The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul (Paperback)

by Yoram Hazony (Author) "In the summer of 1994, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz published a lengthy polemic by Aharon Meged entitled "The Israeli Urge to Suicide," in which the..." (more)
Key Phrases: own sovereign state, binational state, totalitarian democracy, Hebrew University, Ahad Ha'am, Peace Association (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul is a powerful assessment of "post-Zionist" Israeli culture--the Jewish movement that seeks to overturn traditional notions of Israel as a Jewish state. Author Yoram Hazony, who has been a participant in some of the most significant stages of the Middle East peace process, investigates the cultural and political history of post-Zionism, the extent of its current influence, and its potential effects in the future. The Jewish State includes a previously unknown story about some of this century's most important Jewish intellectuals--including Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem--who opposed the establishment of Israel, and later leveraged the power of Hebrew University to depose David Ben-Gurion and defame the Labor Zionism that helped give birth to Israel. Ironically, Hazony takes succor from this story, because he says that it offers "the lesson of how a small fellowship of intellectuals, without the benefit of exceptionally sensible ideas or especially cogent means of expressing them, nonetheless succeeded in changing the life of a nation, against all odds." So, Hazony imagines that a few individuals with more sensible ideas, better attuned to the desires of Israel's people, might be able to reestablish that nation "as a guardian of the Jews and a source of strength to them." Hazony is a sturdy thinker and a persuasive polemicist, and The Jewish State may prove to be a very influential book. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Hazony, president of the Shalem Center, an institute for social thought and public policy (and a onetime adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), asserts that "the idea of the Jewish state"--and the future of the state--is under fervent attack from its own intellectual and cultural establishment. These "post-Zionists" advocate, for example, the dejudaization of the public school curriculum and the repeal the Law of Return (which grants automatic citizenship to any Jew who immigrates to Israel) in order to create a more secular and equitable "post-Jewish" state. Hazony's reading of Israeli history leads him to conclude that the post-Zionists are paving the way to ruin everything the early Zionist and Israeli leaders sought to achieve--an alarming and painful prospect for Hazony; those who share his view will welcome this account. The work, however, presents more than Hazony's polemic. The bulk of it consists of an enlightening and thorough analysis of the evolution of the idea of the Jewish state, starting quite naturally with Theodor Herzl. Hazony does a masterful job of situating the cardinal figures in their historical context and of demonstrating the division of the Jewish community right up until the establishment of Israel in 1948. In this regard, Hazony focuses specifically on the philosopher Martin Buber, whose work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem he sees as the root of the current intellectual disdain for the state. Hazony claims that, with the exception of the state's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, leading Israeli politicians have not concerned themselves with cultural transmission or the transmission of ideas and therefore have given the intellectuals a monopoly on the cultural agenda. His book, though at times wearyingly political, is an impressive overview of the intellectual history of Israel. First serial to the New Republic; author tour. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465029027
• ISBN-13: 978-0465029020
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not simply for intellectuals, January 4, 2001

By	Colin P. Davy "incipits" (TULSA, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Jewish State : The Struggle for Israel's Soul (Hardcover)

First some background about me! I was 11 yrs. old in 1939 and grew up with an interest in world history at a time when history was being made. I admit to inheriting a lot of misconceptions and incomplete information on the subject of the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, the Balfour Declaration and the Jews. I took this book with me as holiday reading material and had to persevere to get through the Introduction and Part One which is essential reading to benefit from the whole volume. Coming to the second part which deals with the History of the Jewish State I simply could not put it down! In a way I wish that Mr.Hazony had included more explanatory detail and that the Notes, contained at the end of the book, had been printed as footnotes, for it is important to read them along with the text. However, this book has defintely prompted me to pursue a new phase of an old interest and I shall certainly be searching the catalogue of my local library for further reading. And isn't that what a good book, well researched and well written should do for an active and enquiring mind?

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ideas of "The Jewish State", August 26, 2000

By	James G. Mathis (wyomissing, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jewish State : The Struggle for Israel's Soul (Hardcover)

Zionism, the ideology that brought the modern state of Israel to life, cast a parabolic arc over the twentieth century. Launched by Theodor Herzl just before the century began, the Zionist movement reached its blazing apogee at mid-century when David Ben-Gurion led Israel through its War of Independence. Since then, according to Yoram Hazony in his new book "The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul", the trajectory for Zionism has been an ever-steepening descent toward the horizon of Jewish consciousness. In Hazony's view, the gravitational force for this descent has been provided in large part by the writings of the great Hebrew University sociologist Martin Buber and his academic and literary descendents.

The labors of these three men; Herzl, Ben-Gurion and Buber, described concisely but with insight and passion, provide the narrative thread for Hazony's book. His views are of course much more in line with the nation-state ideas of Herzl and Ben-Gurion, but he treats the universalist ideas of Buber with intellectual rigor and fairness. This is not suprising, because for Hazony, ideas are what matter most. Herzl's famous phrase "No man is strong or wealthy enough to move a people, only an idea can do that," is a good one sentence summary of Hazony's main theme. Ideas created modern Israel. Ideas have brought it to its current self-doubting impasse. What Israel needs now, more than anything else, are ideas big enough to, in Hazony's eloquent closing words "assist the Jewish people to again become a nation of grandeur and a blessing to all who befriend them, perhaps even to all the families of the earth."

24 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that was begging to be written, and Must be read, May 27, 2000

By	joseph netofsky (Detroit, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jewish State : The Struggle for Israel's Soul (Hardcover)

Yoram Hazony writes and expresses so clearly what has been on so many of our minds when we see Israel today. The anti-Jewish influences which are pervading Israeli society, shows up on Israeli TV, in Israeli schoolbooks, Meretz party, and such anti-Zionist newspapers as Ha'aretz. Hazony tells us who these people are and what their background is, which is brand new infromation for me. I really must say thank you to Hazony for exposing and publicizing this growing danger to the very existence of Jewish Israel. The only thing unsatisfactory to me, was how can I help to stop these post-Zionists, I feel quite helpless against this powerful cadre of a few hundred 'intellectuals' who want to destroy Jewish Israel. How can I help stop them? I know the majority of Jewish Israelis don't agree with this post-Zionist clique.