The End of the Diaspora: Why Sovereignty is the Only Cure for the "Dual Loyalty" Trap

There is a strange, unspoken rule in Jewish life: we often find ourselves defending our brothers on the "crazy" fringe left, or right, not because we agree with them, but because we know our enemies don't care about the distinction, unless they use it as part ot some convoluted Jewish Dominance Theory.

Whether you are Right or Left, religious or secular, the world views the Jews as a single unit.

In that sense, the "Residue of Israel", that core spark of identity, unites us through adversary.

But now is the time where we must choose.

Unite based on our own love for Zion, or unite based on the hate of the gentiles of our Zionist affiliation.

The first means a life in Israel, the latter a life in America.

As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, unity is no longer a choice; it is becoming a necessity for survival, but than again, what type of unity is developing in the diaspora?. If it is not a unity based on sovereignty.?

It is a unity that is based on the otherness which negates us.

The Lesson of the Second Temple

Let's e look back at the Second Temple period. During the Roman occupation, the Jews suffered from a devastating internal rift, the nation was split into political and theological factions. The political rift was caused by the "yoke of strangers", the external pressure that made it impossible to maintain a cohesive, homogenous center.

The Zionist movement was designed to fix exactly that. Zionism is the restoration of that "homogenous center", a sovereign space that must remain as broad and inclusive as possible.

In Israel, the nation enjoys a plurality of identities. Yet because we have self-sovereignty, we can contain these internal differences without them leading to the total destruction we saw in the days of Rome.

The Martin Luther Paradox

For nearly two millennia, the definition of the "Jew" was someone without a home.

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther famously mocked the Jews, claiming they boasted of their lineage but could not explain why they remained homeless for 1,400 years. This "homelessness" became the fundamental characteristic of the Jew in the eyes of the nations. Making it easy to see the Jew as perpetually detached and ready to be severed from any "second homeland" he might adopt. And thus also betray and trade that homeland for his own survival. Having non of his own.

The tectonic shift that has occurred around the 16th century when more and more Jews began returning to Eretz Israel was not only because of the persecutions which made Jewish life difficult; rather, the persecutions, came because we were destined to return to a place where we can rule our destiny and exist as Jews.

Today, the hatred directed at Jews is no longer because they are "detached", as in the times of Luther, from the land of Israel. Instead, the accusation has flipped: the Jew is attacked because he is perceived as being too attached to his own land. In his support of Israel.

The battle for Jews to remain "respectable" and "legitimate" in the eyes of the American establishment is rapidly coming to an end. The radicalization of both parties has left very little room for maneuver. This pressure is demanding that Jews return to their sovereign roots.

The Power to Fight Back

Israel is not a sanctuary from danger or hatred; those exist within our borders as much as they do outside of them. However, there is one fundamental difference: Sovereignty.

In Israel, there are systems in place, military, political, and social, that allow us to return fire. In the Diaspora, the Jew is a guest whose legitimacy is subject to the whims of the host. In Israel, the Jew is the host.

In Israel there's a chance to build a political center, and learn the lesson from Rome, in America we are still carrying the stereotypes which came as a result of the Roman exile. As we try to navigate them.

In Israel we are making history, we are writing history, in America we influence a great story. But one that eventually is not ours to design in our image in full.

As the radicalization of the West continues to squeeze the Jewish community, the path back to the "homogenous center" becomes clearer. We are learning once again that the only place where a Jew can contain a multitude of identities and also be sovereign without facing ruin is in a land that is truly his own.

This is the war we are fighting.

Not only a war on anti-semitism, but a war on our national future.