Please don't say that. I told you they are my friends, they are highly educated individuals, and prominent members of society who advocate for the rights of citizens, and especially citizens of the Jewish community. They are secular because many of them do not believe in God or are agnostic, and not because they are ignorant. Ignorant would be the last word you would think of using regarding these Jews. Furthermore, most of them religiously celebrate every Jews holiday, although I don't know one that observes the Sabbath. For them, Judaism is a cultural tradition which they observe and defend even if many of them do not believe in God.
Again, I don't in any way mean to suggest or express contempt or derision for your friends. I am not saying that they are bad people, nor am I saying that they are ignorant in general, or stupid people. But it seems clear that they lack Jewish education-- which again, makes them number among many American Jews, and some not from America as well. There is a serious problem of undereducation in the Jewish community today, so it's not like I am suggesting they are themselves at fault.
Do your friends speak Hebrew? Have they really learned Torah? Have they studied Talmud or Midrash or Jewish thought? Whether they keep the commandments or not, do they know how to do so, and do they have clearly reasoned objections as to the ones they don't keep (for example, you don't have a single Jewish friend who keeps the Sabbath-- not only the most important of all Jewish holidays, but one of the most central duties/privileges/rituals of Judaism: why don't they do so? What is their reasoning and justification for not observing the Sabbath? Have they ever observed it? Do they really understand what observing it means?) Have they been to Israel? Lived there? Do they really know Jewish history? Are they well read in the literature of our people?
If so, then I am surprised, and I withdraw my presumption. But I would be very surprised indeed. Undereducation is terribly rampant in our Jewish society today, and I have met very, very few secular Jews who are truly Jewishly literate and have made their decisions with full comprehension of the tradition and our history. They do exist, but they are extremely rare. And the vast majority of secular Jews-- especially those who tend to express anti-Israel opinions-- tend not to be adequately Jewishly educated. Like I said, there are always the exceptions; but they are rare, I find.
I respect your view, but you know that not all Jews have the same view, and having different views does not make them less Jewish. Their view may make them less Zionist and less religious, but not less Jewish.
I am not suggesting it makes them less Jewish. I would never suggest such a thing. As I said before, I am not suggesting it makes them bad or stupid people, either. I am merely suggesting that it seems likely that their opinions arise from being inadequately Jewishly informed.
If they are, in fact, adequately Jewishly informed, and do in fact have educated and nuanced reasons behind their political beliefs, then yes, their statements are a part of the spectrum of Jewish opinions, albeit a fairly small part.
My friends wear kippahs at weddings, funerals, and religious celebrations and I have on several occasions when invited, and no one has ever ridiculed any of us, and that thought does not even enter our minds. I am sorry if you have those issues where you live, but the place where we live has a very strong and prominent Jewish presence and Judaism here is non-issue, as Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, and others are also non-issues. There are many synagogues, temples, Jewish community centers and Hebrew Academies.
I have mostly lived in pretty cosmopolitan and Jewishly rich areas as well, but even in those places, I have occasionally encountered anti-Semitism, or veiled unfriendliness which seems anti-Semitically motivated. I have actually met relatively few Jews who have never at all encountered any anti-Semitism. If you really have so little anti-Semitism in your area that your friends have never encountered any, they are very fortunate indeed, but hopefully they are equally aware that their experience is very much out of the ordinary.
I have lived in one of the greatest Jewish communities in America-- the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles, and I now live right outside one of the other such communities: Skokie, Illinois; I have many friends who have lived in these communities and in the communities in New York, and other major communities here and abroad: the largest, most diverse, safest Jewish communities in the world. And every one I have met who has been to Israel still says that it is unlike anything they've ever known before-- that they never thought they'd had a feeling of unease or unwelcome until they came to Israel and felt what it was like to really feel at home.
My concern is for the Jewish people. I was a military man, and I see Israel's foreign policy as unsustainable and as a recipe for disaster in the long run from a military standpoint. Furthermore, its foreign policy alienates many Jewish people and fuels the fires of anti-Semites.
Anti-Semites need nothing from the Jews to fuel their fires: those fires would burn regardless of what Israel did or did not do.
And while I still maintain that many Jews who claim "alienation" from Israel because of "foreign policy" are simply uneducated in the matter, as for those who are not uneducated in the matter...sometimes Jews disagree. Sometimes outrage at some very specific legitimate issues-- such as the need to curb unauthorized small settlements in the West Bank, and to scale back certain authorized developments there also-- are decontextualized or misunderstood or otherwise used as generalizations to cover other issues that require different, more cautious or aggressive tactics. Wars are never popular, and in the very admirable search for peace, some people sometimes are blinded by their good intentions to the necessities of defense. And quite often, issues are mixed and muddled: there are indeed a number of serious public issues on which the Israeli government and perhaps Israeli society deserves criticism, and these are often erroneously merged with decisions regarding Israeli security.
Ultimately, the real issue here is that the Palestinian problem is not going to be solved by Israel giving up and running away, or by Israel pretending that everything will work out okay if they can just decide to trust terrorists. Israel does need to be prepared to negotiate in good faith with responsible partners, and some difficult choices need to be made about the realities of establishment of a Palestinian State in the West Bank (and Gaza, if Hamas ever cedes power, or relinquishes its anti-Israel agenda). But a lot of work in solving this issue needs to happen on the Palestinian side. The major impediment to peace doesn't come from Israel. It comes from the territories, and those who back radical groups, terrorist groups, and even to some degree from those governments who are trying to use the Palestinian authorities and people as pawns in the regional political game.
And while a responsible Jewish State needs to be prepared to negotiate and to make hard choices in the interests of peace, it also needs to be strong and not give in to blackmail by terrorism.
The children of several Jewish people I know have served in Israel, and others say that the practice is madness. Some of the ones who oppose the practice are members of the New Israel Fund.
NIF aren't bad folks. I'm moderately friendly with Daniel Sokatch, their CEO, and he's a good guy. He and I don't always see eye to eye, but he's good people. And I can tell you, he sure would never say he is an anti-Zionist. It's true that NIF has given money to some organizations that then turned around and did some pretty treacherously anti-Israel stuff; but I'm not convinced that NIF knew anything about that. And it's also true that NIF has advocated some things I'm not sure all its own members agreed with. But it also does a lot of good work with Israeli civil rights causes, and religious pluralism in Israel.
Very left-wing organizations can attract some bitter people, the same as very right-wing organizations. Doesn't have to taint the whole organization.
Aside from your sentiments about a home for the Jews, which I respect, do you have any concerns about the long term prognosis on the country?
In a non-religious sense, I have faith in Israel. Frankly, I am far more concerned about internal civil rights issues and religious pluralism issues than with foreign policy issues: if we can get the former under control, the latter will get figured out sooner or later.
(No one has courage to debate or say the truth as they scare of a very sharp weapon is called Anti-Semitism !! ( mouths are full of thick foams made in ....... ). ))