9:36 AM
Gil Student
Frequent commenter and infrequent blogger Nachum Lamm has a great letter in the current issue of Jewish Action:
Jews regard the State of Israel highly for a number of reasons. Citizens of Israel may have a patriotic feeling toward it; Jews worldwide may see it as a physical haven and home base. Religious Jews worldwide may see Israel as all that, plus a spiritual home, a gift from God and, hopefully, the stage of the redemption.
None of these reasons touch the government of the State, as terrible as some of its ideas or actions may be. I don't think, for example, that when Bill Clinton became president in 1992, conservative or Republican commentators in the United Stated agonized over whether they would have to stop being patriotic, or loving their country or serving in the armed forces.
As human beings with minds of our own, we will never completely agree with whoever it is who is governing us... But giving up on the whole enterprise when that happens is inexplicable.
