There was a time, just recently, when my perspective on Israel was this: I considered Israel with Netanyahu and the Israeli far-right to be essentially the same as America with Trump and the American far-right. But then I did some additional research, and I discovered some remarkable facts. For example, Israel collaborated with apartheid South African on their nuclear weapons programs. That was prior to Netanyahu. So, what I’ve now discovered is that Israel is not a nation that I can support, and that it’s vitally important to avoid conflating the political state of Israel with the Jewish people, and the political movement of Zionism with Judaism.

Then regarding America, my more recent research led me to recognize that America’s founding ideals have only applied to straight, white, Protestant Christian men. Nobody else in America’s history has consistently enjoyed any of the country’s original promise, from its founding to today. America has always been, and remains, aspirational.

And what I’ve equally discovered is that my adherence to Objectivism, and to Ayn Rand’s model of thinking, is what kept me from making those discoveries much earlier. Rand had taught me that I could make assertions without grounding them in the facts of reality — because that’s what she did throughout her philosophy. It’s only since I threw off her yoke that I started seeing reality more clearly, which has included looking more honestly at history.

I would suggest that for everyone who identifies as an Objectivist.