When I was a youth (and a Christian), I shared the common American perception of Israel as a state created to be a homeland for Jews in general and thus worth defending at all costs, since Jews throughout history have been subjected to discrimination and even atrocities, including the Holocaust of World War II. When Israel was first founded in 1948, it was immediately attacked by its Arab neighbors, something I still consider to be one of the dumbest things the Arabs could have done since it made them look no better than the Nazis. Israel not only won that war, but then fought three more wars against its Arab neighbors in the 20th Century, until finally two of these countries, Egypt and Jordan, gave up and signed peace treaties with Israel. That should have ended all Israel’s problems and led to peace for good. But it didn’t!

Fast forward to the early 21st Century. Israel has not been under any serious threat since the 1980s. But it is becoming increasingly obvious to objective observers that not only is Israel discriminating against and even persecuting the Arabs remaining in the land known as Palestine, with absolutely no intention of ever allowing the Palestinian Arabs to establish their own state equal in legal status to Israel itself (something the United Nations specifically called for in 1947) but it is also discriminating against Jews as well that are not of the Orthodox strain that has come to dominate Israel. It’s almost as if Israel is becoming the Jewish version of Saudi Arabia or even…….the “Islamic State” created by ISIS!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/american-jews-warn-israeli-leader-looming-rupture-39538642

American Jews Warn Israeli Leader of Possible ‘Rupture’

• By josef federman, associated press

JERUSALEM — Jun 1, 2016, 4:42 PM ET

A delegation of American Jewish representatives on Wednesday expressed “significant disappointment” over Israel’s failure to carry out a historic agreement to allow non-Orthodox prayers at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that relations with world Jewry could be harmed if the issue is not soon resolved.

The delays in implementing the deal have added to strains between Netanyahu’s government and the liberal streams of Judaism that are dominant in the United States.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said the delegation told Netanyahu on Wednesday that this is a “very serious issue.”

“There is a deep concern, bordering on disbelief, that this deal may not be implemented,” Jacobs said. He said the group had made clear that if the deal doesn’t go forward “it will signal a rupture” with North American Jewry.

Israel’s Cabinet voted this year to build a new plaza for mixed-gender prayer at the Western Wall, adjacent to the current Orthodox prayer plaza. It was viewed as a victory for liberal streams of Judaism, but religious elements in Netanyahu’s coalition government oppose the plan.

The Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, is administered by ultra-Orthodox authorities, who have a monopoly over religious affairs in Israel and oppose mixed-gender or female-led prayers.

In March, Netanyahu’s office said the plan had run into trouble and that he hoped to find a solution within 60 days. Wednesday’s meeting coincided with the end of that two-month period.

Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that he continues to work on the issue and is committed to resolving the matter. Jacobs said he expected to see progress in a matter of weeks.

Netanyahu’s coalition is dependent on ultra-Orthodox parties, limiting his ability to maneuver. But even members of his own Likud Party have antagonized liberal Jewish groups abroad. Earlier this year, Netanyahu’s tourism minister, Yariv Levin, called Reform Judaism a “waning world” that would disappear through assimilation.

Jacobs said the treatment toward his movement is “very painful.”

“We express our love for the Jewish state every day. The Jewish state doesn’t return that love,” he said.

The only way this sort of nonsense will end is if the United States, with the backing of Reform and other more liberal branches of the Jewish communities around the world, ends its support for Israel and seeks the overthrow of the Orthodox dominated government that runs it now. And for that to happen, Reform Jews in the United States need to wake up and realize how Israel’s anti-Arab policies actually INCREASE anti-Semitism around the world. Israel has literally become the worldwide Jewish communities’ own worst enemy!