Re: As I understand it from friends who have been there, Israel is quite secular. The US is much more religious than Israel.
Well, I believe Israel is as religious as the US... The difference is that religion in the US extends far beyond the purview of religious matters proper... Unlike in Europe and Israel, American Judeo-Protestantism is much more than just a religion --it's a political, CONSERVATIVE agenda as well.
Israelis, that is, JEWISH Israelis, are not fighting a Kulturkampf to control the "Israeli soul": their rabbi-stamped Jewishness is enough to bind them together. In the US, however, it's not enough to carry an ID or a passport that proves your US citizenship --you have also to abide by the American creed... Contrariwise, one can be Communist, atheist, gay and refusenik and still be a "kosher Jew"... Yet, Israeli McDonald's serve kosher food, non-religious marriages are not valid, etc.
That whole discussion somehow brings us back to what I said several years ago: unlike Israel, the US is not an ethnic monolith. Conservative, right-wing Israelis don't need to use Judaism (ie the Judaic religion) to wage war against subversive aliens --they're all Jews anyway... But the US has been continuously stirred by racial and cultural conflicts... The American religious right and its conservative allies smear their (liberal) opponents as unAmerican!! They tell their political foes to "leave the country if they don't like it"... Israeli Likudniks don't tell Laborites to leave Israel....
Gus |
