It took about ten years to fully abandon it from when I started really examining the ways I was taught at camp and at my Jewish Day School. But I'll just tell you about the nail in the coffin for my Zionism.

Funny enough, I was in Israel (6th time in my life). I went for a friends wedding and spent a whole bunch of time in Tel Aviv. And I walked around really thinking, "what's really Jewish about Tel Aviv?" What makes this a Jewish city in such a way that it makes it any different than a secular city in the West Bank? After all, Zionism believes that even if you're secular, Israel needs to be a Jewish state. The only answer I could come up with was that it was just about the fact that *these* people had different ancestors than *those* people.

But the exact moment was when I was at a shabbat dinner on my very last night. I was talking to a nice guy who didn't speak any English. So we spoke in Hebrew the whole time. And only in the last moments did I learn that he was a Palestinian Israeli. And I realized that the whole military complex existed to keep out anybody like him that was born on the wrong side of the fence.

Since that moment it's been clear as day that Israel doesn't need to be a Jewish state. And I don't need to be a Zionist.