Author: Aaron Berman
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814344038
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
A sophisticated analysis of how the Zionist understanding of the Holocaust shaped the development of American Jewish policies and political activism. Aaron Berman takes a moderate and measured approach to one of the most emotional issues in American Jewish historiography, namely, the response of American Jews to Nazism and the extermination of European Jewry.In remarkably large numbers, American Jews joined the Zionist crusade to create a Jewish state that would finally end the problem of Jewish homelessness, which they believed was the basic cause not only of the Holocaust but of all anti-Semitism. Though American Zionists could justly claim credit for the successful establishment of Israel in 1948, this triumph was not without cost. Their insistence on including a demand for Jewish statehood in any proposal to aid European Jewry politicized the rescue issue and made it impossible to appeal for American aid on purely humanitarian grounds. The American Zionist response to Nazism also shaped he political turmoil in the Middle East which followed Israel’s creation. Concerned primarily with providing a home for Jewish refugees and fearing British betrayal, Zionists could not understand Arab protests in defense of their own national interests. Instead they responded to the Arab revolt with armed force and sought to insure their own claim to Palestine, Zionists came to link he Arabs with the Nazi and British forces that were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state. In the thinking of American Zionists, the Arabs were steadily transformed from a people with whom an accommodation would have to be made into a mortal enemy to be defeated. Aaron Berman does not apologize for American Jews, but rather tries to understand the constraints within which they operated and what opportunities-if any-they had to respond to Hitler. In surveying the latest scholarship and responding o charges against American Jewry, Berman’s arguments are reasoned and reasonable.
Nazism, the Jews and American Zionism, 1933-1948
Author: Aaron Berman
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814344038
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
A sophisticated analysis of how the Zionist understanding of the Holocaust shaped the development of American Jewish policies and political activism. Aaron Berman takes a moderate and measured approach to one of the most emotional issues in American Jewish historiography, namely, the response of American Jews to Nazism and the extermination of European Jewry.In remarkably large numbers, American Jews joined the Zionist crusade to create a Jewish state that would finally end the problem of Jewish homelessness, which they believed was the basic cause not only of the Holocaust but of all anti-Semitism. Though American Zionists could justly claim credit for the successful establishment of Israel in 1948, this triumph was not without cost. Their insistence on including a demand for Jewish statehood in any proposal to aid European Jewry politicized the rescue issue and made it impossible to appeal for American aid on purely humanitarian grounds. The American Zionist response to Nazism also shaped he political turmoil in the Middle East which followed Israel’s creation. Concerned primarily with providing a home for Jewish refugees and fearing British betrayal, Zionists could not understand Arab protests in defense of their own national interests. Instead they responded to the Arab revolt with armed force and sought to insure their own claim to Palestine, Zionists came to link he Arabs with the Nazi and British forces that were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state. In the thinking of American Zionists, the Arabs were steadily transformed from a people with whom an accommodation would have to be made into a mortal enemy to be defeated. Aaron Berman does not apologize for American Jews, but rather tries to understand the constraints within which they operated and what opportunities-if any-they had to respond to Hitler. In surveying the latest scholarship and responding o charges against American Jewry, Berman’s arguments are reasoned and reasonable.
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814344038
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
A sophisticated analysis of how the Zionist understanding of the Holocaust shaped the development of American Jewish policies and political activism. Aaron Berman takes a moderate and measured approach to one of the most emotional issues in American Jewish historiography, namely, the response of American Jews to Nazism and the extermination of European Jewry.In remarkably large numbers, American Jews joined the Zionist crusade to create a Jewish state that would finally end the problem of Jewish homelessness, which they believed was the basic cause not only of the Holocaust but of all anti-Semitism. Though American Zionists could justly claim credit for the successful establishment of Israel in 1948, this triumph was not without cost. Their insistence on including a demand for Jewish statehood in any proposal to aid European Jewry politicized the rescue issue and made it impossible to appeal for American aid on purely humanitarian grounds. The American Zionist response to Nazism also shaped he political turmoil in the Middle East which followed Israel’s creation. Concerned primarily with providing a home for Jewish refugees and fearing British betrayal, Zionists could not understand Arab protests in defense of their own national interests. Instead they responded to the Arab revolt with armed force and sought to insure their own claim to Palestine, Zionists came to link he Arabs with the Nazi and British forces that were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state. In the thinking of American Zionists, the Arabs were steadily transformed from a people with whom an accommodation would have to be made into a mortal enemy to be defeated. Aaron Berman does not apologize for American Jews, but rather tries to understand the constraints within which they operated and what opportunities-if any-they had to respond to Hitler. In surveying the latest scholarship and responding o charges against American Jewry, Berman’s arguments are reasoned and reasonable.
