The Postzionism Debates: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture [Paperback]

Laurence J. Silberstein (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415913160 | ISBN-13: 978-0415913164 | Publication Date: May 9, 1999

The struggle for postzionism is a conflict over national memory and the control of cultural and physical space. Laurence J. Silberstein analyzes the phenomenon of postzionism and provides an intervention into this debate.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...Silberstein's work offers a compendium of critical Israeli voices that have long been marginalized in both the U.S. and Israeli academies. -- Journal of Palestine Studies, Rebecca Luna Stein
...fascinating study... A major strength of the book is that it examines not only the plurality, but also the variety, of post-Zionist views, ranging from political history to art, Hebrew literature and feminism. -- Jewish News
The Postzionism Debates is one of the most important books on Israeli culture that will be published in the next few years. It documents for the first time in English major shifts in Israeli culture, as well as peripherally in Jewish political culture outside of Israel. A Foucauldian study of the discourse of postzionism in its varied forms, as a shift from the unqualified knee-jerk Zionism endemic only fifteen or so years ago, Silberstein's book prepares the way for a rethinking of Jewish politics at the end of the 20th century. -- Daniel Boyarin, author of Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man
In the past decade a younger generation of Israeli scholars began opening a window on the power implications of the conventional Zionist discourse. In The Postzionism Debates, Laurence J. Silberstein has accomplished a formidable task by providing a sensitive and insightful account of these academic debates and literary works, the ways in which they problematized conventional academic discourse, and the means they propose for integrating marginalized or excluded groups into a broader Israeli cultural identity. This is one of the best scholarly books on contemporary Israel. -- Gershon Shafir, author of Land, Labor, and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914
...Silberstein's work offeres a compendium of critical Israeli voices that have long been marginalized in both the U.S. and Israeli academies. -- Journal of PalestineStudies, Rebecca Luna Stein
Silberstein's study will be appreciated by those seeking familiarity with Israel's recent intellectual fireworks, but (like most of the world) lack[ing] facility in Hebrew...Although this book is of obvious interest to thosee concerned with the history of Zionism and the State of Israel, it also contributes substantially to theoretical literature on ethnic identity, nationalism, intellectual history, and historiography in general.
This book is to be commended for surveying watershed texts and figures, synthesizing crucial elements of the debates, and drawing reasonable conclusions. -- Religious Studies Review

About the Author

Laurence J. Silberstein is the Philip and Muriel Berman Professor of Jewish Studies at Lehigh University. He is the author of Martin Buber's Social and Religious Philosophy (1989, and has edited several collections.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (May 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415913160
• ISBN-13: 978-0415913164
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,832,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Light on the Israeli Predicament, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Postzionism Debates: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture (Paperback)

The state of Israel is now more prosperous and powerful than at any time in its short history. It has the most vibrant economy in the Middle East. Many believe that the Zionist-Arab conflict, that had marked much of Israeli history in its first half century, is now coming to a peaceful closure. Israel, and the Zionist ideology that led to its establishment, is clearly on the winning side.

And yet, more than ever before, Israel is a fiercely divided society, obsessed with questioning its very fundamentals: its own ideological roots, its raison detre as a Jewish state, its sense of identity, its own historical narrative. In short, despite the unprecedented success of the Zionist project, there is no rest in Zion. The meaning of that Zionist project is hotly debated among Israeli intellectuals.

In this excellent book Laurence Silberstein produced the first comprehensive intoroduction, designed primarily for Jewish-American readers, on the state of the debate about the Israeli predicament. But Silberstein did more than just that. He was able to contribute original cultural insight--both on the theoretical and historical levels--that allows to decode and map the debate afresh even to its own participants. I expect this book would suprise and edify some of those participants.

This is an important book for all those who wonder (and care) where Israel is going.

4.0 out of 5 stars Postzionism, April 16, 2009

By 

Ali N. Wyrostek (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Postzionism Debates: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture (Paperback)

Silberstein's review discusses in detail the Postzionist movement, as well as its ties with post-modernism. Silberstein draws upon a variety of sources, both Arab and Israeli to demonstrate his point. This idea of Palestinian role, as explained by Silberstein, includes the prospect that one can not truly comprehend modern Israeli culture without the role of the "other". Various critics are overviewed, including fierce opponents of Zionism. However, Silberstein notes that Israel faces both internal and external problems, all of which challenge identity and culture as a whole. Silberstein notes, however, that Israeli's status as an emerging democratic nation will be challenged until these problems can be reconciled. A point of interest is the contrast with Jews of the Diaspora, being described in a variety of works as passive in their demise, like "sheep going to the slaughter". Silberstein does an excellent job dismissing this rumor by today's standards. Overall, the text is rich with information, and a crucial work to any individual studying or desiring to learn more about the Middle East.