The Blogs: Not Liking Israel’s Government Should Not Diminish Your Belief In A Jewish State | Ethan Kushner

On Passover, Jews around the world gather to retell the story of liberation. The story of a people who moved from oppression to freedom, from dependence to self-determination. It is not just a story about the past. It is a framework through which Jews have understood their place in the world for generations.

However, I am finding, much to my dismay that for many American Jews, especially those who identify as progressive, that story lands differently.

You can sit at the Seder table, speak about freedom and justice, and then look at Israel’s current government and feel a profound sense of dissonance. For some, that discomfort has led to a more fundamental question: if this is what a Jewish state produces, is a Jewish state still necessary at all?

Is it an honest question? Maybe for some. But it rests on a flawed premise.

Because it assumes that the State of Israel is defined by its current government, rather than by the role Israel plays in Jewish life, history, and survival.

Progressive Jews, more than most, understand the difference between a country and its leadership. Many spent years opposing policies under administrations they believed violated their values. Policies on immigration, race, or civil rights for instance. But few concluded that the United States, as a project, should not exist.

Israel deserves that same intellectual consistency. Especially from its Jewish brothers and sisters.

To reject the idea of a Jewish state because of the policies of a right-wing coalition is not a progressive stance. It is a category error. It collapses a long-term moral and historical question into a short-term political reaction.

And in doing so, it risks discarding something far more significant than any one government.

At its core, Israel is not simply a nation-state in the conventional sense. It is the political expression of a people who, for most of their history, lived without power, subject to the decisions of others, often with devastating consequences.

For progressive Jews, this should resonate deeply.

The idea that marginalized communities require not just rights, but agency—that safety cannot depend solely on the goodwill of others—is foundational to progressive thought. We believe this when it comes to minority representation, self-determination, and collective dignity.

Passover tells that story in ancient language. Israel represents it in modern form.

It is what it looks like when a historically vulnerable people moves from dependence to self-determination.

That doesn’t mean Israel always lives up to progressive ideals. However, here is a “newsflash”. No country does.

But the existence of that struggle in Israel, the protests, the debates, the fierce internal disagreements, is itself evidence of something important: Israel is not static. It is not reducible to its current leadership. It is a society in motion.

And that distinction matters.

Because when progressive Jews begin to question not just Israeli policy, but Israel’s legitimacy, something shifts. The conversation moves from “How do we make this country better?” to “Should this country exist at all?”

That is not a neutral shift. It places Israel into a category that no other imperfect democracy is asked to occupy.

It also carries consequences—whether intended or not.

In a moment when antisemitism is rising across the political spectrum, the erosion of consensus around Israel’s basic legitimacy leaves Jews more exposed. Not because Israel is beyond criticism, but because the line between critique and delegitimization is increasingly blurred—not just by critics of Israel, but by Jews themselves.

And when that line blurs, it rarely stops at policy.

The truth is, Israel plays a role in Jewish life that is difficult to replicate or replace. It is a place of refuge, yes—but it is also a center of gravity. It shapes Jewish identity, culture, language, and global presence in ways that extend far beyond its borders.

Even for Jews who feel distant from it, or critical of it, Israel changes what it means to be Jewish in the modern world.

The question, then, is not whether you agree with Israel’s current government.

The question is whether you are willing to separate your critique of power from your understanding of why that power exists in the first place.

Progressivism, at its best, is not about abandoning institutions when they fall short. It is about engaging with them, challenging them, and pushing them toward a more just expression of their founding ideals.

Israel should be no exception.

You don’t have to like the government to believe in a Jewish state.

But if we lose the ability to make that distinction, we risk giving up not just on Israel—but on a core progressive principle itself: that imperfect systems can, and must, be made better, not erased.

Ethan Kushner is a writer, strategist and marketing executive focused on Israel–Diaspora, US-Israel relations and civil-society-led nation branding. He is founder of the Kerem Alliance, an NGO working to counter polarization by advancing a more credible, values-based global conversation about Israel. He is also Chair of American Democrats in Israel, an organization of American Israeli supporters of the US Democratic Party and Israeli identity with a mission of supporting U.S. Democratic political candidates who ally with Israel and Jewish values. His work explores democracy, identity, and the limits of government-led public diplomacy in an increasingly fractured media landscape.