Of those Jewish academics and journalists who inhabit the far Left, Noam Chomsky probably says it best: “Israel is a criminal state.” From that opening shot, Professor Chomsky, I assure you, has harsher words to follow — all of them designed to make it clear just how self-hating a Jew he, in fact, is. It’s no wonder that Chomsky has long been the poster boy for the Loopy Left.

Unfortunately, Chomsky is hardly alone. That’s why I remembered that at one point in Philip Roth’s The Anatomy Lesson (1983), Milton Appel (loosely modeled on the late Irving Howe) writes the following note to a confidant of Nathan Zuckerman (loosely modeled on Philip Roth): “Why don’t you ask your friend Nate Zuckerman to write something on behalf of Israel for the Times Op-Ed page. He could surely get it in there.” Appel knows that if he stands with Israel in her time of need, that wouldn’t exactly be news. But if Zuckerman did, now that would be something.

At this point let me ruminate about what Appel-Howe’s contemporary, real-life counterparts might say as the Israeli-Hizbullah war heated up and Israel once again faced an existential crisis. After all, her enemies can lose one war, six wars, a dozen wars; by contrast, Israel can lose only one. I mention this because when certain TV analysts rattled on about Israel’s “overkill” in Lebanon, I wanted to remind them of what real overkill looks like — namely, as expressed in the rhetoric from the president of Iran as he reasserts the old Arab wish of “killing all the Jews and driving them into the sea.” Unlike other enemies, apparently, Jews need to be doubly expunged.

Given this level of ugly hyperbole, it would hardly be news if Cynthia Ozick wrote the defense-of-Israel piece Appel had in mind. But what about other Jewish-American writers: If Norman Mailer or E.L. Doctorow, for instance, has weighed in about the recent conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border, I have not seen his remarks. Who knows what they might say, gun to their heads, on The Charlie Rose Show or on the stage of the 92nd Street Y?

What I do know, however, is that it would be easier to predict what an older generation of Jewish-American writers might have said. Take Leon Uris (Exodus, 1958), for example, or Chaim Potok (The Chosen, 1967). Is there any doubt as to how willing they would have been to take up Appel’s challenge?

Why, then, have so many Jewish-American writers turned a deaf ear to this debate? No doubt some are reluctant to dip their toes into the complicated, churning waters of Middle East politics, either because they find it awkward to give Israelis advice (much less criticism) from the safe haven of America or because they know full well that they don’t know. Unfortunately, others have less defensible positions. To stand with Israel is to become a lightning rod for the world’s hatred, and far too many intellectuals, be they academics or creative writers, have lived so long championing any movement containing the word “liberation” (including the Palestinian Liberation Movement), supporting every social cause (with the notable exception of Jewish ones), and shaking off any vestment of Jewish religious observance, study, or identification that writing a few kind words about Israel would require an enormous cultural sea change.

The Jewish Divide is a crucially important collection because its 17 essays, by such contributors as Ozick, David G. Roskies, and Irving Louis Horowitz, usefully explain the new anti-Semitism — directed against Israel as an aggressive, imperialistic state — and provide devastating portraits of the most prominent Israel bashers and enough argumentation (think of it as “intellectual ammunition”) to help general readers sharpen the ongoing debate about Israel and Jewish-Americans.

No doubt those who find themselves between the crosshairs of these essays will object, insisting that they misrepresent positions or that they only show one side of a complicated coin.

For what it’s worth, I have little sympathy for Jewish Americans who attend fashionable dinner parties on the Upper East Side and shed their tears for terrorists launching rockets at Israel from Gaza or southern Lebanon. But that said, I think general readers should make up their own minds. I also think that the essays collected in The Jewish Divide offer a superb way to start.