The Zionist Ideas
Author: Gil Troy
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0827613989
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 722
Book Description
The most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published, The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland--Then, Now, Tomorrow sheds light on the surprisingly diverse and shared visions for realizing Israel as a democratic Jewish state. Building on Arthur Hertzberg's classic, The Zionist Idea, Gil Troy explores the backstories, dreams, and legacies of more than 170 passionate Jewish visionaries--quadruple Hertzberg's original number, and now including women, mizrachim, and others--from the 1800s to today. Troy divides the thinkers into six Zionist schools of thought--Political, Revisionist, Labor, Religious, Cultural, and Diaspora Zionism--and reveals the breadth of the debate and surprising syntheses. He also presents the visionaries within three major stages of Zionist development, demonstrating the length and evolution of the conversation. Part 1 (pre-1948) introduces the pioneers who founded the Jewish state, such as Herzl, Gordon, Jabotinsky, Kook, Ha'am, and Szold. Part 2 (1948 to 2000) features builders who actualized and modernized the Zionist blueprints, such as Ben-Gurion, Berlin, Meir, Begin, Soloveitchik, Uris, and Kaplan. Part 3 showcases today's torchbearers, including Barak, Grossman, Shaked, Lau, Yehoshua, and Sacks. This mosaic of voices will engage equally diverse readers in reinvigorating the Zionist conversation--weighing and developing the moral, social, and political character of the Jewish state of today and tomorrow.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0827613989
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 722
Book Description
The most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published, The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland--Then, Now, Tomorrow sheds light on the surprisingly diverse and shared visions for realizing Israel as a democratic Jewish state. Building on Arthur Hertzberg's classic, The Zionist Idea, Gil Troy explores the backstories, dreams, and legacies of more than 170 passionate Jewish visionaries--quadruple Hertzberg's original number, and now including women, mizrachim, and others--from the 1800s to today. Troy divides the thinkers into six Zionist schools of thought--Political, Revisionist, Labor, Religious, Cultural, and Diaspora Zionism--and reveals the breadth of the debate and surprising syntheses. He also presents the visionaries within three major stages of Zionist development, demonstrating the length and evolution of the conversation. Part 1 (pre-1948) introduces the pioneers who founded the Jewish state, such as Herzl, Gordon, Jabotinsky, Kook, Ha'am, and Szold. Part 2 (1948 to 2000) features builders who actualized and modernized the Zionist blueprints, such as Ben-Gurion, Berlin, Meir, Begin, Soloveitchik, Uris, and Kaplan. Part 3 showcases today's torchbearers, including Barak, Grossman, Shaked, Lau, Yehoshua, and Sacks. This mosaic of voices will engage equally diverse readers in reinvigorating the Zionist conversation--weighing and developing the moral, social, and political character of the Jewish state of today and tomorrow.
The New Zionists
Author: David L. Graizbord
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498580467
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Through a qualitative analysis and broad historical contextualization of personal interviews, The New Zionists shows how American Jewish “Millennials” who are not religiously orthodox approach Israel and Zionism as galvanizing solutions to the thinning of American Jewish identity, and (re)root themselves through “Israeliness”—an unselfconscious and largely secular expression of national kinship and solidarity, as well as of personal and communal purpose, that American Judaism scarcely provides.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498580467
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Through a qualitative analysis and broad historical contextualization of personal interviews, The New Zionists shows how American Jewish “Millennials” who are not religiously orthodox approach Israel and Zionism as galvanizing solutions to the thinning of American Jewish identity, and (re)root themselves through “Israeliness”—an unselfconscious and largely secular expression of national kinship and solidarity, as well as of personal and communal purpose, that American Judaism scarcely provides.
American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise
Author: Shulamit Reinharz
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584654391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
The first and only complete exploration of the role of American women in the creation and support of the State of Israel from pre-State years through the struggles of Israel's first decades.
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9781584654391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
The first and only complete exploration of the role of American women in the creation and support of the State of Israel from pre-State years through the struggles of Israel's first decades.
