The Question of Zion (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "On December 12, 1665, Shabtai Zvi, mystical messiah, advanced on the Portuguese Synagogue in Smyrna accompanied by a motley gathering of "everyone who was in..." (more)
Key Phrases: messianic idea, Ahad Ha'am, Shabtai Zvi, Der Judenstaat (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A thoughtful new book". -- Allan Brownfeld, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

"It takes courage for anyone to analyze the myths of their own people from inside". -- David Norris, Irish Times

"Jacqueline Rose's pessimistic analysis is tightly woven. It stands on a solid edifice of scholarship". -- Rafael Behr, The Guardian

Review

[A] remarkable book. . . . Enormous amounts of news coverage and polemic are devoted to Israel, and the conflict in the Holy Land is the single most bitterly contentious struggle on earth. And yet, as Rose points out, little attention is given to the roots of the Zionist movement and the impassioned debates that once surrounded it. . . . Just what a strange creed Zionism was, and how unlike other nations its out-come, are part of Rose's theme.
(Geoffrey Wheatcroft New Statesman )

Jacqueline Rose has written a timely and courageous book. . . . It could do nothing but good if the force of Rose's argument were to be felt not only in and for Israel but beyond.
(David Stimpson London Review of Books )

Professor Rose's analysis . . . is modestly expressed and methodical. It is also fiercely intellectual. Judaic theology and psychoanalytic theory are wielded like tools, unpicking the minds of Israel's pioneers . . . to the Bible-bashing settlers currently resisting evacuation from Gaza to the West Bank.
(Rafael Behr The Observer )

[A]n original and provocative study, full of arresting insights, that deserves to be widely read in Israel and among diaspora Jews.
(Rabbi David Goldberg Jewish Chronicle )

In some of the most interesting passages of The Question of Zion, [Jacqueline Rose] offers a brilliant account of the psychopathological effects of the holocaust on 'the Israeli mind'. . . . Inspired by Rose's courage and generosity, our field should now engage with much less timidity with the issue of Palestine/Israel.
(Bart Moore-Gilbert Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies )

Rose's highly provocative work raises many important problems and provides many useful insights.
(Laurence J. Silberstein International History Review )

Rose's book has the merit of probing the problematic liaison in the Jewish state between nationalism and religion, on the one hand, and national myth and political reality, on the other. From the perspective of the study of her religion, her book challenges us to pay heed to the fundamental conceptual difference between (religious) redemption and (national) liberation.
(Martina Urban Journal of Religion )

Presents a revisionist appraisal of the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict and concludes that Israel is in danger of destroying itself.
(Sheldon Kirshner Canadian Jewish News )

Rose asks the right questions: is it possible to talk about the suffering of the Jewish people and the violence of the Israeli state in the same breadth? Why is criticism of Israel construed as a denial of the Jewish people's right to self-defense? Can any state act with impunity on grounds of self-defense? And finally, if part of the messianic view of world history is that 'it is part of the cosmic order of things that the nation must live on a knife's edge,' as her analysis suggests, is it possible for there to be peace?
(Cynthia Hoffman Tikkun )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (February 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691117500
• ISBN-13: 978-0691117508
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #409,364 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb, thoughtful book, June 16, 2005

By	clem (Chicago) - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and timely critique of Zionism, January 18, 2009

By	Ruggeri Laura "laura" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Question of Zion (Paperback)

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.

3.0 out of 5 stars Critique of State Zionism, October 20, 2009

By	Edward Mariyani-Squire (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Question of Zion (Paperback)

Critique of mainstream state Zionism, characterising it as a heady mix of militarism, racism, messianism, and the self-delusional denial of these features. Suggests there are other conceptions of Zionism - 'good' Zionist ideologies - that are not wedded to these features. Uses to a kind of politico-psychoanalytic analysis, which makes it a bit more interesting than the average critique, but also a little more tenuous.