Chapter 5: Reevaluating Settlement Polic
The question is not whether the settlers are brave and idealistic but whether the settlement project is smart or stupid, whether it contributes to or detracts from the values, goals, and aims of Zionism as it redefines itself in the 21st century.
In political life, stupidity is the greatest sin, not immorality or illegality. Stupidity does greater harm to our fellow human beings than immorality. Many Israelis and Diaspora Jews assume that because the settlements are obnoxious to the Arabs they must be good for the Jews. We have not considered the notion that the settlements might be both obnoxious to the Arabs and dysfunctional to Jewish interests. David Ben Gurion once remarked that the Jewish People have an absolute moral and historical right to the entire Land of Israel but that we also have the right not to exercise this moral and historical right if it interferes with other more vital rights and needs of the Jewish people.

Chapter 6: The Future of Arab-Jewish Relations
The first principle pertaining to our relations with the Arabs should be what is good for the Jews. Any call for Jews to sacrifice or even risk sacrificing their vital interests in the name of peace should be rejected. Jewish relations with the Arabs must be fair but firm, with an unconditional demand for reciprocity. What we should demand from ourselves regarding the Arabs we must demand from the Arabs regarding ourselves. Without fairness, we will not achieve peace. Without firmness, we will not prevail.
Firmness refers not only to military firmness, but to a reciprocal moral standard. Because peace means so much to Israelis, we have often overlooked corruption, incompetence, and racism in Arab countries as well as in many self-governing bodies of Israel’s own Arab citizens. We must adopt a policy of zero tolerance for Arab corruption and racism as well as dismissive contempt for legitimate Jewish rights. We must also adopt a policy of zero tolerance for Jewish corruption and racism as well as dismissive contempt for legitimate Palestinian rights.

Chapter 7: Living With the Christians
The future of Jewish-Christian relations must be based upon a reaffirmation of Jewish cultural particularity and the end of Jewish apologetics. It is incumbent upon the Jews, as the minority, to draw clear lines regarding the ideational differences between Christianity and Judaism. Ecumenism does not mean the blurring of precise analytical inquiry for fear of offending or provoking those with a different view of life or the need to compromise or shade our view of the world in order to be socially acceptable or immune to physical threat or implicit political intimidation.
Post-Christian secular society has inherited from its Christian roots a subliminal background music that remains essentially anti-Jewish. Innumerable negative images of Judaism that endanger Jewish identity have insinuated themselves into modern post-Christian secular civilization. Examples of these are:

“Talmudic thinking” as derogatory

Jesus and the moneychangers as a legitimate purifying act in defiance of a degenerate and corrupt religious establishment

Tribal Judaism versus catholic (universal) Christianity

Legalistic Judaism versus Christian love


We Jews have been remiss in developing ways and means to combat these subliminal attacks on Jewish self esteem. How do we assert our cultural integrity in repelling the missionary assault of some Christians without offending our Christian and post-Christian allies and weakening our political position? The relationship between Christians and Jews requires a new set of rules. We Jews must take the lead in setting them. Our principles must be firm, but our strategy and tactics must be informed with the principle of Derech Eretz—good manners.

Chapter 8: The Future of Israeli Culture
The Arabs have constantly claimed that Israel is a foreign Western implant and should integrate itself into the region, that is, reject the West and integrate itself into the Middle East. Let us examine this claim in greater detail. When we get specific, we can easily see the absurdities of multiculturalism as it applies to Israel’s future.
Should Israel aspire to the judicial system of Iran or the judicial system of England?
Should Israel aspire to the civil service of Egypt or the civil service of France?
Should Israel aspire to the rights of women in Saudi Arabia or the rights of women in Sweden?
Should Israel aspire to the technological level of Yemen or the technological level of the United States?
Should Israel aspire to a Third World standard of living or to a Western standard of living?
Should Israel aspire to a welfare society or to a subsistence society?
What is the future of Israeli culture? Cultural pluralism yes, multiculturalism, no! We must strive to create a meta-culture that reflects the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and contains subcultures that do not contradict these rights.

Chapter 9: Why be Jewish?
The challenge facing all cultures in the 21st century is how to assimilate into the modern world without losing one’s identity. Identity has become more a matter of individual choice than of historical inheritance. Judaism has survived because it has been historically adaptive. From the patriarchs through the judges and kings to the prophets, throughout the 2,000-year history of rabbinical Judaism, the Jews adapted to the necessities of mostly negative external forces.However, modern global civilization has now given us the opportunity to exploit our adaptive gifts as a positive agent for our own creative growth rather than as a response to negative externals.

Chapter 10: Transformation
Being a Jew means to feel oneself a part of a community. Jewish identity and Jewish community are for many one and the same. Certainly, significance of community is a fundamental value of Judaism.  It would not be an exaggeration to claim that alienation from the community is a greater cause of assimilation than one’s lack of ritual observance or religious agreement.  This is because being Jewish manifests itself in a sense of belonging and an active desire on the part of the Jewish individual to attach himself or herself to some aspect of Jewish communal life no matter what his or her level of religious observance.Judaism might be a religion, but Jewishness is an ethnicity.
Rather than one Israeli-Diaspora relationship, we might have a multitude of Israeli-Diaspora relationships. The future may consist of 50 Israeli cultural nodes, 20 American Jewish cultural nodes, and 15 European Jewish cultural nodes all interacting with one another across a global web of Jewish cultural and social activity.