A CHRONOLOGY OF VOICES, FROM THE BIRTH OF ZIONISM UNTIL TODAY
THEODOR HERZL,
AHAD HA’AM, MARTIN BUBER, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HANNAH ARENDT, YESHAYAHU
LEIBOWITZ, NOAM CHOMSKY, TANYA REINHART, ZEEV STERNHELL, URI AVNERY,
TIKVA-HONIG PARNASS, SHLOMO SAND, TOM SEGEV, SIMHA FLAPAN, BARUCH
KIMMERLING, BENNY MORRIS, AVI SHLAIM, ILAN PAPPE, GIDEON LEVY, AMIRA
HASS, AND MICHEL SFARD
Portrayals of Israel
in mainstream Western media as the “homeland of the Jews” and
“the only democracy in the Middle East” are commonplace. Since
the realities behind them are rarely shown, these truisms have become
habitual assumptions underlying news coverage, public policy, and
ordinary conversation. At the same time, while criticism of a
government’s policies is considered an essential right and
safeguard of democracy, criticism of Israeli policy is persistently
attacked as anti-Zionist—or even anti-Semitic—by a majority of
Israelis and by those outside the country who claim to be Israel’s
friends. The views of independent Israelis and Jews who examine,
challenge, or oppose extreme Israeli governments and policies are
rarely heard. This book attempts to recover a history of dissent. In
Wrestling with Zionism: Jewish Voices of Dissent, Daphna Levit
amplifies the voices of twenty-one Jewish and Israeli
thinkers—scholars, theologians, journalists, lawyers, activists—who
have grappled with the evolution of Zionism since its inception on
political, religious, cultural, ethical, or philosophical grounds.
Beginning in the late-nineteenth century, well before the founding of
the State of Israel, and surveying pioneering figures up until the
present, she introduces, examines, and brings together a range of
contrasting viewpoints into a single historical conversation. As
well, with these portraits she honors a tradition of courageous
intellectual inquiry and activism, rooted in Jewish ethical
imperatives. Drawing on her own lifetime of activism and research,
Levit has assembled a foundational text, enabling us to consider the
relationship of modern political Zionism and Judaism today, in
revealing historical light.