American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust
Author: Melvin I. Urofsky
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 395
Book Description
This eBook is a co-edition Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press. Vienna journalist Theodore Herzl realized that anti-Semitism, dramatically illustrated by the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France, would never be stemmed by the attempts of Jews to assimilate. The publication of his Der Judenstaat in 1896 began the political movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It caught on in Europe but was moribund in the United States until World War I. Urofsky shows how the Zionist movement was Americanized by Louis D. Brandeis and other reformers. He portrays the disputes between assimilationist and conservative Jews and the difficulties impeding the movement until Arab riots in Palestine, British treachery, and the Nazi horrors of World War II reunited American Jewry. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust won the Jewish Book Council’s Morris J. Kaplun Award in 1976. “One of the most important books in the field of American-Jewish history to appear in years. Superbly researched and written, it is a major contribution to the understanding of the paradoxical weaknesses and strengths of American Zionism in our time... This book belongs in any collection of works on American Jewry, world Jewry, American foreign affairs or Israeli-Arab conflict background.” — Choice “How American Zionism, culturally so different from European Zionism, helped create the movement as a political power is the theme of this absorbing history. It is must reading for anyone who would understand American foreign policy involvements in the Middle East.” — Christian Science Monitor “[Urofsky’s] study is a first-rate piece of work.” — David Singer, Commentary Magazine “[Urofsky] has relied on an impressive array of primary source material including archival and manuscript collections, newspapers, magazines, and the reports of Zionist congresses and conventions. They emerge from his pen as a coherent, readable and, oft times, fascinating whole... In a fascinating and readable style he focuses on the most interesting events and personalities... He has succeeded in adroitly molding innumerable facts and details into a cohesive and coherent body of material... a significant addition to the study of American Zionism.” — Deborah E. Lipstadt, Jewish Social Studies “[A] well-written, penetrating narrative... Much of what he discusses — how Brandeis fused Zionism with Americanism, the fight for communal power between the wealthy stewards of the American Jewish Committee and the recent immigrants, the part played by the Americans in the Balfour Declaration negotiations, the rift between the Weizmann and Brandeis factions — has been told before. But Urofsky’s data, gleaned from numerous manuscript collections, and his skillful collation of far-flung monographic material have put a definitive stamp on a long-needed synthetic history of those events.” — Naomi W. Cohen, The Journal of American History “Melvin I. Urofsky argues in this, the most complete analysis yet published of American Zionism, that the most sensible perspective for understanding American Zionism is American history.” — Edward S. Shapiro, American Jewish Historical Quarterly “American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust is a monument to the interplay between the Zionism of America and that of Europe, resulting in the creation of a thoroughly American movement with worldwide influence... Urofsky’s thesis is both convincing and thoroughly supported.” — Peter S. Margolis, H-Judaic
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 395
Book Description
This eBook is a co-edition Plunkett Lake Press/University of Nebraska Press. Vienna journalist Theodore Herzl realized that anti-Semitism, dramatically illustrated by the Dreyfus Affair in 1890s France, would never be stemmed by the attempts of Jews to assimilate. The publication of his Der Judenstaat in 1896 began the political movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It caught on in Europe but was moribund in the United States until World War I. Urofsky shows how the Zionist movement was Americanized by Louis D. Brandeis and other reformers. He portrays the disputes between assimilationist and conservative Jews and the difficulties impeding the movement until Arab riots in Palestine, British treachery, and the Nazi horrors of World War II reunited American Jewry. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust won the Jewish Book Council’s Morris J. Kaplun Award in 1976. “One of the most important books in the field of American-Jewish history to appear in years. Superbly researched and written, it is a major contribution to the understanding of the paradoxical weaknesses and strengths of American Zionism in our time... This book belongs in any collection of works on American Jewry, world Jewry, American foreign affairs or Israeli-Arab conflict background.” — Choice “How American Zionism, culturally so different from European Zionism, helped create the movement as a political power is the theme of this absorbing history. It is must reading for anyone who would understand American foreign policy involvements in the Middle East.” — Christian Science Monitor “[Urofsky’s] study is a first-rate piece of work.” — David Singer, Commentary Magazine “[Urofsky] has relied on an impressive array of primary source material including archival and manuscript collections, newspapers, magazines, and the reports of Zionist congresses and conventions. They emerge from his pen as a coherent, readable and, oft times, fascinating whole... In a fascinating and readable style he focuses on the most interesting events and personalities... He has succeeded in adroitly molding innumerable facts and details into a cohesive and coherent body of material... a significant addition to the study of American Zionism.” — Deborah E. Lipstadt, Jewish Social Studies “[A] well-written, penetrating narrative... Much of what he discusses — how Brandeis fused Zionism with Americanism, the fight for communal power between the wealthy stewards of the American Jewish Committee and the recent immigrants, the part played by the Americans in the Balfour Declaration negotiations, the rift between the Weizmann and Brandeis factions — has been told before. But Urofsky’s data, gleaned from numerous manuscript collections, and his skillful collation of far-flung monographic material have put a definitive stamp on a long-needed synthetic history of those events.” — Naomi W. Cohen, The Journal of American History “Melvin I. Urofsky argues in this, the most complete analysis yet published of American Zionism, that the most sensible perspective for understanding American Zionism is American history.” — Edward S. Shapiro, American Jewish Historical Quarterly “American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust is a monument to the interplay between the Zionism of America and that of Europe, resulting in the creation of a thoroughly American movement with worldwide influence... Urofsky’s thesis is both convincing and thoroughly supported.” — Peter S. Margolis, H-Judaic
