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Impossible Takes Longer: Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?
(Forward) Daniel Gordis interviewed by Laura E. Adkins - In his new book, Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?, Israeli author Daniel Gordis argues that Israel has fundamentally changed the Jewish condition in extraordinary ways. In an interview on March 29, 2023, Gordis said: "Israel is more meaningful as the nation-state of the Jewish people than as the nation-state of its citizens. The purpose of the state was to breathe new life into the Jewish people. And I think Israel has transformed the existential condition of what it means to be a Jew. We can't stop people from killing Jews. But in Israel, they can no longer kill us with impunity. American Jews are beneficiaries of that reality." "Israel is one of the last sources of passion - even anger - in a way that few other things are. What else are American Jews going to get worked up about in the Jewish world? Tikkun olam? That is not a source of passion for most people." "You don't like the sight - neither do I - of Israeli jets pounding Gaza while the Iron Dome shoots down the stuff that's headed at us? But before American Jews opine, ask yourself...to what extent have you, living in the almost idyllic setting of America, actually allowed your self-preservation to atrophy because you haven't had to hone it all this time?" "I want Israeli Arabs to have every single civil right that I have. Having said that, I want to figure out a way of doing that in a country in which it is totally obvious that the purpose of this country is the preservation of the Jewish people."