• Young Israelis are avoiding the military in record numbers, with 26 percent of enlistment-age Jewish males and 43 percent of females not drafted in 2006. An alarmed Israel Defense Forces has requested legislation to deny state-provided benefits to Jewish Israelis who do not serve.




• Israel's Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has up-ended the work of the Jewish National Fund, one of the pioneer Zionist institutions (founded in 1901) by determining that its role of acquiring land specifically for Jews cannot continue in the future with state assistance.




• Prominent Israeli historians focus on showing how Israel was conceived in sin and has been a force for evil.




• Israel's ministry of education has approved school books for third-grade Arab students that present the creation of Israel in 1948 as a "catastrophe" (Arabic: nakba).




• Avraham Burg, scion of a leading Zionist household and himself a prominent Labor Party figure, has published a book comparing Israel with 1930s Germany.




• A 2004 poll found only 17 percent of American Jews call themselves "Zionist."

In a forthcoming paper on American Jewish attitudes toward Israel, Steven M. Cohen and Ari Kelman find that while 82% of their broadly representative sample regard themselves as “pro-Israel,” only 28% --and fewer still in the younger cohorts -- see themselves as “Zionists.” Thus, even among the Jews, even among Israel’s supporters, the word has become musty -- or worse, an unwelcome evocation of the judgment of its least sympathetic critics.

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Perhaps some Jews are unwilling to say they are Zionists because they believe, with some justice, that being a Zionist entails thinking seriously about living in Israel, and they aren't ready for Aliya (immigration). Perhaps they are right. Zionism is more than making bellicose statements on behalf of Israel. Perhaps some of them are also put off by portrayals of Zionism that make it seem that Zionists are anti-democratic or racist or opposed to peace. If Zion has become a "four letter word" in the other sense, the way to fix the situation is not by taking stands that are opposed to democracy. Perhaps others are not actually sure of the definition of Zionism.

As for the Arab states and the Muslims whose extremist fervor worries Dr. Pipes, as David Ben-Gurion said, never mind what the others do, the question is, 'what are we going to do?'

Israel was founded in the midst of war and surrounded by states that announced their intention to destroy it. So what else is new? When Zionism was strong, we have always thrived on adversity, growing to face each challenge.

With all due respect to Pipes, as I noted elsewhere, we have all surely seen a lot of predictions and lamentations of this sort:

• A prediction that in ten years Israel would be bankrupt.
  
  

• A poll in which Israelis predicted that the Histadrut would outlast the State of Israel, and that the State would probably not survive 25 years.
  
  

• A cartoon showing a sign at the airport that read "Will the last one to leave the country turn off the lights."

But all those dire portents were evident in the '60s, so apparently they were not so accurate. We are still here. Pipes writes:

To top it off, Arabs are moving these days in the opposite direction, reaching a fever pitch of ethnic and religious bellicosity.

When I first came to live in Israel, Amman radio referred to Israel as "the Zionist entity" and Nasser ruled in Egypt. Nobody beat Nasser for "ethnic bellicosity."

There is plenty of reason to be concerned for Israel or Zionism or the Jewish people, and no reason for complacency. That has been true for the last hundred and ten years at least. However, "Zionism" should not be used as a platform for flogging political opponents and opposing democracy. Fixing the problem entails understanding what is wrong and lending a hand to fix it, not whining about it and expecting Israelis to all adopt Pipesthought and get to work.

Ami Isseroff