Well no. Because it’s not the same thing at all.
“Next year in Yerushalem” is a religious toast said at the Passover seders every year. It refers not to the modern day Israel but to the concept of Jerusalem when it is in Eretz Yisrael proper, which we will only have in the future Messianic era. It’s entirely incorrect to use it in this context. (For that matter, some traditional views add “the rebuilt”, which refers to the Third Temple, which will be built in that era).
The very religious American (and the few Israeli) Jews who don’t believe in the modern day Israel? Say that toast. For that matter, a significant proportion of the Zionist founders of Israel were non-religious, Communist, and some were even actively anti-religious.
Please don’t use badly researched religious toasts like that.
Anyway;
“Zionism” is a mixture of a wide range of philosophies - I practice Labour Zionism, which is the worker’s Zionism - the Zionism of the Haganuh and the Histadrut, the Zionism of Ben-Gurion, of Einstein and of Rabin (of blessed memory) - and today is nearly identical to the peace movement.
I, on the other hand condemn Revisionist Zionism, Jabotinsky’s Zionism, the Zionism of the far right, of the Irgun. The Zionism of Begin, Shamir and Netanyahu, and of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu. (Sharon basically renounced it in his last years). The Zionism of the hawks.
There is a strong majority for peace in Israel, and a narrower one among the Palestinians. If Israel was dealing only with Fatah, we’d of had one well before now, but sadly we’re also dealing with Hamas. Every time Israel’s made a “sacrifice”, Hamas has used it as a wedge for further attacks, that’s the reality of the situation. There are zealots on both sides, but Israel remains a democratic country of law - Peace Now have had a good deal of success in the courts battling the settlements, for example - whereas Hamas seized the Gaza strip by force.
The reality is there is a strong majority in the Knesset of parties which support a 2-state solution, and Yisrael Beiteinu are splitting themselves off from Likud, taking a more hawkish stance for themselves but dramatically increasing the manoeuvring room Netanyahu has to talk to Fatah. And for all the protest, the reform to raise the vote % for Knesset seats to 3.25% in the next election will do a lot to stabilise Israeli politics against fringe parties.
Soapy - Wouldn’t take two generations. A decade at most…look at Northern Ireland.
