The Holocaust lends itself perfectly to Israel's two reigning 'isms' - nationalism and emotionalism.  Aren't historic events supposed to diminish in their impact over time? Not the Holocaust, not in Israel. Today's Holocaust Remembrance Day just seems bigger, more enveloping, more sanctimonious, more commanding than ever. John Kerry just arrived last night to kick off what is supposed to be the Obama administration's last-gasp attempt at Middle East peacemaking, and I open up Yediot Aharonot - which, along with Channel 2, is the most accurate reflection of the Israeli public's personality - and it's page after page after page of…

The Jewish diaspora didn't always march lockstep behind Israel. My great-grandmother--who escaped pogroms and lost family in the Holocaust--was an anti-Zionist. Rampant anti-Semitism drove my great-grandmother from Eastern Europe. There’d been pogroms; there were restrictions on the type of work Jews could do. My family made their way to New York City with little more than the clothes on their backs; the relatives they’d left behind disappeared during the Holocaust, never to be heard from again. So when the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine in 1947, my great-grandmother’s son, my grandfather, rejoiced. He ran into…