The Jewish identity and Birthright angle of the Israel-Palestine conflict

"...the rabbi spoke of those who hate Israel and hate the Jews, but did not speak of the Israeli army, which is burning children alive; did not condemn the hate of Israelis for Palestinians. He spoke of peace, but he spoke of peace as a thing to force on the Gaza strip, not a thing for both sides to work toward... I think no one can possibly be reading the Torah anymore because this is not what we were told to do, this is not how we were told to act, and if you believe Israel is yours because God says so, how can you ignore the rest of what he said?"

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/26/israel_is_not_my_birthright/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

"After the 2006 Lebanon war, Brandeis researchers found that Birthright alumni were more likely than other young American Jews to view Israel’s military conduct as justified... Initially, [American youth turned fallen IDF soldier Max Steinberg] didn’t want to go on the Birthright trip, but once he did, it changed him... It turns out that it’s not that hard to persuade young people to see the world a certain way and that Birthright is very good at doing it."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/07/max_steinberg_death_how_birthright_convinces_american_jews_to_embrace_israel.html