Iam a dove Zionist who believes strongly that American Jewry and Israeli Jewry must live in a state of “interdependent independence.”

As a Zionist, I know the psychological and theological space Israel occupies in my self-definition. Israel's right to be is a sine qua non of my Jewish self. As I worked for the fulfillment of the Zionist ideal, the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own, so do I remain unalterably committed to that state's survival, its security, and its flourishing in peace. Thus, I stand in a symbiotic relationship with Israel. We are interdependently related. So far the description is “standard.”

The word “independent” is the one that raises eyebrows and suspicions among some of my “main line” Zionist friends.