Never Alone
Author: Natan Sharansky
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541742435
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
A classic account of courage, integrity, and most of all, belonging In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life. Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty. His story is suffused with reflections from his time as a political prisoner, from his seat at the table as history unfolded in Israel and the Middle East, and from his passionate efforts to unite the Jewish people. Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human struggle: to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541742435
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
A classic account of courage, integrity, and most of all, belonging In 1977, Natan Sharansky, a leading activist in the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union and the movement for free Jewish emigration, was arrested by the KGB. He spent nine years as a political prisoner, convicted of treason against the state. Every day, Sharansky fought for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life. Never Alone reveals how Sharansky's years in prison, many spent in harsh solitary confinement, prepared him for a very public life after his release. As an Israeli politician and the head of the Jewish Agency, Sharansky brought extraordinary moral clarity and uncompromising, often uncomfortable, honesty. His story is suffused with reflections from his time as a political prisoner, from his seat at the table as history unfolded in Israel and the Middle East, and from his passionate efforts to unite the Jewish people. Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human struggle: to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.
Letters to an American Jewish Friend
Author: Hillel Halkin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789652296306
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
This passionate polemic addresses itself to the ultimate questions of Jewish destiny and proclaims the primacy of Israel as the locus of the Jewish future. Hillel Halkin is an American-born Jew who has cast his personal and historical lot with Israel. Corresponding with an imaginary “American Jewish friend” who upholds the possibility of a viable Jewish life outside Israel, Halkin forcefully argues his case: Jewish history and Israeli history are two lines in the process of converging; and any Jew who chooses, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, not to live in Israel is removing himself to the peripheries of the struggle for Jewish survival and away from the center of Jewish destiny.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789652296306
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
This passionate polemic addresses itself to the ultimate questions of Jewish destiny and proclaims the primacy of Israel as the locus of the Jewish future. Hillel Halkin is an American-born Jew who has cast his personal and historical lot with Israel. Corresponding with an imaginary “American Jewish friend” who upholds the possibility of a viable Jewish life outside Israel, Halkin forcefully argues his case: Jewish history and Israeli history are two lines in the process of converging; and any Jew who chooses, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, not to live in Israel is removing himself to the peripheries of the struggle for Jewish survival and away from the center of Jewish destiny.
Jewcentricity
Author: Adam Garfinkle
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 047059781X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Advance Praise for Jewcentricity "Adam Garfinkle punctures the myth of the omnipotence of the Jews with such intelligence and reflective sweep that we still can go on discussing the 'exaggerations' forever."—Leslie H. Gelb, former columnist for the New York Times and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations "Jews, as the saying goes, are news. Why is that? In this elegant, witty, learned, insightful, always interesting, and occasionally alarming book, Adam Garfinkle explains the world's fascination with the practitioners of its oldest mono-theistic religion."—Michael Mandelbaum, author of Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Oldest Form of Government "One would have thought that everything that could be written or said about the relationship between Jews and their environment has been written and said. It was a pleasure, though hardly a surprise, that Adam Garfinkle, thinker, scholar, editor, and iconoclast at large, has been able to offer us fresh insights into this complex issue and apply his original mind to the subject matter."—Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former president of Tel-Aviv University "There is a lot to argue about and ponder in this riveting manuscript. It is bound to cause a stir."—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite "One way of looking at this brilliant book is to see it as an extended commentary on an old joke that defines a philo-Semite as an anti-Semite who likes Jews. Garfinkle shows, with many examples, what both characters have in common—a wildly exaggerated notion of the importance of Jews in the world. Garfinkle's argument is scholarly, lucid, witty, and very persuasive. It deserves a wide readership."—Peter L. Berger, director, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 047059781X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Advance Praise for Jewcentricity "Adam Garfinkle punctures the myth of the omnipotence of the Jews with such intelligence and reflective sweep that we still can go on discussing the 'exaggerations' forever."