What is Modern Israel?

Yakov M. Rabkin

Description

Few countries provoke as much passion and controversy as Israel. What is Modern Israel? convincingly demonstrates that its founding ideology - Zionism - is anything but a simple reaction to antisemitism. Dispelling the notion that every Jew is a Zionist and therefore a natural advocate for the state of Israel, Yakov Rabkin points to the Protestant roots of Zionism, in order to explain the particular support Israel musters in the United States.



Drawing on many overlooked pages of history, including English, French, Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian sources, Yakov Rabkin shows that Zionism was conceived as a sharp break with Judaism and Jewish continuity. Israel’s past and present must be seen in the context of European ethnic nationalism, colonial expansion and geopolitical interests, rather than as an incarnation of Biblical prophecies or a culmination of Jewish history.
Acknowledgements

Glossary

Preface

Introduction

1. The Land of Israel and Its Place in Jewish Tradition

2. The Jews of Europe: Between Equality and Extermination

3. A Return to the Promised Land as a Return to History

4. The Zionist Enterprise

5. The Nazi Genocide, Its Memory and Its Lessons

6. The Making and Maintaining of the Zionist State

7. Jewish Opposition to Zionism

8. Israeli Society and Jewish Communities

9. Israel in the International Arena

Conclusion: A State Without Borders

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Middle Est
• Jewish Studies
• Histoire
• Jaredí
• David Ben-Gurión
• Balfour Declaration
• Israel
• Israel and the apartheid analogy
• History of the Middle East
• Jewish diaspora
• Ashkenazi Jews
• David Ben-Gurion
• Haredi Judaism
• Israel Defense Forces
• Zionism
• World War II
• Jerusalem
• Demographics of Israel
• Hasidim
• History of religions
• Palestine
• Hassidisme
• Ashkenazi
• History
• Haredim

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783717835
• Langue: English

Extrait

‘A valuable contribution to the badly needed debate about Israel’s past, present and future.’
Professor Joseph Agassi, Tel Aviv University, author of Liberal Nationalism for Israel
‘[A] work of impressive scope and great precision.’
Edgar Morin, UNESCO Chair of Complex Thought, founding member of the International Ethical, Scientific and Political Collegium, Paris, author of Le monde moderne et la question juive
‘Vital for thinking about the conflict.’
Professor Brian Klug, Oxford University, author of Being Jewish and Doing Justice
‘A major contribution to our understanding of Israel .
The author is a man of ethical and moral principles, and at the same time a historian of great calibre.’
Professor Georges Corm, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, former Minister of Finance, author of Conflits et identities au Moyen-Orient
‘ Those who believe that Zionism is a sequel of Judaism may do well to read this book; those who believe that Israel is a Jewish state must read it.’
Professor Shlomo Sand, Tel Aviv University, author of The Invention of the Jewish People
‘Convincingly and thoughtfully, the author analyses current political and religious trends in Israeli society. A remarkable accomplishment: to tell a complex story with such clarity and punch.’
Gregory Baum, Officer of the Order of Canada, Centre for Justice and Faith, author of Nationalism, Religion and Ethics
‘Erudite and attentive to detail, full of surprises even for those familiar with the subject, and at the same time easily accessible because written in a simple and direct language. Even though it is meticulously referenced, this book reads like a novel and fills an important gap in the extensive literature on Israel and Palestine.’
Dr Rev. Pierre Goldberger, former Principal of the Theological College of the United Church of Canada
‘A key text in the search for a sustainable and just approach to the future of Israel and Palestine, and should be read and reflected upon by anyone concerned with the wellbeing of these two peoples.’
Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, author of Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope
‘Insightful and useful to all concerned about the future of Israel.’
Ronnie Kasrils, former Minister of Intelligence Services, South Africa
‘ A precise and empathic account that will benefit all involved. A must-read.’
Professor Gil Anidjar, Columbia University, author of The Jew, the Arab: A History of the Enemy
‘A bold and thought-provoking work.’
Professor Richard Foltz, Concordia University, author of Iran in World History
What is Modern Israel?
Yakov M. Rabkin
Translated by Fred A. Reed
First published in 2014 by Les Éditions Écosociété, Montréal, under the title Comprendre l’État d’Israël. Idéologie, religion et société .
First English edition published 2016 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Les Éditions Écosociété 2012; English translation © Fred A. Reed 2016
The right of Yakov M. Rabkin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3582 7 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3581 0 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7837 1782 8 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1784 2 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1783 5 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
The publishers and author are grateful to the SODEC for their help in the translation of this book.

