A mindset, a mystery

Maybe it's just me, but I find it hard to understand how a Diaspora Jew can care a great deal about Israel without ever considering booking a flight. Joseph Epstein writes, "Much as I admire Israel, its accomplishments, and the courage of its people, I prefer to live in America, where my ethnicity puts me in a small minority of the country's population, a condition I rather prefer." (via). So far this kind of makes sense. Later, in response to a discussion of the new anti-Semitism based on anti-Zionism, he adds:

As someone who feels a strong link with Israel, I have never for a moment thought of abandoning the United States to live there. As a writer it would cut me off from my subjects; as a man it would uproot me painfully. One of the greatest strokes of good luck in my life has been to be born and live in the United States. And yet, as a Jewish American with an historical sense, it is impossible for me to be unaware of how important the state of Israel is.

I as much as anyone can understand why sometimes, given one's line of work, it's simply not feasible to move to Israel. And any move, even one where a job and apartment are waiting at the other end, is stressful, and means giving something up. People care about more than one thing, and often having a career and remaining with one's friends and family are an easy win over even the most sincere desire to rent an apartment in Tel Aviv and drink Zionistic blended iced coffee all day long. This I know quite well. However, in the scenario I describe, there are at least competing desires, of which moving to Israel is one. Whether my staying put is the result of self-serving rationalization or is in some greater sense the right thing to do is another matter.

What I don't understand with Epstein--who I believe does express how many Diaspora Zionists feel--is not why he feels no guilt at staying where he is, since he has his reasons and it's his own life and all that, but why he presents moving to Israel as almost tragic, rather than as an option he himself cannot go through with. In other words, I don't think Zionism is incompatible with living outside of Israel, nor do I think, when you look at it objectively, that all Zionists must live in the Jewish state. If the only people supporting the existence of Israel lived in Israel, the world would be a very different place. It benefits Israel that there are pro-Israeli non-Israelis, and is probably better for Israel if not everyone with warm feelings about the place actually up and moves. But Zionism ought to be incompatible with a belief that living in Israel must be dreadful. At this point it's a country, not an idea, and if you're that put off by the country, you're either still at work on the Uganda plan or, I would say, not all that Zionistic. And returning to the first of the two Epstein quotes above, if you think that it's better to be a Jew in a minority non-Jewish country than it is to be one where Jews are the majority, then you fundamentally disagree with the common thread of all types of Zionism, and whatever pro-Israel sentiment you have is limited to respect of differing viewpoints and fraternal hope that Iran not nuke the place.

Of course, had Epstein truly "never thought for one moment" of aliyah, he wouldn't have his reasons lined up for why he must must must stay in the States.