Download or read book The Returns of Zionism written by Gabriel Piterberg and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original and wide-ranging study, Gabriel Piterberg examines theideology and literature behind the colonization of Palestine, from the latenineteenth century to the present. Exploring Zionism's origins in Central-EasternEuropean nationalism and settler movements, he shows how its texts can beplaced within a wider discourse of western colonization. Revisiting the work ofTheodor Herzl and Gershom Scholem, Anita Shapira and David Ben-Gurion, andbringing to light the writings of lesser-known scholars and thinkersinfluential in the formation of the Zionist myth, Piterberg breaks openprevailing views of Zionism, demonstrating that it was in fact unexceptional,expressing a consciousness and imagination typical of colonial settlermovements. Shaped by European ideological currents and the realities ofcolonial life, Zionism constructed its own story as a unique and impregnableone, in the process excluding the voices of an indigenous people-thePalestinian Arabs.
Download or read book Zionism written by Michael Brenner and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the origins of Zionism within Jewish tradition, the variety of Zionist ideologies, and the political circumstances that fostered this movement. This expanded and updated edition includes a chapter about the changes in Zionism since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.
Download or read book The War of Return written by Adi Schwartz and published by All Points Books. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two prominent Israeli liberals argue that for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to end with peace, Palestinians must come to terms with the fact that there will be no "right of return." In 1948, seven hundred thousand Palestinians were forced out of their homes by the first Arab-Israeli War. More than seventy years later, most of their houses are long gone, but millions of their descendants are still registered as refugees, with many living in refugee camps. This group—unlike countless others that were displaced in the aftermath of World War II and other conflicts—has remained unsettled, demanding to settle in the state of Israel. Their belief in a "right of return" is one of the largest obstacles to successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region. In The War of Return, Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf—both liberal Israelis supportive of a two-state solution—reveal the origins of the idea of a right of return, and explain how UNRWA - the very agency charged with finding a solution for the refugees - gave in to Palestinian, Arab and international political pressure to create a permanent “refugee” problem. They argue that this Palestinian demand for a “right of return” has no legal or moral basis and make an impassioned plea for the US, the UN, and the EU to recognize this fact, for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike. A runaway bestseller in Israel, the first English translation of The War of Return is certain to spark lively debate throughout America and abroad.
Download or read book The Crisis of Zionism written by Peter Beinart and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic shift is taking place in Israel and America. In Israel, the deepening occupation of the West Bank is putting Israeli democracy at risk. In the United States, the refusal of major Jewish organisations to defend democracy in the Jewish state is alienating many young liberal Jews from Zionism itself. In the next generation, the liberal Zionist dream, the dream of a state that safeguards the Jewish people and cherishes democratic ideals, may die. In The Crisis of Zionism, Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment's refusal to confront it. And he offers a fascinating, groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the centre of the crisis: Barack Obama, America's first 'Jewish president', a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people's special curse. These two men embody fundamentally different visions, not just of American and Israeli national interests, but of the mission of the Jewish people itself. Beinart concludes with provocative proposals for how the relationship between American Jews and Israel must change, and with an eloquent and moving appeal for American Jews to defend the dream of a democratic Jewish state before it is too late.
Download or read book A Just Zionism written by Chaim Gans and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-23 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over half a century, the legitimacy of Israel's existence has been questioned, and Zionism has been the subject of an immense array of objections and criticism. Chaim Gans considers the objections and presents an in-depth philosophical analysis of the justice of Zionism as realized by the state of Israel.