—Leslie H. Gelb, former columnist for the New York Times and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations "Jews, as the saying goes, are news. Why is that? In this elegant, witty, learned, insightful, always interesting, and occasionally alarming book, Adam Garfinkle explains the world's fascination with the practitioners of its oldest mono-theistic religion."—Michael Mandelbaum, author of Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Oldest Form of Government "One would have thought that everything that could be written or said about the relationship between Jews and their environment has been written and said. It was a pleasure, though hardly a surprise, that Adam Garfinkle, thinker, scholar, editor, and iconoclast at large, has been able to offer us fresh insights into this complex issue and apply his original mind to the subject matter."—Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former president of Tel-Aviv University "There is a lot to argue about and ponder in this riveting manuscript. It is bound to cause a stir."—Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite "One way of looking at this brilliant book is to see it as an extended commentary on an old joke that defines a philo-Semite as an anti-Semite who likes Jews. Garfinkle shows, with many examples, what both characters have in common—a wildly exaggerated notion of the importance of Jews in the world. Garfinkle's argument is scholarly, lucid, witty, and very persuasive. It deserves a wide readership."—Peter L. Berger, director, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University
Zionism
Author: Michael Stanislawski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199766045
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
"This Very Short Introduction discloses a history of Zionism from the origins of modern Jewish nationalism in the 1870's to the present. Michael Stanislawski provides a lucid and detached analysis of Zionism, focusing on its internal intellectual and ideological developments and divides"--
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199766045
Category : HISTORY
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
"This Very Short Introduction discloses a history of Zionism from the origins of modern Jewish nationalism in the 1870's to the present. Michael Stanislawski provides a lucid and detached analysis of Zionism, focusing on its internal intellectual and ideological developments and divides"--
Our American Israel
Author: Amy Kaplan
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674989929
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
An essential account of America’s most controversial alliance that reveals how the United States came to see Israel as an extension of itself, and how that strong and divisive partnership plays out in our own time. Our American Israel tells the story of how a Jewish state in the Middle East came to resonate profoundly with a broad range of Americans in the twentieth century. Beginning with debates about Zionism after World War II, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptional nature. Now, in the twenty-first century, Amy Kaplan challenges the associations underlying this special alliance. Through popular narratives expressed in news media, fiction, and film, a shared sense of identity emerged from the two nations’ histories as settler societies. Americans projected their own origin myths onto Israel: the biblical promised land, the open frontier, the refuge for immigrants, the revolt against colonialism. Israel assumed a mantle of moral authority, based on its image as an “invincible victim,” a nation of intrepid warriors and concentration camp survivors. This paradox persisted long after the Six-Day War, when the United States rallied behind a story of the Israeli David subduing the Arab Goliath. The image of the underdog shattered when Israel invaded Lebanon and Palestinians rose up against the occupation. Israel’s military was strongly censured around the world, including notes of dissent in the United States. Rather than a symbol of justice, Israel became a model of military strength and technological ingenuity. In America today, Israel’s political realities pose difficult challenges. Turning a critical eye on the turbulent history that bound the two nations together, Kaplan unearths the roots of present controversies that may well divide them in the future.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674989929
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
An essential account of America’s most controversial alliance that reveals how the United States came to see Israel as an extension of itself, and how that strong and divisive partnership plays out in our own time. Our American Israel tells the story of how a Jewish state in the Middle East came to resonate profoundly with a broad range of Americans in the twentieth century. Beginning with debates about Zionism after World War II, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptional nature. Now, in the twenty-first century, Amy Kaplan challenges the associations underlying this special alliance. Through popular narratives expressed in news media, fiction, and film, a shared sense of identity emerged from the two nations’ histories as settler societies. Americans projected their own origin myths onto Israel: the biblical promised land, the open frontier, the refuge for immigrants, the revolt against colonialism. Israel assumed a mantle of moral authority, based on its image as an “invincible victim,” a nation of intrepid warriors and concentration camp survivors. This paradox persisted long after the Six-Day War, when the United States rallied behind a story of the Israeli David subduing the Arab Goliath. The image of the underdog shattered when Israel invaded Lebanon and Palestinians rose up against the occupation. Israel’s military was strongly censured around the world, including notes of dissent in the United States. Rather than a symbol of justice, Israel became a model of military strength and technological ingenuity. In America today, Israel’s political realities pose difficult challenges. Turning a critical eye on the turbulent history that bound the two nations together, Kaplan unearths the roots of present controversies that may well divide them in the future.