Israel: It’s time to dream again 

Israel was born of dreams: the reality of a living state was never going to measure up.  

But in recent years Israel has become dangerously removed from the dreams of its founders and the values of many of its citizens and supporters.  

There is a deep divide between those who believe in a Jewish state by any means and those who demand a Jewish state that encompasses humanist, liberal and democratic values.  

Anger that Israel is not the country it has promised to be, nor the country its citizens deserve, is playing out on its streets in the huge and passionate protest movement.  

Disappointment that it is not a country that represents our core values is tearing apart Jewish communities around the world. Our sense of shared destiny has been heightened by October 7 and rising global antisemitism. But our belief in the country has been shaken by its autocratic drift and by its failure to consider the extremity of civilian suffering in Gaza.  

Recognition that Israel is no longer a reliable liberal democracy is distancing those who should be her allies and friends, forcing the long-touted “only democracy in the Middle East” to the margins of international relations. 

The first stage of Zionism, the belief that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in our ancient homeland, is done. The state is well and truly a reality: not just an ingathering of exiles but a nation state where 80% of the citizens are born Israelis with no other land. This is the country which revived a dead language, built cities out of desert, and sends high tech inventions, Olympians and Eurovision artists onto the world stage.