Customer Reviews

Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine

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Kovel deepens the debate over Zionism. He writes powerfully, from a position fully cognizant and respectful of the highest ethical standards in Jewish tradition. He shows, more effectively than any other writer I know, the utter groundlessness of the the accusation that those who reject Zionism are thereby "antisemitic." He demonstrates that the Zionist project has been from its outset a colonial one, and thus an aberration from traditions of respect for human rights (including those of Judaism itself). It is important to note that when Kovel speaks of "overcoming" Zionism, he is not thinking of its being vanquished militarily; he is speaking of transcending it. His prose speaks to what is noblest in all of us. Transcending an agenda like that of Zionism means bringing about reconciliation: in this case overcoming not only the political conflict between two peoples claiming the same land, but also the differences within the Jewish community which, especially in the United States, have made the full and open airing of these underlying issues almost taboo.

Kovel's book is the best survey of Zionism, its roots, its outcomes and why it is one of the most destructive ideologies today for Jews, Palestinians and the rest of the world. The primary conclusion that he draws is that the primary road to peace is the dismantling of Zionist ideology as a whole and putting in its place a construct based on Universal human rights and respect for the human dignity of all individuals.

What is unique about his analysis is that he looks at Zionism from all angles - including its psychological, sociological, religious, economic and geopolitical aspects. He then looks at the state of Israel and how the marriage of Zionism with all instutions of the state and society has created a haven for Jewish religious fanaticism, militancy, violence and racism. These aspects of the state and society are, because of the nature of Zionism, ever-increasing and becoming more and more dangerous, with no mechasims for self-correction.

For Zionists, hardcore believers or passive acceptors, reading this book will present them with a perspective that they have not likely heard before and a very important reality adjustment for their world view. For non-Zionists it will enable them to understand what exactly is so problematic with this Zionist ideology which has resulted in such strife for almost a century. Finally it presents a prescription for action to overcome Zionism both in Israel, the US and everywhere else.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

This book stands with, if not surpassing Uri Davis' Apartheid Israel, Akiva Orr's Israel, and John Rose's book The Myths of Zionism. With a unique combination of history, psychoalalytic insight, and truly excellent writing, it weaves so many important threads together, from the bad consicience that haunts the modern Zionist to the political machinations that have given rise to the state of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

As someone that has travelled to Occupied Palestine on a number of occaisons and volunteered with the ISM, this book should be read by activists and all who are concerned about the people of Israel/Palestine. Forget the usual political analysis, the dogmatic attachment to the 2 state solution, the never ending "peace (piece?) process," that never brings peace, this book identifies the illness which is Zionism, and the need for Justice for Palestinians, which will bring peace someday.

Kovel, who was formerly a psychiatrist and is now a professor of sociology, brings unique insight into the Zionist psyche and its role in contemporary Israel. According to Kovel, Zionism is a reactionary ideology that rejects universalism and attempts to legitimate Israel's exceptionalism by invoking primitive tribalism. Kovel demonstrates how the Zionist movement has exploited the horrors of the Shoah (Holocaust) to serve its own ends and how its adherents have identified themselves with the Nazi aggression that so many suffered by brutalizing the indigenous peoples who stand in the way of the Zionist vision of an ethnically pure "Jewish state." The consciences of many Jewish citizens of Israel and around the world have been seared by the violence and inhumanity employed in pursuit of the Zionist vision, argues Kovel, which has created in some a hypersensitivity to criticism that he calls a "bad conscience." The way that the sacred traditions have been blasphemed to serve the "Jewish State" has compounded this condition. The state of Israel, in relentless pursuit of the Zionist vision, has become a de facto apartheid state, similar in many (but not all) ways to South Africa before the rise of the African National Congress. Kovel includes accounts of instances where Zionist racism has extended beyond the indigenous Arabs, and has targeted other Jews in the European Ashkenazi Jews' treatment of Sephardi Jews from Africa and the Middle East. Kovel predicts that Zionism, as long as it dominates the actions of Israeli rulers, will continue to feed the cycle of violence and hatred, ultimately to the detriment of Israel and its countless victims. He suggests that the best way to prevent the further escalation of violence is for the international community and Israeli people to recognize the primitive tribalism and racial hatred inherent in Zionism and counter its propaganda with a universal ideology that recognizes the humanity of people from every race, religion, and tribe. For this to happen, Zionism's pervasive influence in both the US and Israeli governments must be recognized, as well as the ways in which its ideology has been prostituted to modern capitalism. The implementation of a humane ideology would extend beyond an end to the occupation and an agreement on a two-state settlement, and would require a restructuring of the Israeli state as a safe and truly democratic homeland for Jews, Muslims, Christians, and all other peoples. Kovel names this new theoretical state "Palesreal" for now, but suggests that a more appropriate name may arise in the transition. Unequivocally, Kovel contends that Israel does not have any "right to exist" in its present form, but that it should be reconstituted as an egalitarian state that recognizes the common humanity of all its citizens.

