We have to let our eyes grow accustomed to this new picture, in which the ties that bind Arabs in northern Israel to their state are progressively weakened, even as the Jewish majority wrestles with the question of whether it has the right to do anything in response.
The pro-Israeli mindset of Jewish Democrats is most evident on the basic question of who's to blame for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
So it is an irony, the authors observe, that the acceptability of a Jewish state should be called into question anew by sophisticated critics in the West just when most Israelis have come around again to accepting the need for a Palestinian one.
The Israeli parliament has passed a law that allows the state to deny funding to institutions that question the country's existence as a Jewish state.
The question is, why are American Jewish leaders defending Obama?
Its advocates claim that putting Jewish restitution on the table is not only a question of justice, but could help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by leading to mutual recognition of the plight of each side's refugees.
Last week, Israel's Supreme Court issued a ruling that calls into question the long-standing policy of locating Jewish communities in areas for strategic purposes.
The question that arises is this: Would the Jewish people today have a fairer claim to the land if they dealt justly with the Palestinians?
There is ample precedent for both positions, including a nearly identical case regarding a neighborhood in Barkan where the land in question belonged - without question - to a private Jewish landowner.
The house in question had been bought from its Palestinian owners by an American Jewish businessman, Irving Moskowitz, who also owns a large tract nearby on which he proposes to build an entire Jewish suburb.
Russian Orthodox Church leaders say they asked the question not because they suspect there's any truth in the Jewish conspiracy theory, but because they want the government to help them put an end to any lingering doubts in the minds of Russian believers.
What is in question is the viability of an Islamic republic -- or for that matter, a Jewish state, a Christian empire, a Hindu fundamentalist government -- or any state or movement that is defined not by the democratic apparatus of citizenry, but by exclusionary membership in a world religion.
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