Download or read book Parting Ways written by Judith Butler and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Churchill s Promised Land written by David Makovsky and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive examination of Churchill s complex political, diplomatic, and intellectual response to Zionism"
Download or read book American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust written by Melvin I. Urofsky and published by Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-02-14 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook is a co-edition Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press. Vienna journalist Theodore Herzl realized that anti-Semitism, dramatically illustrated by the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France, would never be stemmed by the attempts of Jews to assimilate. The publication of his Der Judenstaat in 1896 began the political movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It caught on in Europe but was moribund in the United States until World War I. Urofsky shows how the Zionist movement was Americanized by Louis D. Brandeis and other reformers. He portrays the disputes between assimilationist and conservative Jews and the difficulties impeding the movement until Arab riots in Palestine, British treachery, and the Nazi horrors of World War II reunited American Jewry. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust won the Jewish Book Council’s Morris J. Kaplun Award in 1976. “One of the most important books in the field of American-Jewish history to appear in years. Superbly researched and written, it is a major contribution to the understanding of the paradoxical weaknesses and strengths of American Zionism in our time... This book belongs in any collection of works on American Jewry, world Jewry, American foreign affairs or Israeli-Arab conflict background.” — Choice “How American Zionism, culturally so different from European Zionism, helped create the movement as a political power is the theme of this absorbing history. It is must reading for anyone who would understand American foreign policy involvements in the Middle East.” — Christian Science Monitor “[Urofsky’s] study is a first-rate piece of work.” — David Singer, Commentary Magazine “[Urofsky] has relied on an impressive array of primary source material including archival and manuscript collections, newspapers, magazines, and the reports of Zionist congresses and conventions. They emerge from his pen as a coherent, readable and, oft times, fascinating whole... In a fascinating and readable style he focuses on the most interesting events and personalities... He has succeeded in adroitly molding innumerable facts and details into a cohesive and coherent body of material... a significant addition to the study of American Zionism.” — Deborah E. Lipstadt, Jewish Social Studies “[A] well-written, penetrating narrative... Much of what he discusses — how Brandeis fused Zionism with Americanism, the fight for communal power between the wealthy stewards of the American Jewish Committee and the recent immigrants, the part played by the Americans in the Balfour Declaration negotiations, the rift between the Weizmann and Brandeis factions — has been told before. But Urofsky’s data, gleaned from numerous manuscript collections, and his skillful collation of far-flung monographic material have put a definitive stamp on a long-needed synthetic history of those events.” — Naomi W. Cohen, The Journal of American History “Melvin I. Urofsky argues in this, the most complete analysis yet published of American Zionism, that the most sensible perspective for understanding American Zionism is American history.” — Edward S. Shapiro, American Jewish Historical Quarterly “American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust is a monument to the interplay between the Zionism of America and that of Europe, resulting in the creation of a thoroughly American movement with worldwide influence... Urofsky’s thesis is both convincing and thoroughly supported.” — Peter S. Margolis, H-Judaic
Download or read book My Promised Land written by Ari Shavit and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York Times Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Ari Shavit’s riveting work, now updated with new material, draws on historical documents, interviews, and private diaries and letters, as well as his own family’s story, to create a narrative larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and of profound historical dimension. As he examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, Shavit asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can it survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. Shavit’s analysis of Israeli history provides a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.
Download or read book Zionism written by Milton Viorst and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-07-19 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From serving as the Middle East correspondent for The New Yorker to penning articles for the New York Times, Milton Viorst has dedicated his career to studying the Middle East. Now, in this new book, Viorst examines the evolution of Zionism, from its roots by serving as a cultural refuge for Europe's Jews, to the cover it provides today for Israel's exercise of control over millions of Arabs in occupied territories. Beginning with the shattering of the traditional Jewish society during the Enlightenment, Viorst covers the recent history of the Jews, from the spread of Jewish Emancipation during the French Revolution Era to the rise of the exclusionary anti-Semitism that overwhelmed Europe in the late nineteenth century. Viorst examines how Zionism was born and follows its development through the lives and ideas of its dominant leaders, who all held only one tenet in common: that Jews, for the first time in two millennia, must determine their own destiny to save themselves. But, in regards to creating a Jewish state with a military that dominates the region, Viorst argues that Israel has squandered the goodwill it enjoyed at its founding, and thus the country has put its own future on very uncertain footing. With the expertise and knowledge garnered from decades of studying this contentious region, Milton Viorst deftly exposes the risks that Israel faces today.
Download or read book Land and Desire in Early Zionism written by Boaz Neumann and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2011 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative look at the centrality of desire for "the Land" among early settlers in pre-state Israel
Download or read book Return to Zion written by Eric Gartman and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2015-11 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of modern Israel is a story of ambition, violence, and survival. Return to Zion traces how a scattered and stateless people reconstituted themselves in their traditional homeland, only to face threats by those who, during the many years of the dispersion, had come to regard the land as their home. This is a story of the “ingathering of the exiles” from Europe to an outpost on the fringes of the Ottoman Empire, of courage and perseverance, and of reinvention and tragedy. Eric Gartman focuses on two main themes of modern Israel: reconstitution and survival. Even as new settlers built their state they faced constant challenges from hostile neighbors and divided support from foreign governments, as well as being attacked by larger armies no fewer than three times during the first twenty-five years of Israel’s history. Focusing on a land torn by turmoil, Return to Zion is the story of Israel—the fight for independence through the Israeli Independence War in 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the near-collapse of the Israeli Army during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Gartman examines the roles of the leading figures of modern Israel—Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Yitzchak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon—alongside popular perceptions of events as they unfolded in the post–World War II decades. He presents declassified CIA, White House, and U.S. State Department documents that detail America’s involvement in the 1967 and 1973 wars, as well as proof that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was a case of mistaken identity. Return to Zion pulls together the myriad threads of this history from inside and out to create a seamless look into modern Israel’s truest self.
Download or read book A Threat from Within written by and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2006-03 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." These words by the poet Leonard Cohen could aptly describe this book, which takes history as a witness to the exceptional nature of Zionism in Jewish history. It explains many points of discord between the political ideology of Zionism and what most people consider Judaism. It also shows how Jewish traditional conscience offers a hope for the solution of the Middle East crisis. The conflicts in Israel/Palestine acquire a different meaning when seen in the context of Jewish opposition to Zionism. This book has attracted Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike who find this story inspiring in today's world of mobile identities.
