy.

And at the end of the day, it's *far* from the most interesting or pressing topic I want to talk about with my community. It's a political problem. It's an urgent political problem, it's a thorny political problem. But it's not a vital aspect of my Jewishness.

And when I talk with Jews for whom it *is* the most vital aspect of their Jewishness - the core around which their Jewish identity is built, the litmus test by which they evaluate their affinity with other Jews - I find that disturbing. I don't usually enjoy those talks.

All of which is to say, if you're trying to slot me into a category of "Zionist" or "anti-Zionist" - please don't. It's not going to be a neat clean classification that tells you anything about me. I'm not going to square up along those ideological lines.