Different types of Zionism

There are as many ways to interpret history as there are people in the world, and then some. Yet most people think that their version is the most accurate, factual, etc. If you fall into this camp, then reading the following books should at least persuade you to be more open to other worldviews.

Examining Zionism

A group of respected Israeli historians have united to create a significant contribution to the library of Zionism. The book, straightforwardly titled New Essays on Zionism (Shalem Press), is hugely wide-ranging and a bit deceptive. Just because the title says "new" doesn't mean we're necessarily talking about contemporary events, though of course each essay can be read with the foresight of current realities.

As well as co-editing, Michael Oren, whose 2002 book Six Days of War quickly became the definitive account of the 1967 conflict, has two essays in the collection. One tells the story of Orde Wingate, a British military leader "widely regarded as the father of modern guerrilla warfare" and a man whose reputation in Israel can still lead Zionist pilgrims to his grave at Arlington. The second explores David Ben-Gurion and the phenomenon of Jewish self-determination after millennia of statelessness.

Ofir Haivry explores, as is appropriate to this topic perhaps more than any, whether there is such a thing as historical truth and to what extent form governs content.

"Is it legitimate, for example, to describe World War II as a story in which it is the German nation that is the victim?" Haivry asks. "Or is it the case, quite to the contrary, that the substance of events possesses an essential and inevitable form which limits the possible configurations that one can reasonably give to those events?" Haivry comes to the reasonable conclusion that there are immutable facts, and does so in a convincing and erudite manner.

Yoram Hazony's essay explores the role of Israel as the "guardian" of the Jews, elegantly reviewing all the inconsistencies and ambivalence that concept can evoke. The Eichmann trial, he notes, "established for the first time the principle of worldly punishment for those who commit crimes against the Jewish people." This observation, though plain and true, is nonetheless jarring several millennia into Jewish history. As is inevitable in collections of different writers, the quality of the prose varies greatly and Hazony's writing is magnificent.

Ruth Gavison, a Hebrew University law professor whose essay begins the collection, makes a methodical, somewhat plodding, case for the existence of Israel. Natan Sharansky treads over the familiar terrain of Theodor Herzl's legacy, as does Hazony and, in passing, several of the other contributors. And Arie Morgenstern examines the long-term longing for the return to Zion over the period 1240 to 1840, reminding readers that Zionism is far from a modern phenomenon.

Ze'ev Maghen, a Bar-Ilan University historian and a writer of wit and insight, begins with recollections of running into a cadre of Israeli Hare Krishnas in the Los Angeles airport, leading him to the question, "Why on earth be a Jew in the (post-) modern world?" Acknowledging that Israel's so-called "new historians" have made their careers destroying "myths that lack a real basis," Maghen points to examples of excellent historical scholarship that are "contributing to the creation of legends solidly grounded in truth."

"Though there are doubtless further skeletons waiting to be exhumed from the Zionist closet, there are also many stories marked by heroism and justice that await the appropriate chronicler," Maghen writes.

In this collection, several legends have found their chroniclers.

– Pat Johnson

If only Israel would ...

Chroniclers of a more ideological sort have created Peace, Justice, and Jews: Reclaiming Our Tradition (Bunim and Bannigan). Voices of Jewish progressive thinkers and others come together here, creating a mix that is diverse, engaging and, sometimes, infuriating.

The commitment to social justice of every variety demonstrated by the voices in this volume is laudable, but often there is an underpinning of ideological presumption so grave that it destabilizes the whole case. This viewpoint becomes clear before we move past the book's bumf on the cover flap and emerges repeatedly throughout: "As Israel appears to rely increasingly on military superiority as a response to its complex political and territorial problems, the American and Israeli Jews writing here find themselves working through a profound moral crisis: whether to support Israel unconditionally as a bulwark against anti-Semitism or to insist on a compromise grounded in Jewish tradition: a fair and peaceful solution with the Palestinians."

If Israel did not have military superiority, readers might observe, its other "complex" problems would cease to exist, along with its people. The fact is most of these writers are not working through profound moral crises. The binary created between "unconditional" support and "compromise" is, of course, a straw dog.

"In Israel/Palestine, a complete cessation of violence on both sides, as part and parcel of a comprehensive negotiated two-state solution, may sound utopian, but, in the final analysis, is the only rational alternative to more suffering and misery," writes Bennett Muraskin, in a sentence that typifies the book. The essence of the Oslo Process is now depicted by Jewish peace activists as utopianism, which should, but too often doesn't, make these authors reflect on the current intifada and ask who is responsible for the contemporary dystopia.

– Pat Johnson

Mideast water intrigue

While there is cause to question some of the facts in Patricia Goldstone's new book – and reviewers have – you can't dispute that she tells an interesting story.

Aaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East (Harcourt Inc.) is mainly about surveyor, agronomist, hydrologist, spy and failed diplomat/politician Aaron Aaronsohn (1876-1919). At age six, he came with his parents from Romania to settle in Palestine and, from his many later explorations of the Middle East, Goldstone argues, Aaronsohn, among other things, "compiled both the area's first detailed water maps and a plan for Palestine's national borders that predicted and – in its insistence on partnership between Arabs and Jews – might have prevented the decades of conflict to come."

Unfortunately, concrete evidence is hard to attain. Goldstone writes that she began work on this book just prior to the Iraq war and she, and other researchers, was "denied access to the main body of British archival material relating to Aaron's activities for the Eastern Mediterranean Special Intelligence Bureau on the grounds that the same methods are still in use today." As well, documents were lost when Aaronsohn's plane went missing after taking off from Kenley, England, on May 15, 1919. And then there is the sheer difficulty in reconstructing anyone's life based on what material has survived their death and the decades following. So, Goldstone is left to make conjectures about several important matters – in particular, that Aaronsohn's maps could have changed the violent course of Israeli-Palestinian relations. While she often states this, she offers little to support the claim.

However, incomplete historicity notwithstanding, Aaronsohn's Maps is truly engaging. There are problems with the writing in parts – unnecessary repetition here and there, some confusing portions that drag on and some terms defined only on second or third reference – but overall it reads well, albeit more like a novel or an extended opinion piece than a biography, as Goldstone can't resist injecting ideology into her writing. The discussion of the importance of a railway through the Middle East is particularly fascinating, as are the diplomatic machinations around the First World War, the intra-Jewish politics and the vastly different visions of Zionism at the turn of the last century. The more current historical analysis is not necessarily less interesting, but has almost nothing to do with Goldstone's purported topic – Aaronsohn.

– Cynthia Ramsay

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