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The Tragedy of Zionism: How Its Revolutionary Past Haunts Israeli Democracy
by Bernard Avishai
The subject of intense controversy when it was first published in 1985, The Tragedy of Zionism provides illuminating insight into the history behind the headlines. Now revised, this poignant chronicle addresses timely and compelling questions: could Israel be a democratic state if, in the name of being a Jewish state, it discriminated against non-Jews, including a fifth of its citizens who are of Palestinian Arab origin? Could it be a Jewish state without granting a privileged position to Jewish orthodoxy? The Tragedy of Zionism calls for democracy as an end in itself—not as a political luxury, but as an indispensable means to settle disputes nonviolently. |
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Reviews
“[Avishai] has retained direct and intimate connection with [Israel’s] intellectual and political life; he writes not as a foreign observer, but rather as an often pained insider. . . . [A] call to reconsider [Zionism’s] classic questions—the tension between religion and secularity, and between the particular needs of the Jewish people and the moral claims of others.”
—Arthur Hertzberg, The New York Times Book Review
“It is Avishai’s contention, developed in several hundred pages of cautiously sensible argument, that not so much the failure of Zionism but its relative successes—political, military, economic, and social—have left the state of Israel facing serious problems, which cast a shadow over its future. . . . Israel, in Avishai’s view, must ‘outgrow’ its Zionist past, which is no longer relevant to realities. . . . He has always been a sympathetic yet highly critical observer of the Israeli scene.”
—Hillel Halkin, author, Letters to an American Jewish Friend, and contributor, Hadassah magazine
“Time and history have established the importance of The Tragedy of Zionism. It is a still much needed work of shrewd analysis, combining passion and intelligence, a deep love for Israel, a feel for what is possible, and a sure moral sense of what is necessary. A rare book builds the future. This is one.”
—James Carroll, author, Constantine’s Sword
“A must for every serious student of Zionism and Israel. Bernard Avishai ventures where few so far have had the courage of the insight to go.”
—Amos Elon, author, Herzl and The Israelis: Founders and Sons, columnist, Haaretz
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