The phrase “my country wrong or right,” is one of most relevant sentences regarding my dilemmas on the topic of “Patriotism.” In the World War II, the Nazi patriotism was not only for Hitler, the “Fhrer,” but also for the “Heimat” – the homeland. The second world war has created a new kind of patriotism.

The surveys in Europe stated that patriotism is “out,” until the rising of radical Islam. Now, the phenomena of local patriotism in multi- national states, or national states, become more common. This issue deconstructs the term patriotism. There is no more “my country wrong or right,” but now there is “my country is right, and therefore has my support;” and “my country is a good democratic country with values and more good things, thus, has my support.” This is the new patriotism. If you apply this new patriotism on Israel, then Israelis have the best case to be patriots. Israel has a humanitarian mission – to be the home to a homeless nationality on a very small piece of land, in the grand Middle East. 

Israeli patriotism, in my eyes, comes from the fact that Israel is a country that fights a very long-term hard war and battle with open borders. The Israelis can, in principle, run away to almost any country in the world, mostly without the need for a visa. They choose not to do so and that is without a doubt a form of patriotism that has to be attended to and not be overlooked. 

Many ask and discuss the Israeli Arabs patriotism, but that can not be the question. We can not demand this from them. Moreover, it is wrong to ask them to identify with our Jewish Zionist symbols and anthem. We can expect, as part of the new patriotism, that they will support the country as supporters of the good country. Support for the democratic country that is surrounded by dictatorships. To people that object to this, I say it is better to be a minority in a democracy then to be the majority in a dictatorship. This is different than examining patriotism.

To summarize, I will say two things: the survey done for us has revealed that among young people coming from lower classed backgrounds, the level of patriotism is very low. This fact is not surprising since those two factors go hand in hand. There has to be a process of closing the large social gaps between the center and periphery, as well as those between rich and poor. I conclude by saying the phrase “patriotism as solidarity.” This is the patriotism I support.