The Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders

By Paul Bogdanor

Book Overview

Before 1967, Israel had the overwhelming support of world opinion. So long as Israel's existence was in harmony with politically correct assumptions, it was supported, or at least accepted, by the majority of "progressive" Jews, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. This is no longer the case. The Jewish Divide Over Israel explains the role played by prominent Jews in turning Israel into an isolated pariah nation.After their catastrophic defeat in 1967, Arabs overcame inferiority on the battlefield with superiority in the war of ideas. Their propaganda stopped trumpeting their desire to eradicate Israel. Instead, in a calculated appeal to liberals and radicals, they redefined their war of aggression against the Jews as a struggle for the liberation of Palestinian Arabs. The tenacity of Arabs' rejection of Israel and their relentless campaign--in schools, universities, churches, professional organizations, and, above all, the news media--to destroy Israel's moral image had the desired impact. Many Jewish liberals became desperate to escape from the shadow of Israel's alleged misdeeds and found a way to do so by joining other members of the left in blaming Israeli sins for Arab violence. Today, Jewish liberals rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults on Jews as "criticism of Israeli policy." Israel's Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews.The essays in this book seek to understand and throw back the assault on Israel led by such Jewish liberals and radicals as Tony Judt, Noam Chomsky, George Steiner, Daniel Boyarin, Marc Ellis, Israel Shahak, and many others. Its writers demonstrate that the foundation of the state of Israel, far from being the primal sin alleged by its accusers, was one of the few redeeming events in a century of blood and shame.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765803275
• ISBN13: 9780765803276
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A terrific collection of articles

There's already an excellent review of this fine book on this site (by Shalom Freedman). But I'd still like to add a few words of my own. There are more than a few Jews who attack Israel. Are they "self-hating Jews?" Are they traitors? Well, some folks who oppose Israel, Jewish or not, are clearly under no obligation to defend it. If they side with those who would destroy it, they are not traitors, just enemies of Israel. In many cases, I would not bother to regard them as Jews. It is true that some of them are clearly embarrassed by the existence of Israel, but even that does not get me to think of them as Jews unless they show some genuine support for the human rights of Jews. Of course, what I think about this doesn't make much difference. The Jews are the ones who need to decide who they think are Jews, and they are the ones who need to decide what to think of the fact that many anti-Zionists boast about those who advertise themselves as Jews who oppose Israel. Some actual patriots sincerely recommend surrender to one's enemies, on the grounds that fighting will likely result in obliteration while surrender gives a much greater chance for survival. In World War Two, Jews who tried this generally got killed, and for this reason, this idea has merited less respect since then. But if Jews sincerely recommended this strategy, I'd still think of them as Jews (I think I'd regard them as Jewish even if they made the absurd and immoral recommendation to, um, get rid of all Jews, on the grounds that this would end actual oppression of Jews once and for all...by the way, some of the Jews mentioned in this book come pretty close to advising this). How do we tell if one is going over the line and betraying one's people rather than simply being moral? Well, an editor of this book, Edward Alexander has a simple test. Do you demand the same rights for you and your group that you demand for others? If you refuse to do that, you flunk his test and are being counterproductive by giving too much support for your enemies. Still, according to the editors in the introduction to this book, "'cowardice' is the word that springs to mind most often as the suitable epithet for Israel's Jewish enemies." I agree. These Jewish accusers of Israel are generally taking some easy and immoral shots against truth, justice, human rights, and peace. They're rarely paying much of a price for this. And it is annoying to hear some of them praised for their courage. After the introduction, there are seventeen superb articles. And they expose some of the hostility towards Israel by some of the anti-Israeli, um, cowards. But that's not the aspect of this book that I find most interesting. I'm not all that interested in tribal wars. But I am interested in truth, justice, and human rights. That's why my focus in reading this book was to witness the extent to which many of the opponents of Israel are amazingly dishonest and arbitrary. For example, Michael

An important analysis of an extremely sad phenomenom

This book is a collection of essays in which the phenomenom of Jewish self- hatred most particularly in the form of hatred of the Jewish state is analyzed and to a degree explained. It deals with many of the most well- known haters, including Chomsky, Tanya Reinhart, Norman Finkelstein, Israel Shahak, Daniel Boyarin , Jacqueline Rose, Joel Beinin, Michael Neumann(Canada), and others. In the opening essay Alvin Rosenfeld considers how important a part 'shame' plays in these intellectuals life, how many of them feel the need to 'apologize' for imaginary crimes of the state of Israel. The book goes on to chronicle some of the most amazing and remarkable actions of hypocrisy, and moral idiocy of the modern era. Imagine the kind of prevarications which a Jew must go through to defend as many of these haters do, Palestinian Arab suicide bombers who deliberately kill women and children, just because they are Jewish. This book exposes a great deal of biased and inaccurate thought about Israel and its history. However it also signals a very worrisome phenomenom and trend which must be contended with as openly and vociferously as possible, especially on the university campus where many of these 'Jewish Anti- Semites' have prestige and power. This book is recommended highly to all those who care about Israel and the Jewish people. It also provides a great deal of information which I believe would be excellent material for psychologists interesting in understanding the form of self- hatred , which focuses not upon oneself as individual but upon the collective, religious , national, ethnic to which one ostensibly belongs.