Many in the west tend to view Israel through the lens of collective guilt as a result of the tragedies that befell the Jews in World War 2. The days when Israel was a fledgling state are long over. Today it is in fact a Goliath in the Middle East, a recipient of American backing and armed to the teeth with high tech weaponry.

Over the years there has been the growth of a militant form of religious Zionism in Israel aided by backers in America. Religious Zionism has a racist undercurrent and encourages a mindset that hearkens back to the Biblical wars in the Old Testament as a way of justifying Israeli aggression against its neighbors. The publications given to Israeli soldiers by the IDF rabbinate prior to the recent Gaza operation reflect these sentiments as the newspaper Haaretz has pointed out. The rabbinate publications have been criticized by Israeli human rights groups such as Breaking the Silence and Yesh Din.

Israel supporters in the west justify Israeli aggression on "never again" grounds and because of the 'special relationship.' However the chances of Israelis becoming the victims is slim to zero. When Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai spoke of a holocaust he associated it with the possible fate of the Palestinian people:

"The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah [holocaust]."

It is often said that those who have been abused act out the abuse toward others. On a psychological level, there is evidence that elements within the Israeli political and military structure are acting out a dark side of the Israeli psyche by turning the Palestinians into victims - similar to the way in which European Jews were turned into victims a few short decades ago.

The language that comes from certain Rabbis devalues Palestinians, in much the way the Jews were devalued in the 30's. Not so long ago the former chief Sephardi rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu said the life of a thousand Arabs wasn't worth the life of one Jew. He also called for the carpet bombing of Gaza, irrespective of how many Palestinians were killed. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner also takes a hardline approach. Aviner's controversial opinions showed up in booklets that the army rabbinate gave to soldiers en route to Gaza.

The Israeli Cast Lead planners didn't balk at using high tech weaponry in response to the firing of wildly inaccurate homemade rockets. Less than 20 dead Israelis in 8 years of rocket firing is a far cry from thousands of dead and wounded Palestinians in what can only be described as a civilian massacre in Gaza.

The state of Israel as it is presently constituted poses a grave threat to our collective future. The recent Gaza outrage has caused many Americans to take a second look at what type of nation they are empowering. Gaza also prompted many American and Canadian Jews to draw a clear line between their faith and their heritage... and Zionism. In doing so a number have expressed deep reservations about the direction Israel is taking.

The identification of the state of Israel with Jewishness entails a leap that some Israelis themselves would question - not just progressive Israeli secularists, but also those Orthodox Jews who draw a line between their Jewish faith and the Zionist state.

Yakov M. Rabkin, a Professor of History at the University of Montreal, is the author of Threat Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism. A passage from the book illustrates the impact of Zionism upon pure, Torah-based Judaism:

"Worse than the toll of suffering, exploitation, death, and desecration of the Torah, has been the inner rot that Zionism has injected into the Jewish soul. It has dug deep into the essence of being a Jew ... It has wreaked havoc among Jews both in Israel and America, by casting us in the role of Goliath-like oppressors. It has made cruelty and corruption the norm for its followers."

The threat that should concern us all relates to Israeli ultra-nationalism, racism and institutionalized discrimination.