Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is fairly simple: to further frame what is meant by transnational political obligation in a series of three moves, and then to demonstrate how security features in the transnational political obligation of Diaspora/Israel relations. The three moves that make up the first point of this chapter are as follows. First, I revisit how political obligation is not divorced from international considerations. Second, I reveal how the international implications of political obligation share some specific features of Jewish internationalist discourse. Third, I argue that Jewish transnationalism vis-à-vis Israel can be understood as a revision of the previous Jewish internationalism. This revision is somewhat paradoxical, however, as it also incorporates the previous discourse of Diaspora nationalism in its acceptance of Diaspora as an important part of Jewish continuity even in the age of Israel. Said differently, what I am calling Jewish transnationalism between the Diaspora and Israel is a contemporary form of what used to be called Jewish internationalism. The other contribution of this chapter follows from the security element highlighted. This discussion explores how security features in the transnationalism of Diaspora/Israel relations.

In moving away from the statist discourses of political obligation, it will prove helpful to reveal how political obligation does have implications for international relations. The particularity principle involves ignoring the international implications of assuming a moral liberal character of a state. While the following may not be new to scholars of international relations or to the history of colonialism and its close relationship with liberalism, it is worth repeating here because it helps lay some doubt on the claim that political obligation is based on a moral relationship with one's polity. The doubt comes from how this ostensibly moral relationship ignores its immoral consequences. This point is also important because, first, it helps reveal a synergy between liberal discourses of political obligation and the liberal discourses of Jewish internationalism. Second, both political obligation and Jewish internationalism (and then today's Diaspora– Israel transnationalism) involve security dynamics that contribute to shaping their normative value. Moreover, what the raising of security also reveals is that one component of political obligation is not sovereignty or the state or the law, but security.