Customer Reviews

The Question of Zion

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The two readers' reports below are, sadly, a distressingly good example of the phenomenon that this book bravely represents. They strike me as an almost wilful misunderstanding of Rose's subtle argument about Zionism and its anti-European origins, as distinct from Zionism's current uses and defenses in today's volatile political scene. Rose tackles the history of Zionism, that is, and asks what it has sanctioned and made possible as a mythology and movement; she doesn't characterize or in the least pathologize a whole body of diverse people so much as examine what their collective beliefs arose in response to.

Maybe it's futile to suggest this, given the impassioned rhetoric on both sides, but readers intent on getting an accurate picture of this book might best study its description and thoughtful blurbs, including by many Jewish intellectuals. In doing so they hopefully will appreciate that it is possible to be Jewish yet critical of Zionism's misuses, just as it is possible to respect and advocate for the rights of Palestinians without subscribing to all that is done in their cause. Above all, one hopes that readers will perceive the intelligence and the humanity that inform this most necessary book.

I recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand why and how the Zionist project went wrong.
'The Question of Zion' is not anti-Zionist, as someone claims, it is an act of courage by a scholar who isn't shy to deconstruct the myths that underpin political discourse in Israel. Jewish readers with an open-mind will appreciate Jacqueline Rose's effort. All readers will gain a better understanding of the history and ideological premises of Zionism.

One would hardly recognize this book from looking at either the angry responses provided by some pro-Israel readers or the praises bestowed by pro-Arab advocates. It is essentially an alternative history of Zionism built on literary and psychoanalytic principles, not a call for political action.

Rose's most intriguing and emblematic sentence is as follows (page 82 of paperback edition): "It is one of the defining problems of Zionism that it imported into the Middle East a Central European concept of nationhood in the throes of decline." She is trying to understand the forces behind the creation of Israel and the political and social ideas that underlie it today. Some may find it a regrettable fact that Zionism has always had, and continues to have, its critics from within, and Rose takes full advantage of the words of all those critics -- from Ahad Ha'am to Martin Buber to David Grossman and others today -- to paint a picture of Zionism that, while not favorable, is reasonably nuanced. She emphasizes the role of the Holocaust in the very current memory of those who founded the state of Israel, and the continuing national memory, persisting to this day, of that awful chapter of history.

But please note: While Zionism is not immune from criticism and has its own contradictions and its own extremists, the same is true of all nationalisms -- American, French, Turkish, and of course Palestinian. It's not Rose's task in this book to write the devastating critique of the Palestinian national movement that can and should be written. But her frequent tendency to dwell on the extreme, the violent, the ultra-nationalistic, and the messianic aspects of Zionism, while ignoring the visionary, conciliatory, thoughtful, and peace-loving aspects, plays into the hands of Israel's opponents. As national movements go, Zionism has been one of the most self-conscious about not inflicting violence on its enemies. The very existence of the long line of internal critics that provide such fuel for Rose's arguments also testifies to how multifarious the Zionist enterprise has been and how much room for disagreement it has always contained.

Why some people have given this book such a low rating is clearly understood. The author does go against many popular beliefs held by the jewish people especially the fanatics, however she touches on many points in jewish culture that most jews try to forget or even dismiss as it does not fit into their way of thinking. The book its self is written very well, and all her "assumptions" and easily verified by doing a bit of research.Rose has not exaggerated anything and she portrays a clear picture of what the current state of Israel is at the moment, for people reading this book and finding it offensive they have to answer one question and that is; am i a radical or a moderate jew. The answer most coming would be radical. I think this book is a first step for us jews to come out of the past, stop blaming something that happend 50 years ago and get on with our lives, we have to stop hiding behind an event that most people will forget ever happend in the near future, and we must emerge from this.

This book offers a critique of mainstream state Zionism of Israel, characterising it as a heady mix of militarism, racism, messianism, and the self-delusional denial of these features. It also argues that Zionism is not monolithic - namely, that there are entirely different conceptions of Zionism that the author characterises as humane and humanistic such as Martin Buber's as found in Israel and the World: Essays in a Time of Crisis (Martin Buber Library). Needless to say, Rose is a Zionist in this latter sense. The book uses a kind of politico-psychoanalytic theory (never explicitly spelt out) to weave together threads of political ideology, psychology, religion and historical experience to account for mainstream state Zionism. This makes it a bit more interesting than the average critique, but also a little more tenuous. One gets the impression the author sometimes relies too heavily (almost exclusively) on imaginative theoretical interpretations of the "modern Israeli mind" (presuming there is such a single thing).

