Natalie Portman and the Crisis of Liberal Zionism

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">This month, Israeli snipers shot <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/2/17188162/gaza-protest-israel-border-violence-demonstrations-palestinian">hundreds of Palestinian protesters</a> — including one journalist wearing a vest marked “PRESS” — who posed no life-threatening danger to them, or to the people they’re meant to protect.</span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman then justified these shootings on the grounds that “<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/There-are-no-innocents-in-Gaza-says-Israeli-defense-minister-549173#/">there are no innocent people in the Gaza Strip,”</a> suggesting that the area’s 1.8 million Palestinian men, women, and children are all legitimate targets of state violence. Meanwhile, Israel <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-african-refugees-20180403-story.html">reneged on an agreement</a> with the United Nations to grant legal status to 40,000 African asylum-seekers (whom the Netanyahu government had previously intended to jail en masse or deport), leaving those <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-admits-no-way-we-can-forcefully-deport-african-asylum-seekers-1.6028656">long-suffering refugees</a> in a state of limbo.<br>And then, Natalie Portman did something controversial.</span></h4> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <img height="426" src="https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/26/26-natalie-portman-shimon-peres.w710.h473.jpg" width="640"></h4></div>

Natalie Portman and the Crisis of Liberal Zionism

This month, Israeli snipers shot hundreds of Palestinian protesters — including one journalist wearing a vest marked “PRESS” — who posed ...

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