A provocative, compelling history and a passionate call to defend Israel's mission as the state of the Jewish people.
In what may be the most controversial book on Zionism and Israel published in the last twenty years, Yoram Hazony graphically portrays the cultural and political revolt against Israel's status as the Jewish state. Examining ideological trends in academia, literature, media, law, the armed forces, and the foreign policy establishment, Hazony contends that Israelis are preparing themselves for the final break with the Jewish past and the Jewish future.
In a dramatic new reading of Israeli history, Hazony uncovers the story of how Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Hannah Arendt, and other German-Jewish intellectuals bitterly fought against the establishment of Israel, and later used the Hebrew University as a base for deposing David Ben-Gurion and discrediting Labor Zionism. The Jewish State is a must-read for anyone concerned with Israel's present and future.
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul is a powerful assessment of "post-Zionist" Israeli culture--the Jewish movement that seeks to overturn traditional notions of Israel as a Jewish state. Author Yoram Hazony, who has been a participant in some of the most significant stages of the Middle East peace process, investigates the cultural and political history of post-Zionism, the extent of its current influence, and its potential effects in the future. The Jewish State includes a previously unknown story about some of this century's most important Jewish intellectuals--including Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem--who opposed the establishment of Israel, and later leveraged the power of Hebrew University to depose David Ben-Gurion and defame the Labor Zionism that helped give birth to Israel. Ironically, Hazony takes succor from this story, because he says that it offers "the lesson of how a small fellowship of intellectuals, without the benefit of exceptionally sensible ideas or especially cogent means of expressing them, nonetheless succeeded in changing the life of a nation, against all odds." So, Hazony imagines that a few individuals with more sensible ideas, better attuned to the desires of Israel's people, might be able to reestablish that nation "as a guardian of the Jews and a source of strength to them." Hazony is a sturdy thinker and a persuasive polemicist, and The Jewish State may prove to be a very influential book.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Not History, Ideology:
Hazony's book is far too ideological in its stance to be called a proper history. Really, The Jewish State is a survey of a certain view of Zionism and its enemies. Hazony paints all the characters in this drama in very black and white terms. It is as if Hazony began the book with a certain threshold of what he considered permissible Zionism. Herzl and Ahad Ha'am make it to that mark, while other figures, who stressed other aspects of the modern Jewish experience, get lumped into a large and... more info
EVERY JEW ALIVE TODAY IS A MIRACLE:
Check it out on YouTube. I love the message of this 7 minute, 39 second recording. The narrarator quotes Napoleon and Mark Twain as the jews' infinitesimal history is told within this time frame. I can't help but think of Daniel chapter 2 and 7 as Mark Twain writes of how the ancient empires of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, "made a vast noise" but "faded into dreamstuff". Mark Twain asks, "All things are mortal but the jew...What is the secret of his immortality?" There is virtually little... more info
Israel's soul & those who want to trade it:
Yoram Hazony knows how to tell a story. He is not the arrogant intellectual who speaks from his ivory tower. He introduces himself so we know his family background and his personal stand of the Jewish question. The introduction is worth the whole book. There he succintly summarizes the book, points to Israel's troubles, gives names, origins and main developments. Puts the main characters on the scene, and we follow them through the years of Israel's modern making. It's the zionists vs the anti-zionists; the... more info
Essential Reading:
This book takes you through the evolution of Zionism over the last 100+ years. It is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn about the unending problems of the land of Palestine. Hazony is an excellent writer. The book begins as a slow, lumbering read, hard to get into, but you must get through the Introduction and first few Chapters. Then the book begins to roll and you will find yourself unable to put it down. The only complaint I have of this book is that mine is the paperback edition and the... more info