For anti-semites the world over, this book (apart from many others written by Jews, yes by Jews) is a real balm. It is an obligatory reading for Jew-haters wherever they are. Jacqueline Rose reminds one about the feminine Kapos from the Concentration Camps that, in their self-hate, were by far more cruel to the Jewish inmates than de SS. Everything, of course, is hidden under the term Zionism which, in her deranged mind, is different from Jews and their two thousand year yearning for a country of their own.

It is interesting that there are people, other than certified anti-semites, that read such trash. But then, everything is possible in our convoluted world. After reading it, I became a convinced Zionist - more than ever before. The "palestinians" will never have a state of their own because the civilized world does not need another terrorist state that produces nothing at all for humanity apart from death. They will try but they will fail - even with the entire United Nations behind them. Reading other books on the subject, I cannot forget the cry of Rabbi Kahane: "NEVER AGAIN".

For those that want to know something about the subject, I recommend avoiding this garbage packaged as a book.

This is a difficult book to read - not so much for its content, but for its style, which is a dense, choppy prose that weaves sometimes ill-defined concepts, people and history together. It is not a primer for understanding the Zionist question, and assumes a level of background knowledge, including terminology, appropriate to post-graduate study, or a devotion to the subject matter.

It is regrettable that so many of the reviewers here find it necessary to bash the author simply for daring to ask the questions (names and locations in many cases reveal the likely biases). By denying her this right, they either pretend that there isn't a problem, or that Israel's right to exist is so fragile that it cannot withstand even the slightest critical assessment, an attitude with which the text deals.

Anyone with a sufficient interest to consider this book is likely sufficiently well-versed in the issues that they should not be diverted from its purchase by one-star-allocating zealots who seek to deter people from coming to 'uncomfortable' conclusions.

Don't let the negative reviews of this worthy volume misdirect you. Jacqueline Rose has been singled out for the usual smears and vilifcation by the American Jewish Committee because she has crossed the line of politically correct "polite" discourse about the Israeli state, and labeled it a humanitarian catastrophe. What her critics forget is that Zionism is not synonymous with Judaic people, and that ongoing Israeli crimes and apartheid are disastrous for the image and security of Judaic persons worldwide. Hence, it is pro-Judaic to be radically anti-Zionist and Rose makes the case by showing that wanton destruction of Palestinian society is part of the essential founding pathology of Zionism. There is some badly needed, original and empowering thinking in these pages - don't be frightened away from encountering it.

The book is a very good and factual examination of Zionism and thats why the other two reviewers gave it only one star. The book shows that although Zionism may have started with good intentions it has turned into an illegal land-grab of the likes the world has never seen before.
Jews wanting a place to call home is okay. Kicking Arab women and children to the street and giving their homes to Jewish famlies is not the way to do it.
Reading the book and realizing how the media convieniantly fails to report the Zionist atrocities may make you an activists for truth in occupied Palestine.

Rose has brought her considerable talent in psychoanalytic reading to the subject of Zionism. Her title, "the question" of Zionism signals her object--Zionism as a problematique, in Foucault's terms, rather than a political "cause." Her psychoanalytic bent helps her avoid reductionism in analyzing the many texts she does. Her essay on Nadime Gordimer is brilliant. Rose's strength lies in learning about the ambivalence of all identifications from psychoanalysis and then historicizing that idea for purposes of questioning the ease with which Westerners claim to "know" and "identify" with Zionism, Israel, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Unlike politicians, however, Rose brings a distinctly academic viewpoint to her subject in that she replaces answers with questions. In exploring the compelling and compulsive nature of Zionism for many, she asks her readers to analyze rather than merely repeat it. Some of the reviews of her book confirm her thesis--that there is something neurotic, politically, about Zionism that needs excavation and repair.