TZIPI LIVNI: The prime minister, deliberately or not, puts American Jews in a very complicated situation. I heard this from some of those I have met with in the past few days -- for them to see this clash between an Israeli prime minister and an American president, this puts them in a situation in which they need to choose a side, and they don't want to be in this situation.

Q: Well, it's not that difficult for many people. Remember that almost 80 percent of American Jews voted for President Obama, so it's not so complicated for some of them.

TL: Even if you voted for President Obama, I think the situation is complicated for you when you have the Israeli prime minister on one side and the American president on the other. It's a nightmare, because we are actually on the same side. It's not Israel vs. the U.S. and vice-versa. We cannot afford this. This is something new. It forced American Jews to take sides.

Q: How do you understand the prime minister's strategy?

TL: Netanyahu believes in hasbara (a Hebrew word that is a cross between "explanation" and "propaganda.") Hasbara is explaining, it is not policymaking. Hasbara is not everything. Hasbara is just making great speeches. And it's not enough. There is an intimacy and trust that is needed between leaders, between their assistants and advisers. Usually you have the real substance behind closed doors, and the press conferences, you have niceties, nice photo ops. But here everything is reversed.



Q: What is your view of how young American Jews relate to Israel and to Zionism today?



TL: Something happened to the State of Israel. What was morally obvious in 1948 is not so obvious anymore. When the State of Israel was established, it was, for the parents and grandparents of these young Jews, a miracle. It was David and Goliath. We were the just cause. It was about values. We were small, but we were the good guys in the world! And we needed to fight for our existence and we succeeded in doing so, so we were both beautiful in terms of the values we represented, and strong enough to confront our enemies.

This was great, but time passes and now we have different trends. One is that there is now in the world of images and perception the reversal of the story, where Israel is the Goliath. And the conflict is usually the picture of Israeli soldiers and the Palestinian child, the tank versus the stone.

So young Jewish people have some difficulties in explaining this and advocating for this. Now, Israel didn't make the decisions that we needed to make. On the one hand, we talk about our aspirations for peace, but on the other hand, we didn't make the decisions necessary to divide the land with the Palestinians. We didn't talk about two states for two peoples. Our leaders are fighting for the right of Israel to build and expand settlements. So without real vision, what is Zionism today? Whether it is about a homeland for the Jewish people, a democracy in the Land of Israel, or is it about Jewish sovereignty over the entire land of Israel? We didn't make this choice internally, so it's difficult for Jews outside Israel to be advocates. On top of this, you have the trend in Israel in which the ultra-Orthodox have the monopoly on Jewishness of the State.



Q: Do you mean how Judaism is defined?