Arutz 7 has an article about how the new Reform curriculum is designed to alienate Reform Jews from Israel. The article gives examples of how it trains the students to look critically at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in various ways..
I've seen people online comment angrily about how the Reform are again separating themselves from the Jewish people, acting anti-Israel, and whatnot.
While I think it is sad and wish Reform would teach differently and show themselves in practice to be more pro-Israel, I am not quite sure they are entirely at fault here. When Israel pushes away the Reform as much as Israel does and openly rejects them, can one really blame the Reform for then turning its back on Israel and teaching its members to look at Israel in a more critical way?
Even if Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, wants to be more inclusive of the Reform, as he is sometimes accused of, if in practice he is prevented from doing so then they legitimately feel slighted and rejected. If every time they want to strengthen ties and create a community in Israel living by the way they want to live they are rejected, whether it is funding for their community institutions, or land to build schools or their style of worship or activism or anything else, can one really blame them for then rejecting Israel?
The debate might become the chicken or the egg, did Israel first reject Reform or did Reform first reject Israel, but it seems to me that if the Reform are told the only way they can live in Israel is by Orthodox rules, I wouldn't expect anything different than what the article describes.
And those who regularly reject Reform and their attempts to get closer to Israel should definitely not suddenly be upset when the Reform change their attitude to Israel.
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