study on Israel shows detachment

Apropos the last entry on finding an authentic relationship to Israel for this generation:_A few years ago over coffee, an acquaintance told me that his family always treated Israel differently from all other places. As a child, he was encouraged to use his critical judgment on every topic except Israel. On Israel, he knew exactly how he “had to” feel._That clearly didn’t sit right with him. And he believed his discomfort with Israel resonated with many other people he knew._Given this story and many others like it, I was not surprised to read the recent study on American Jews and Israel by Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman, Beyond Distancing: Young Adult American Jews and their Alienation from Israel. Airtight analysis and manifold charts demonstrate incontrovertibly a declining attachment to Israel among younger generations. Hardly the news most Israel supporters wanted to hear on the eve of the country’s 60th anniversary._The crux of the argument is that younger Jews are less likely to have a strong and unconditional emotional attachment to Israel than their parents did (and their parents less than their grandparents, for this is a declining trend over generations, not a sudden change). Fewer say they are proud of Israel, fewer consider themselves “supporters of Israel”, and fewer believe caring about Israel is “a very important part of my being a Jew”._But maybe the questions were wrong? Maybe the study was asking questions of 20-year-olds that actually belong to a 50-year-old’s conversation? What are the right questions then?