Iinteresting article by Peter Beinhart. Israel has betrayed its Zionist founders because Zionism was about us taking our fate into our own hands and becoming subjects in history, rather than objects. But now it seems that the Palestinians are doing that, while the Israeli government -- the most non-Zionist in Israeli history -- is just twiddling its thumbs and deluding itself that it will all be all right on the night.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-16/israels-palest...
The Palestinians are taking control of their destiny because Israel has not. Zionism, which at its best is the purposeful, ethical effort to make Jews safe in the land of Israel, has become—in this government—a mindless land grab, that threatens Jewish safety and Jewish ethics alike. Once upon a time, when the Arabs were hapless and America was omnipotent, Israel could get away with that. Not anymore. If Barack Obama cannot get Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse—and work toward—a Palestinian state near 1967 lines, events will pass them both by. Others will take the initiative; in the Middle East, the U.S. and Israel will increasingly find their destinies in other nation’s hands. For those of us raised to believe that Americanism and Zionism were can-do faiths, it is harder to imagine any crueler irony than that.