The Diaspora between American and Israeli Jews continues in part because of Zionism. Many American Jews argue that Israel should be integrated into the region but Herzl would not be in favor of this. However, the debate between American Jews and Israeli Jews often revolves around this issue. On the one hand many argue that the Diaspora creates a cultural drain in Israel as many Jews emigrate to America. Recently this group has severely attacked Zionism as the root of all that ails contemporary Israel in terms of politics and the economy. As Hans-Heino Kopietz argues: “Like an ingrown toenail, looking inward, it has assumed that its own existence is constantly under threat. This predisposition leads to paranoia, a difficult mental state to cure, and its cure is very expensive. Israel’s current security budget is around 15% of its GDP, which stands at over $80 billion. It was over 30% of GDP a very few years ago. It will again be as high or even higher in the coming years” (2).
Despite such criticism of Israeli policies based on an alleged unwillingness to integrate in the region. Whether American or Israeli, all Jews believe that Jerusalem is the land of the Jews given to them by God. Not only is this the case but those who wish to see integration in the area forget the continual and terrorist actions of the Arab world against Israelis. Certainly Arafat’s sanction of numerous suicide bombings against Israeli’s is evidence that little has changed in this respect. It is obvious that many members of the Arab world would like nothing better than to completely remove Jews from the Middle East altogether. Moreover, the recent shift away from Zionism and Zionist historiography takes away the ever present danger of the Arab threat by removing photos and discussions of things like the Arab invasion of 1948 and the War of Independence.
On the other side of the debate we see that American influence in Israel is undeni...