We might think of Birthright’s work as what scholar Shaul Kelner calls “diaspora-building,” though the organization does not use such language. Talk about closing the distance between Israel and diaspora communities, as Kelner explains, actually elides “the fact that the element of distance is the essential defining feature of the relationship.” Feeling about Israel from a distance, rather than thinking closely about Israel or, you know, moving there, is the point. And this works specifically because diasporic subjects (especially those from nominally multicultural societies) “reject the notion that citizenship alone should define the boundaries of political community.” Which, when you think about it, is weird, Kelner says: Zionist ideology traditionally “holds out immigration as the preferred path.” This is something else, a geopolitically expedient Zionism that affirms nation-building from afar—they’d like you to call your representatives, not move in. Israelis visiting the United States do not feel (or politically need to feel) such a connection.
It’s because Birthright claims that the program is not political that these feelings seem to be above suspicion. There’s now a two-hour lecture on geopolitics! Sure, you’re free to ask any question you want! Yes, your tour guide can speak candidly about the ideological elements of the conflict! They will answer your questions honestly! No one tells them what to say! But Birthright tells them where to go and with whom. Travelers don’t go to Arab sites or spend time in Arab communities or invite Israeli Arabs—much less Palestinians—to participate in mifgash. (And Jewish young adults, activists and non-activists, have been more critical of this in recent years.)
Explicit political rhetoric might be carefully constructed as neutral. But the program’s “political socialization,” as Kelner puts it, is not. “Even in the most balanced of scenarios.” he writes, “… when the discourse paints both Israelis and Arabs in shades of gray, the experience of Israel, and Israel alone, occurs in 3-D Technicolor with Surround Sound.” And that makes sense! The point is not to send Birthright participants home conversant in, or even much interested in, Zionist politics. It might be better if they aren’t! The point is that they feel fondly towards Israel and by extension its politics—that they have an image in mind when Israeli politicians talk about doing whatever is necessary to preserve the Jewish state.