This book discerns in the history of Zionism the plot of a Shakespearean tragedy. A small band of European Zionists enters the world stage in late 19th century, determined to create a Jewish state in Palestine. This is their solution to the ‘abnormal’ condition of European Jews, who are without a land and are not a nation. To achieve this, they must seize Palestine; induce Western Jews to become colonists; and, above all, recruit Western powers to adopt their colonial project. Zionists can only succeed by creating Islamicate enemies; they need resurgent anti-Semitism to send Jewish colonies to Palestine; and they must persuade/coerce the West to stand behind their colonial project. In succeeding, the Zionists merely transplant Jewish abnormality from Europe to the Middle East – and make it worse. In Europe, Jewish-Gentile frictions were local problems; in Israel, ominously, they have come to form the pivot of a global conflict that pits the West against the Islamicate.
Author(s): M. Shahid Alam
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 287
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
I: Israeli Exceptionalism......Page 14
1 Varieties of Exceptionalism......Page 16
2 Sources of Exceptionalism......Page 30
II: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism......Page 36
3 A Violent History......Page 38
4 Zionism in Nuce......Page 44
5 The Arabs Hate Us......Page 52
6 A Secular Messianism......Page 60
7 A People Without a Land......Page 74
8 A Land Without a People......Page 84
9 Jewish Factors in Zionist Success......Page 94
10 A Surfeit of Mother Countries......Page 108
11 British Interests and Zionism......Page 116
12 Anti-Semitism and Zionism......Page 130
13 Christian Zionism......Page 142
14 A Summing Up......Page 150
III: Growing a Special Relationship......Page 158
15 Before the Special Relationship......Page 160
16 From Liability to Asset......Page 176
17 Provoking Arab Hostility......Page 186
18 The June War: Aftermath......Page 196
19 The Lobby Gains Clout......Page 204
20 A Summing Up......Page 226
Notes......Page 234
Bibliography......Page 264
B......Page 278
F......Page 279
I......Page 280
J......Page 281
P......Page 283
T......Page 284
Z......Page 285