Joel Kovel, academic, Green Party politician, and psychoanalyst, is mainly known for writing works on Marxism and environmentalist issues. However, as a Jew from New York he is inevitably biographically confronted with the question of Israel, and in "Overcoming Zionism" he has made a settling of accounts with it. Like most American Jews, his family was strongly pro-Zionist, despite never moving to Israel, and the first chapter of the book details some of his unsettling confrontations with the demands Zionism makes on the Jewish Diaspora, especially in the United States. Most of the work, however, is not really autobiographical in nature but an attempt to understand and critique Zionism as a way of thinking. As befits a psychoanalyst, Kovel's book is distinguished from many other left-wing critiques of Zionism in that it isn't as much interested in the political economic situation or the history of Israel as such as it is interested in the psychology that allows Zionism to continue to prosper, and what kind of attitudes one would need to develop to overcome it. It is therefore not an explicitly political book or a concrete programme, but more an analysis of the ways in which Zionist thought managed to hold Jewish opinion worldwide and especially in Israel in such a stranglehold, preventing the resolution of the conflict.

This approach has its strengths and its weaknesses, as does Kovel's critique in general. The main positive aspect of the work is that it is in this sense original, and in particular that it resolves to overcome Zionism by supporting not a counter-nationalism for Palestinians, as so many do, and thereby to multiply the militarist-chauvinist nationalisms in the region, but instead to call for a one-state solution. I believe Kovel is entirely right that this is the only lasting solution for the conflict, and any other option will not only practically fail, but also psychologically, as it will be strangled by Zionism and the demands of a counter-Zionist nationalism. Kovel's emphasis on the importance of universalism comes into play here: only on the basis of a progressive universalism that recognizes the need for all people to live freely and flourish regardless of race, religion, or any such decaying limitations, can the aspirations of Zionism and the Palestinian cause both come to fruition by their own Aufhebung. This really boils down to what the old-fashioned people used to call a 'proletarian internationalism' and the like.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, the author seems to associate this with the significance of a written constitution and spends a considerable time complaining about the lack of constitutionality in Israel, seemingly locating its fascistic tendency to let nation-building considerations override everything else in the failure to establish a constitution during the emergency situation at the historic birth of Israel. This is odd, not only because it is a strangely liberal reformist demand given Kovel's overall political point, but also because virtually no state's constitution has ever been founded other than in an emergency situation (US, France, Germany, Japan, etc) and the significance of this for the eventual political trajectory is not evident. Aside from this, a major flaw in the book is the author's tendency to accomodate too much the historical narratives of anti-Semitism; while he is certainly right that one should look at the history of Jews in Europe from an objective and universal point of view, and not just indulge in a tale of perpetual victimhood, Kovel goes too much in the other direction. It will not do to imply that Jews were for the most part successful money-lenders and the like, an old charade which ignores entirely the status of the vast majority of European Jews through the ages as poor artisans and craftsmen, not wealthy manipulators of money.

