Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (Cambridge Middle East Studies) [Hardcover]

Idith Zertal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0521850967 | ISBN-13: 978-0521850964 | Edition: 1St Edition

The ghost of the Holocaust is ever present in Israel, in the lives and nightmares of the survivors and in the absence of the victims. In this compelling and disturbing analysis, Idith Zertal, a leading member of the new generation of revisionist historians in Israel, considers the ways Israel has used the memory of the Holocaust to define and legitimize its existence and politics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author exposes the pivotal role of the Holocaust in Israel's public sphere, in its project of nation building, its politics of power, and its perception of the conflict with the Palestinians. She argues that the centrality of the Holocaust has led to a culture of death and victimhood that permeates Israel's society and self-image. For the updated paperback edition of the book, Tony Judt, the world-renowned historian and political commentator, has contributed a foreword in which he writes of Zertal's courage, the originality of her work, and the "unforgiving honesty with which she looks at the moral condition of her own country."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a brilliant and unsettling book that charts new, deeply submerged territories of the collective consciousness and sub-consciousness of Israeli society. The book is a major contribution to our understanding of the history of Israeli life and mentality." Shlomo Ben Ami, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Tel Aviv University, and former foreign minister of Israel

"The book is admirably perceptive, nuanced, and sophisticated... Dr Zertal is not a linear historian or mere chronicler of events. She is an intellectual and cultural historian of the highest distinction." Avi Shlaim, Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford

"A moving and profound reflection on the role of mourning, death and victimhood in Israel." Henry Rousso, L'Express

"Idith Zertal's excellent book follows the history of the manipulation of the Holocaust from the inception of Israel to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin." --Ilan Pappe, Bookforum Oct/Nov 2005

“For those seeking insight into the differences in current Israeli politics, Zertal provides a unique analysis of the intersection between past and present. Highly recommended.”
Choice

"A major contribution to a debate and conversation which will only grow more important in years to come...No one interested in the history and politics of the contemporary Middle East can ignore this book." -Tony Judt, University Professor and Director of the Remarque Institute, New York University

Book Description

The ghost of the Holocaust is ever present in Israel, in the lives and nightmares of the survivors and in the absence of the victims. In this compelling analysis, Idith Zertal considers how Israel has used the memory of the Holocaust to define and legitimize its existence and politics. Drawing on a range of sources, she exposes the pivotal role of the Holocaust in Israel's public sphere, in its project of nation building, its politics of power, and its perception of the Palestine conflict. She argues that the centrality of the Holocaust has led to a culture of death and victimhood that permeates Israel's society and self-image. For this updated paperback edition, Tony Judt, the world-renowned historian and political commentator, has contributed a foreword in which he writes of Zertal's courage, the originality of her work, and the "unforgiving honesty with which she looks at the moral condition of her own country."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1St Edition edition (July 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521850967
• ISBN-13: 978-0521850964
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #921,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent and thought provoking study of Israeli nationalism, August 22, 2006

By 

Maria from London (London UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (Cambridge Middle East Studies) (Hardcover)

For anyone who is interested in the field largely known as 'holocaust studies', as well as in the middle-eastern conflict, this is a must read. Zertal explores aspects of Israeli nationalism and national identity, tracing it to events in the past (Tel Hai, the death of Y. Trumpledor etc) but also, more centrally to the book's theme, tracing it to more recent historical events such as the second world war and the holocaust.

Her main argument has to do with the close, entangled relation between considerations of the holocaust and the state of Israel. She shows, with a lot of interesting and thought provoking documentation, how this relation manifests itself. The holocaust, she believes, not only informs but actively shapes israeli national identity, and is negotiated constantly within Israeli society, often in the justification of military actions.

A large part of her book has to do with Hannah Arendt's work and the way it has been received (especially in the past, around the time of Eichmann's trial) in Israel. According to Zertal, Arendt has been greatly misunderstood in Israeli society, and her work has been unfairly treated, possibly because it does not 'fit' into the religiously-inspired schema of absolute evil vs. absolute good that is an important construction, serving as a framework to understand the holocaust (and, Zertal argues, Israeli society itself sometimes). Arendt's work moves away from a monodimensional, religious understanding of the Jewish people as eternally doomed to be victims, and this is not, it seems, an easily acceptable argument for parts of Israeli society.

For me, the most interesting part of Zertal's book had to do with the way she thinks about the identity of the victim that seems to be a constant shadow within Israeli nationhood, and the implications of such an identity for Israeli life. Her book, all in all, is an excellent and provocative read, and very imporant in light of recent events.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Israel's Politics of Nationhood, October 17, 2005

By 

A. Winder "book punk" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (Cambridge Middle East Studies) (Hardcover)

This is a fantastic book -- it actually starts before the Holocaust with the battle of Tel-Hai and the death of Yosef Trumpledor and touches also on the ghetto fighters, the Exodus affair, the Kastner trial, the Eichmann trial, the 1967 war, and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin -- focused on exploring the treatment of the Holocaust and related issues by the Israeli political elite (especially Ben-Gurion) in their quest to craft an "Israeli national identity." As mentioned, the book touches on a number of different incidents and issues, but the keystone is the Eichmann trial and Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and the controversy that accompanied it. It is quite clear that Zertal is an admirer of Arendt, and has published on Arendt and her work before. It is well footnoted and very accessable (that is, you don't have to be an academic to really get a lot out of this book).

5.0 out of 5 stars The Politics of Victimhood, March 13, 2011

By 

R. L. Huff "An old reader" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (Cambridge Middle East Studies) (Paperback)

Israeli journalist Idith Zertal has written a penetrating, definitive study of the politics of blood sacrifice as sanctifying the Israeli state; and of the general political manipulation of officially sanctioned death, the state's "murder of its sons."

Beginning with the founding mythology of Yosef Trumpeldor at Tel-Hai, through the Warsaw Ghetto, into the trial of Eichmann and on into the Six-Day War, we see how Israeli nationhood and victimhood became, from the first, two sides of the same coin; that questioning the former is silenced as an act of betraying the latter. Of course there is nothing particularly Israeli in this process - the Cuban Revolution comes to mind also - but no modern state has made this such an unquestioned bedrock of its national psyche and had it so completely accepted on face value in the larger world. It has even spawned imitators, as witness the state-sanctioned mythology now shrouding the "Holodomor" of Ukraine (ironic in view of Ukrainian nationalists' own role in Nazi-occupied Europe.)

It is evident, also, that there is really no hope for a practical solution to the grave issues of Israel and the Middle East until the mythology of sacred sacrifice is secularized, and the principle of living for one's country is seen as the higher goal.