Zionism Should Not Be a Conservative Sine Qua Non

For many decades, I’ve argued against making Zionist nationalism a centerpiece of American conservatism. I came to this view after having unintentionally offended high-placed Zionists in the American conservative establishment. In 1987, I discovered to my shock that several of these people called the dean of humanities at Catholic University of America to warn against giving me a graduate professorship in political theory. The reason for this admonition, as I later learned, was that I was “not quite reliable in the matter of Israel.”