Download or read book Zionism s Redemptions written by Arieh Saposnik and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zionism combined dialogues with Jewish, Christian, and secular messianisms to create a politics based in redemptive visions of its own.
Download or read book Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism written by Carolyn L. Karcher and published by Olive Branch Press. This book was released on 2019-04-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today Jews face a choice. We can be loyal to the ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism—love the stranger, pursue justice, and repair the world. Or we can give our unconditional support to the state of Israel. It is a choice between Judaism as a religion and the nationalist ideology of Zionism, which is usurping that religion. In this powerful collection of personal narratives, thirty-nine Jews of diverse backgrounds tell a wide range of stories about the roads they have traveled from a Zionist world view to activism in solidarity with Palestinians and Israelis striving to build an inclusive society founded on justice, equality, and peaceful coexistence. Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism will be controversial. Its contributors welcome the long overdue public debate. They want to demolish stereotypes of dissenting Jews as “self-hating,” traitorous, and anti-Semitic. They want to introduce readers to the large and growing community of Jewish activists who have created organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Open Hillel. They want to strengthen alliances with progressives of all faiths. Above all, they want to nurture models of Jewish identity that replace ethnic exclusiveness with solidarity, Zionism with a Judaism once again nourished by a transcendent ethical vision. An introduction and afterword by Carolyn L. Karcher set the narratives in historical context. Contributors include: Joel Beinin • Sami Shalom Chetrit • Ilise Benshushan Cohen • Marjorie Cohn • Rabbi and Cantor Michael Davis • Hasia R. Diner • Marjorie N. Feld • Chris Godshall • Ariel Gold • Noah Habeeb • Claris Harbon • Linda Hess • Rabbi Linda Holtzman • Yael Horowitz • Carolyn L. Karcher • Mira Klein • Sydney Levy • Ben Lorber • Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber • Carly Manes • Moriah Ella Mason • Seth Morrison • Eliza Rose Moss-Horwitz • Hilton Obenzinger • Henri Picciotto • Ned Rosch • Rabbi Brant Rosen • Alice Rothchild • Tali Ruskin • Cathy Lisa Schneider • Natalia Dubno Shevin • Ella Shohat • Emily Siegel • Rebecca Subar • Cecilie Surasky • Rebecca Vilkomerson • Rachel Winsberg • Rabbi Alissa Wise • Charlie Wood
Download or read book Deconstructing Zionism written by Gianni Vattimo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in the Political Theory and Contemporary Philosophy series provides a political and philosophical critique of Zionism. While other nationalisms seem to have adapted to twenty-first century realities and shifting notions of state and nation, Zionism has largely remained tethered to a nineteenth century mentality, including the glorification of the state as the only means of expressing the spirit of the people. These essays, contributed by eminent international thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Gianni Vattimo, Walter Mignolo, Marc Ellis, and others, deconstruct the political-metaphysical myths that are the framework for the existence of Israel.Collectively, they offer a multifaceted critique of the metaphysical, theological, and onto-political grounds of the Zionist project and the economic, geopolitical, and cultural outcomes of these foundations. A significant contribution to the debates surrounding the state of Israel today, this groundbreaking work will appeal to anyone interested in political theory, philosophy, Jewish thought, and the Middle East conflict.
Download or read book Cinema and Zionism written by Ariel Lionard Feldestein and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the connections between the cinema of the Yishuv (Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine) and the Zionist idea. The book follows the plans to create the figure of the New Jew in Eretz Yisrael, as part of a personal, national, and universal revolution, and it explores the figure and traits of the pioneer. It also examines how cinema has presented the Zionist idea. Cinema and Zionism analyzes the plots, the modes of expression, the themes, and the ideological elements that typify these films, and it positions them within the structure of the Zionist idea. It also engages with connections between the Zionist idea and the cinema through a discussion on the cinematic endeavors and the relationships between the filmmakers and national institutions. The correlation between the two histories is revealed with all its complexity and depth. The book sheds light on a distinctive perspective in the narrative of Eretz Yisrael - that of the creation and consumption of a new culture. The tales of working on the films - how they were prepared and shot, and their ultimate reception - are interwoven with outlines of the films themselves. Together, they create a portrait of an ideological society that distilled events and incidents into myths aimed at forging the Zionist outlook and instructing Zionist settlers toward fulfilling its goals. "...explicit, enlightening, and, at times, even provocative. It deals with the complex and still relevant issue of Zionist leaders' relationships between the American-Jewish institutions and the latter's approach to what was to become the State of Israel, including their attempts to shape the destiny of the nation-in-waiting through the first Jewish films produced in Palestine". Yael Munk, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews, November 2012
