Abstract
Both sets of authors work within a set of boundaries I find too constraining. As careful and revealing as their work is, they do not examine their assumptions about the desirability of attachment, about the usefulness of Taglit-Birthright, and about what it means to ask respondents their views on “the West Bank settlements.” Perhaps because of these limits, they neither seek nor find a healthy form of distancing from Israel that might be useful for its holders, for the US Jewish community, and even for Israel itself. I offer a critical response to both articles and to the frameworks and methodology they present.