© Mairav Zonszein / Twitter
Everywhere I turn these days, many of my peers have left, are leaving, are planning to leave or are talking about leaving. My family and I included. The reasons for leaving are always personal, and it's hard to point to a specific political trend. But the discourse around leaving is indicative of a real crisis in the Israeli left regarding the inability to effect change, and the increasing sense that our ideals are unwanted and that we are outnumbered. Not just at the polls, but at the family dinner table, too.This is an important piece because it is news, and Zonszein is telling the truth, based on my own travels in Israel earlier this year: lots of left-leaning Jews are thinking of leaving. Two friends of mine have left, a Palestinian and a Jew, because they feel their idealistic hopes of coexistence have no place in Israel. Zonszein says the debate over emigration is raging on her Facebook page and on the Haaretz opinion pages. In January in New York, at a Haaretz photo exhibition, Chemi Shalev mentioned the discussions of emigration, and the immense social pressure against it. Five years ago Gideon Levy reported that more and more Israelis were seeking foreign passports, for fear of the society coming apart.
Comment: Every step fraught with danger: Refugee children face beatings, rape and forced labor along with risk of drowning