The Victory Of Zionism

In his new book, The Victory of Zionism, Emmanuel Navon challenges the popular belief that the future of Zionism depends on the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, powerfully defending the idea of a Jewish nation-state from its assaulters both at home and abroad. In direct opposition to Peter Beinart's The Crisis of Zionism, Navon argues that Israeli democracy is not threatened by the status-quo with the Palestinians but by judicial activism. He reveals how, over the years, the separation of powers in Israel was replaced by a hierarchy of powers dominated by the Judiciary; exposes the European Union's interference in Israeli politics via government-funded NGOs; shows the consequences of the United States' blundering foreign policy; and explains the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Navon argues that the corrupt nature of the PLO, the rise of Islamic fanaticism, and the failure of Arab states to promote democracy make for a conflict that is essentially unsolvable. He reminds readers that Israel, a democratic and technological powerhouse in the midst of the most volatile region in the world, has a key role to play on the international stage. The Victory of Zionism is a must read for leaders, opinion-makers, and citizens who care about the future of Israel and of the Middle East.

A leading historian applies his deep understanding of the Middle East to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict—the most intractable, emotive clash of the past century. Daniel Pipes argues that this long struggle pits two unique and doomed mentalities that exist outside of normal politics against each other, making it so difficult to comprehend. One mentality consists of rejectionism, or the Palestinians’ negation of Jews, Judaism, Zionism, and Israel. Rejectionism accounts for their enduring goal of genocide, their refusal to take yes for an answer, their unwillingness to seek improved living circumstances, and their determination to defame the Jewish state. The other mentality consists of conciliation, or the Zionists’ attempt to win Palestinian acceptance not by defeating their enemy, but by enriching and placating it. Pipes argues against this anomalous Zionist approach, advocating instead the traditional method of ending a war— through victory: Palestinians give up, Israel wins. In a brilliant essay that brings surprisingly fresh insights and original policy recommendations to a well-worn topic, Pipes draws lessons from past “peace process” failures, delves into the universal nature of defeat and victory, and offers practical advice on how Israel can win: through minimal violence and maximal messaging. Both sides need an Israel Victory to break with the static pull of outdated mentalities. For Israel, it means acceptance, especially among Muslims and on the global Left. For the Palestinians, Israel Victory means liberation from a destructive obsession, enabling them finally to build a polity, economy, society, and culture worthy of their skills and ambitions.

Judith Butler follows Edward Said’s late suggestion that through a consideration of Palestinian dispossession in relation to Jewish diasporic traditions a new ethos can be forged for a one-state solution. Butler engages Jewish philosophical positions to articulate a critique of political Zionism and its practices of illegitimate state violence, nationalism, and state-sponsored racism. At the same time, she moves beyond communitarian frameworks, including Jewish ones, that fail to arrive at a radical democratic notion of political cohabitation. Butler engages thinkers such as Edward Said, Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, and Mahmoud Darwish as she articulates a new political ethic. In her view, it is as important to dispute Israel’s claim to represent the Jewish people as it is to show that a narrowly Jewish framework cannot suffice as a basis for an ultimate critique of Zionism. She promotes an ethical position in which the obligations of cohabitation do not derive from cultural sameness but from the unchosen character of social plurality. Recovering the arguments of Jewish thinkers who offered criticisms of Zionism or whose work could be used for such a purpose, Butler disputes the specific charge of anti-Semitic self-hatred often leveled against Jewish critiques of Israel. Her political ethic relies on a vision of cohabitation that thinks anew about binationalism and exposes the limits of a communitarian framework to overcome the colonial legacy of Zionism. Her own engagements with Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish form an important point of departure and conclusion for her engagement with some key forms of thought derived in part from Jewish resources, but always in relation to the non-Jew. Butler considers the rights of the dispossessed, the necessity of plural cohabitation, and the dangers of arbitrary state violence, showing how they can be extended to a critique of Zionism, even when that is not their explicit aim. She revisits and affirms Edward Said’s late proposals for a one-state solution within the ethos of binationalism. Butler’s startling suggestion: Jewish ethics not only demand a critique of Zionism, but must transcend its exclusive Jewishness in order to realize the ethical and political ideals of living together in radical democracy.

David Becomes Goliath, Volume II of Hart’s multi-volume work, ZIONISM, THE REAL ENEMY OF THE JEWS, reveals in well-documented detail starting from 1948 how the assertion that Israel has lived in constant danger of annihilation, of the “driving into the sea” of its Jews, is little more than Zionist propaganda. What really was the case, after Israel unilaterally declared itself to be in existence, was that the Arab armies did not have the ability-neither the numbers nor the weapons-to defeat Israel’s forces. Despite some stupid Arab rhetoric to the contrary-a propaganda gift for Zionism of which it has made extensive and ongoing use-the Arab regimes had no intention of even trying to destroy Israel. They were quickly at one with Zionism and the major powers in wanting the Palestine file to remain closed after Israel’s first victory on the battlefield. There was not supposed to have been a regeneration of Palestinian nationalism: for them, Arafat’s real crime was making this happen. Here, too, is the riveting story of how Zionism, assisted by deluded British Prime Minister Eden and America’s hawks, conned the Western world into believing that Eygpt’s President Nasser was an enemy of the West when actually he was seeking an accommodation with Israel from almost his first days in power, and wanted more than anything else a relationship with America on equal terms with that of Israel. Hart also takes us inside the struggle of the first and last American president, Eisenhower, to attempt to contain Zionism, and President Kennedy’s unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Zionist state acquiring an atom bomb (an acquisition still unadmitted by either the US or Israel, to this very day). But most importantly, Volume II records a turning point: the story of the defeat of reason in Israel, with Ben-Gurion’s replacement of Israel’s second Prime Minister, Moshe Sharett, who in October 12, 1955 expressed in his diary this prescient fear for the future in view of the ongoing Zionist expansionism of his time: “What is our vision on this earth-war to the end of generations and life by the sword?”

This internal critique of Zionism challenges three notions: that the Jews are a nation; that exile is the main cause of their past suffering, and that Jewish history is made solely in Israel. Zionism is an illusion because it has failed to ‘normalize’ the Jewish condition. In particular, it has not eliminated anti-Semitism, but rather cultivates it in order to keep Jews within the fold.Once independent, the State of Israel emptied the Middle East and North Africa of their Jewish populations and prevented large numbers of Soviet Jews from settling in North America, or anywhere else but Israel. Now the target is France, but French Jews, though massively Zionist, are reluctant to emigrate. Israel, it seems, cannot thrive and prosper without draining the Diaspora of its finances, its youth – indeed its very identity.Israeli control of Jerusalem has not brought the Messianic age any closer. Rabbis used to worry that the Holocaust could mean that God abrogated His covenant with the Jews. Israel’s victory in 1967 convinced them that the covenant still holds. The Holocaust has, however, encouraged Jewish paganism, as Jews adulate power and define themselves purely as an ethnic group: Hitlerjuden. The State of Israel claims to be the culmination of Jewish history, but its leaders insist that we are still in the rut of 1938.The State of Israel is perfectly capable of defending itself and has no need of solidarity rallies in the Diaspora. Zionism allows the Jewish establishment to retain power, but reduces the Diaspora to a subordinate role. Yet Judaism was born and developed in exile. If Jews divest themselves of their siege mentality, Judaism can become a university for adults, without examinations or tuition fees, open to all.

"This Very Short Introduction discloses a history of Zionism from the origins of modern Jewish nationalism in the 1870's to the present. Michael Stanislawski provides a lucid and detached analysis of Zionism, focusing on its internal intellectual and ideological developments and divides"--

Includes statistics.