Published: 28 May 2025
Last updated: 28 May 2025
Liberal Zionism, the movement that seeks to reconcile a Jewish state with the principles of democracy, equality, and peace, is facing its most severe test since Israel’s founding. In 2025, the ideals enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence—fairness, equality for all citizens, and the pursuit of peace—have been battered by years of rightward political drift, the trauma of ongoing conflict, and a global crisis of confidence in Zionism itself.
Into this breach steps the newly-launched London Initiative, co-founded by British philanthropist and former CEO of the Conservative Party Sir Mick Davis and British-Israeli equity activist Mike Prashker.
Comments1
Simon Krite30 May at 02:58 pm
Ittay, The vision behind The London Initiative to preserve and revitalise liberal Zionism, is a noble one. To reassert the values embedded in Israel’s founding while navigating a moment of profound political fracture, moral exhaustion, and mounting antisemitism.
But reading this, I’m left with a question that no liberal Zionist seems willing to ask out loud :-
Where is the line?
At what point does a call for balance or nuance start enabling the very forces we claim to resist?
Because right now, we’re not debating theoretical ideals. We’re watching a real enemy, Hamas continue to hold hostages, fire rockets, embed itself in civilian infrastructure, and state clearly it wants to repeat October 7 “again and again.” Meanwhile, our people are still burying their dead, still searching for missing family, still trying to feel safe in synagogues from Paris to Sydney.
And the language from TLI – while emotionally intelligent and politically calibrated, feels like it’s dancing around the hard edges.
You rightly warn of liberal Jews disengaging from Israel. But there’s another danger, just as real: that in trying to hold onto our place in the progressive world, we minimise the threats Israel faces and slowly chip away at the moral clarity needed to survive. A clarity that’s unpopular but necessary.
So again, where is the red line?
When does criticism, even well-intentioned, “legitimate” criticism become part of a broader effort to isolate Israel, strip it of legitimacy, or hand ammunition to those who chant for its end?
At what point does the moral desire to “do better” blur into a self-inflicted moral disarmament?
Liberal Zionism can only be saved if it’s anchored to truth. That includes the uncomfortable truth that the world’s tolerance for Jewish survival, especially when it’s not tidy or morally symmetrical is vanishing. We can’t afford to be vague about that. Do we realy have this luxury?.
Let’s push for decency, for democracy, for Jewish and Arab equality. But let’s also draw our own red lines. Loudly. Unapologetically. And soon. Because once others draw them for us, it’s already too late.