"Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces"
About this Quote
The stacking of targets does the real work. "Jewish virtue" smuggles a moral essentialism into the sentence, turning a diverse people into a single, flattering abstraction. Then "modern Zionism" narrows the frame from Jewish identity to a specific political project, and "the Israeli Defense Forces" narrows it further to a military institution. That progression isn't accidental; it collapses distinctions many people work hard to keep clear: Jew vs. Israeli, Zionism vs. Judaism, state policy vs. a people's safety. It's a rhetorical escalator: start with anodyne praise, end with endorsement of power.
Context matters because Rivera is a TV-era journalist, trained in the heat of cable news where narratives win by emotional clarity, not nuance. The line plays like a counterpunch to criticism of Israel: if you won't "extol", you're suspect. Subtext: dissent isn't just wrong, it's morally tainted. It's also a neat inversion of scrutiny. Rather than interrogating a state's actions, the audience is asked to affirm a set of virtues, turning politics into character and foreign policy into identity.
The intent, then, is not analysis but alignment: to force the conversation onto terrain where skepticism can be recast as prejudice and solidarity becomes a broadcast ritual.
Quote Details
| Topic | Military & Soldier |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rivera, Geraldo. (2026, January 17). Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/extol-jewish-virtue-modern-zionism-and-the-63249/
Chicago Style
Rivera, Geraldo. "Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/extol-jewish-virtue-modern-zionism-and-the-63249/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Extol Jewish virtue, modern Zionism and the Israeli Defense Forces." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/extol-jewish-virtue-modern-zionism-and-the-63249/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.


