Who’s Uncomfortable with Yom Yerushalayim? - Public Discourse in the Modern Orthodox World

Throughout Yom Yerushalayim, and the events that led to the haslama (escalation) of violence in Israel including the hundreds of rocket attacks targeting innocent civilians in Israel, the RZWeekly team noticed that when some Diaspora Jews took to social media (before the rockets started flying) to acknowledge these events, many of them were seemingly morally neutral. Alternatively, where the authors of such posts spoke of morality, it was generally in criticism rather than in defense of Israel. While we recognize that Israel is by no means perfect, we were troubled by the implication that there is anything complex about a democratic country celebrating its capital city or wishing to defend its citizens from a torrent of attacks. Given this, our latest edition of RZWeekly attempts to explore why this is the case, and why so many leading Diaspora Jews seem profoundly reluctant to express unconditional outrage at unprovoked acts of violence against Israeli citizens, or acknowledge the legitimacy of Israeli national pride. We believe that conversations like this need to be had, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.