The New Golden Calf

Why do members of Israel's culturatti/intelligentsia (Amoz Oz, David Grossman, etc.) do their utmost to rubbish Israel in front of the world? Isi Leibler takes a stab at explaining their (leftist) mentality:

...THE TRUTH is that being educated or intellectually gifted does not necessarily bestow political wisdom.

For example, throughout history, in antiquity, the Middle Ages and especially in modern times, the genesis of anti-Semitic movements could usually be sourced to intellectual elites rather than originating from the grass roots.

However, the prime motivating factor encouraging liberal Israeli and Diaspora intellectuals to distance themselves from Israel is a desperate passion to be recognized as rising above the parochial interests of the tribe or the nation. Since emancipation, the constant struggle for Jews was to find a balance between particularism and nationalism. Until recently, despite considerable internal opposition, Zionism was accepted as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. As long as Jews suffered and were perceived as underdogs, liberals had few inhibitions in supporting the Jewish state.

However, with the dramatic growth of postmodernism after the Cold War and the emergence of the New Left (which also impacted on Labor Zionism), many liberals began adopting a negative attitude toward all forms of nationalism, including Zionism. The combination of the suffering of the Palestinians, even if self-inflicted, the military power of Israel and the romance of the left with Islam, led to the Jewish state being portrayed as the global epicenter of evil. That was massively reinforced by the explosion of Jew hatred, in which “Zionist colonialism” assumed the role of a surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism.

Today, this has culminated with condemnation of Israel becoming a major prerequisite for being considered a liberal. Thus, many Jewish intellectuals, for whom liberalism was akin to a secular religion and who were desperate to remain within the “progressive” fold, consciously or unconsciously felt impelled to dissociate themselves from the “negative image” of the Jewish state, especially one led by a “right”-wing government...

In other words, these secular Jews have chosen to worship--idolize--a false God: "universalism". I'm no bible expert, but even I know that that story is bound to end badly.