AP Photo

The spectacle of the Jewish state behind walls is a melancholy sight. Historically and philosophically, it is a disappointment; and a failure, too, if you believe that Israeli action or inaction is responsible for some of the enmity—it is not remotely responsible for all of the enmity—that drives it to shut itself in. Of course Tel Aviv and its environs, the metropolitan miracle on the coast, is the antithesis of a confinement—it feels like the future, even if sometimes also like a fool’s paradise; and there is no wire and no concrete that cannot be digitally breached. Porousness comes in many forms. The notion that Israel is a ghetto is false and cheap. There is cosmopolitanism inside the enclosure. But Israel’s isolation is both voluntary and...