Typeset by Curran Publishing Services, Norwich
Simultaneously printed in the European Union and United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Preface
Introduction
1 The Land of Israel and its Place in Jewish Tradition
2 The Jews of Europe: Between Equality and Extermination
3 A Return to the Promised Land as a Return to History
4 The Zionist Enterprise
5 The Nazi Genocide, Its Memory, and Its Lessons
6 The Making and Maintaining of the Zionist State
7 Jewish Opposition to Zionism
8 Israeli Society and Jewish Communities
9 Israel in the International Arena
Conclusion. A State Without Borders
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Mr. M. Billis, Mr. F. Derbesse, Ms. D. Glup, Professor K. Kanno, Mr. A. Kurganov and Rabbi G. Shuster-Bouskila for their corrections to a text for which I remain solely responsible. However, I cannot be responsible for the content of quotes, pro- and anti-Zionist, that some readers may find objectionable.
In view of the rapidly changing events in and around Israel, I have updated and slightly modified the English translation of the original text. In the process of preparing this book, I have benefited from exchanges of views with colleagues, as well as with audiences, around the world who have heard me speak on the state of Israel and on Zionism. The questions asked by journalists, especially in Japan where this book was published in a first version, broadened my horizons and helped me clarify my thoughts. All the members of my family, along with numerous guests at our Sabbath table, have listened with good grace to repeated and detailed discussions on the subject. Their participation and their benevolence are extremely dear to me, particularly as each one of them has his or her own views on the subject of this book.
Glossary
Most terms, except those identified as or clearly belonging to another language, are derived from the Hebrew. The Hebrew letters “het” and “he” are transliterated as English “h.”
Agudat Israel , or Aguda (short form): Association of Israel, an Orthodox movement and political party founded in 1912.
Aliya : going up, meaning immigration to Israel; olim: immigrants to Israel.
Ashkenazis : Central and Eastern European Jews.
Betar : acronym for Brit Yosef Trumpeldor (Josef Trumpeldor Alliance), a militarist youth organization founded by Jabotinsky in 1923.
Bund (Yiddish), lit. alliance: the General Alliance of Jewish Workers of Russia and Poland, founded 1897.
Emancipation : ongoing process begun at the end of the 18th century, which granted Jews equality before the law and abolished the political, social, and professional restrictions under which they had suffered in most Christian countries for centuries.
Eretz Israel : the land of Israel. The term appears for the first time in Samuel I 13:9; not to be confused with the state of Israel, which has existed since 1948, or the kingdom of Israel, founded in the 10th century before the modern era.
Goyim , pl. of goy : nation, people; used today to refer to non-Jews; the Pentateuch also uses the term with reference to the children of Israel, particularly in the precept: “You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Haggadah : corpus of Biblical and other texts relating the flight out of Egypt recited at the Passover holiday.
Haganah , lit. defense: a military organization founded in 1920 by the Zionist Labor Movement in Palestine; integrated into the regular army of the state of Israel in 1948.
Halakhah , lit. step, progression: the corpus of Jewish law based primarily on the Mishna and the Talmud.
Halukah , lit. sharing: a system for sharing gifts among the Haredi communities in the Holy Land.
Haredi , pl. Haredim , lit. strictly observant: common appellation of all traditional Jewish groups; visually distinguishable by a two-color dress code, black and white; referred to in the media as “ultra-Orthodox.”
Haskalah , lit. the act of making intelligent: the Jewish version of the Enlightenment, which reached its high point in the 19th century; maskilim: those who follow this doctrine.
Hassid , pl. Hassidim , adj: Hassidic, followers of the mystical Jewish renewal movement begun in 18th-century Russia.
Hibbat Tzion , Hovevei Tzion (Hebrew), lit. love of Zion, lover of Zion: Jewish settler movement in Palestine, founded in Russia in 1881; joined the Zionist movement after 1896.
Ketuba , lit. inscription: a Jewish marriage contract.
Kibbutz , pl. kibbutzim : collectivist community or village developed in Palestine by socialist Zionists in the early 20th century. Many kibbutz members were members of the Zionist and later the Israeli elite, until the late 1970s.
Knesset , lit. assembly: part of the traditional expression “bet ha-knesset” (synagogue); used since 1948 to designate the Parliament of Israel.
Leshon ha-kodesh (in Yiddish “loshn koydesh”), “language of holiness”: refers to Hebrew before its modernization and secularization in the 19th century.
Liberalism : political ideology that promotes individual (as opposed to collective or community) freedoms and equality of all before the law.
Midrash (adj. midrashic ), commentary: corpus of rabbinical commentaries written at the beginning of the common era; part of the oral Torah.
Mishna (adj. mishnaic ), repetition, study: basis of the oral Torah written by Judas the Prince in the 2nd century; used as a basis for the Talmud, which draws from it guidance in the formulation of Jewish law and moral teaching.
Mitzvah , precept: corpus of 613 commandments that should guide a Jew’s behavior, in conformity with the written and oral Torah.
Mizrahi , oriental: allusion to the land of Israel; also an acronym for merkaz ruhani, or “spiritual center”; name of the religious Zionist movement founded in 1904 by Rabbi Isaac Jacob Reines.
Moshav : cooperative agricultural settlement.
National Judaism : movement formed in the early 20th century in the Russian Empire to protect the religious way of life of Jewish settlers in Palestine; played a key role in the settlement of the territories conquered following the Israeli victory in 1967, interpreted within