The book is not a political-economic analysis in the first instance, although it contains a fair amount of historical and economic sub-narratives to establish its mainly philosophical critique of Zionism. As a result, these sometime appear as somewhat truncated and superficial, and he fails to link this to a wider analysis of the nature of settler states, as could be done. Then again, one book cannot do everything. There is much good to be had in it also: at times, the analysis of the political and psychological consequences of the tribal chauvinism implied by Zionism is brilliant, and Kovel's book especially excellently makes the important argument of how Zionism necessarily and irrevokably brings forth so many of the seeming 'aberrations' of modern Israel: its fascistic and militarist tendencies, its inability to treat equally its Arab and Bedouin citizens, its expansionist nature, its wanton disregard for the lived environment, its corrupt mafioso structure domestically, its enormous inequalities, its theocratic weaknesses. There is also due attention for the history of Zionism as an idea, its marginality in the prewar Jewish communities, its links with fascistic (social fascist, i.e. social-democracy for the chosen people only) and terrorist activities, the breathtakingly cynical way it established itself as a dominant ideological force and still does so against increasing resistance. Kovel's narrative is not centered just around the oppression of the Palestinians and their exclusion, but also makes clear that even aside from all this, the Zionist project is a failure and must be a failure in this place and this age. Finally, he identifies clearly the significance of a universalist rather than a nationalist politics to overcome Zionism, including a clear exclusion of apartheid Israel along the same lines as South Africa, and the importance of the right of return of the expelled Palestinians and their descendants as a peaceful and progressive move that nonetheless ipso facto makes Zionism impossible. The road to a 'two-state solution' is a dead end; the road must now lead to a single, secular, democratic and socialist Palestine.

If you're jewish, you need to read this. It truly changed my view of the whole conflict, having gone from an Israel supporter to a staunch critic. It is a must-read.

The only solution to a land that is beloved to both the Israelis and Palestinians. Get rid of the borders and walls, the discriminations and differences. Love your neighbor.

I am currently reading this book and I cannot put it down. It is very informative. I will most likely read it again and again. I wish this book was taught in schools but since our government control our educational system it is most unlikely. Pick up this book or order it.

The solution advocated by this author in his ridiculously titled Overcoming Zionism book should be recognized for what it is, a repackaged Final Solution to the Jewish question in the Middle East. The author is both a rabid Israel-basher and Jew-hater. His anti-Zionism is in truth warmed over Arab propaganda.

Zionism is not the Jewish boogeyman, it is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people back to the land of Israel, the only homeland of the Jewish people. The state of Israel holds less than 1% of the Middle East, while there are 22 Arab countries and 52 Islamic majority countries. Any one of the Arab or Muslim majority countries on earth could resettle all the Arab occupiers of the land of Israel west of the Jordan river.

Instead, the Left seeks to destroy the only truly democratic government in the Middle East and the country that offers Arabs a higher standard of living than their own countries. Arabs even have the right to vote in members of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) who denounce the Jewish state on a daily basis. Why this author feels compelled to fight against the G-d of the universe, to turn back time and steal Jewish sovereignty once again from the land of the Jewish people - it can only be explained by pathological hatred.

True, the state of Israel is not above criticism, but irrational hatred toward the country and the Zionist movement most definitely is nothing other than Jew-hatred. The only thing the author gets right is that there can be no two-state solution west of the Jordan. The Arabs already have their homeland in the illegally created state of Jordan (nee Transjordan), which holds 70% of the British Manadate land. The Arabs west of the Jordan river should be compensated for whatever property they legally own and resettled in Jordan or elsewhere. That is the only path to peace within human means, as Rabbi Kahane taught. As for Kovel, all decent people most oppose this discredited author and his nearly worthless text.

It's been about a year since I wrote this review, and revolutions have taken place in the Middle East. Many Arab/Islamic countries are on fire because their citizens have risen up to demand freedom. While much of this part of the world is ablaze, tiny, democratic Israel is relatively free of unrest. However, Leftists and Islamists seek to change that this summer. Prime Minister Netanyahu once again opened the door to a comprehensive settlement with the Arabs, but they will never agree to the modest terms he requires. Instead they plan unilateral declaration of a new terrorist state West of the Jordan at the UN later this year. May their evil designs and ambitions be thwarted yet again; may all good people live to see the elevation of the Nation of Israel and the world-wide sanctification of the Creator and Sustainer of everything, the G-d of the Jewish people.

Considering its author's background (a university professor) readers will likely be dismayed by Kovel's absence of critical thinking, its distortion of Zionist history and ideology, and the shrill tone that prevails throughout. Even for those on the left (as I am), this confused negation of every aspect of Israeli society, will prove highly unsatisfactory. Those seeking critical illumination on Israel or Zionism, from any political perspective, will do well to skip this wholly malicious and unhelpful work entirely.