The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State

Sternhell, Zeev

ISBN 10: 0691009678 / ISBN 13: 9780691009674

Edité par Princeton University Press, 1999

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May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

N° de réf. du vendeur G0691009678I4N00

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State
• Éditeur: Princeton University Press
• Date de parution: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0691009678
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780691009674
• Reliure: Paperback
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket
• Poids: 1,45 livre

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

The well-known historian and political scientist Zeev Sternhell here advances a radically new interpretation of the founding of modern Israel. The founders claimed that they intended to create both a landed state for the Jewish people and a socialist society. However, according to Sternhell, socialism served the leaders of the influential labor movement more as a rhetorical resource for the legitimation of the national project of establishing a Jewish state than as a blueprint for a just society. In this thought-provoking book, Sternhell demonstrates how socialist principles were consistently subverted in practice by the nationalist goals to which socialist Zionism was committed. Sternhell explains how the avowedly socialist leaders of the dominant labor party, Mapai, especially David Ben Gurion and Berl Katznelson, never really believed in the prospects of realizing the "dream" of a new society, even though many of their working-class supporters were self-identified socialists. The founders of the state understood, from the very beginning, that not only socialism but also other universalistic ideologies like liberalism, were incompatible with cultural, historical, and territorial nationalism. Because nationalism took precedence over universal values, argues Sternhell, Israel has not evolved a constitution or a Bill of Rights, has not moved to separate state and religion, has failed to develop a liberal concept of citizenship, and, until the Oslo accords of 1993, did not recognize the rights of the Palestinians to independence. This is a controversial and timely book, which not only provides useful historical background to Israel's ongoing struggle to mobilize its citizenry to support a shared vision of nationhood, but also raises a question of general significance: is a national movement whose aim is a political and cultural revolution capable of coexisting with the universal values of secularism, individualism

À propos de l'auteur

Zeev Sternhell is Léon Blum Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author, among works in several languages, of Neither Right nor Left and The Birth of Fascist Ideology, both published by Princeton University Press.