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This paper comments upon the two lead articles in the Contemporary Jewry analysis of the Israel distancing hypothesis-the contrasting interpretations of Steven Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman who argue that Jewish Americans, especially younger Jewish adults and the intermarried, are becoming increasingly distant from Israel, and the rejoinder by Theodore Sasson, Charles Kadushin and Leonard Saxe from Brandeis University, who argue that ''… neither the scholarly literature nor survey evidence consistently supports the view that attachment to Israel is declining among American Jews.'' After discussing some methodological shortcomings in the data used in both the Cohen-Kelman and the Sasson-Kadushin-Saxe papers, as well as the reality that the emergence of J-Street as an alternative and youngerJewish-adult-oriented supporter (and critic) of Israel may reflect a qualitative change in younger Jewish adult perspectives on Israel, this commentary focuses upon the puzzling reality that the authors of the two articles present essentially the same data, yet come to radically different conclusions. Both groups of researchers demonstrate that younger Jews are less likely to be strongly attached to Israel; both note that the intermarried are less connected to Israel; both note that the majority of American Jews still feel connected to and support Israel. The Cohen-Kelman articles interpret these data as reflecting generational changes; Sasson-KadushinSaxe interpret the data in a life-cycle change model.