The Jewish State:

The Struggle for Israel’s Soul

By Yoram Hazony

Reviewed by Monty Rainey

cover

 This book takes you through the evolution of Zionism over the last 100+ years. It is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn about the unending problems of the land of Palestine. 

 
Hazony is an excellent writer. The book begins as a slow, lumbering read, hard to get into, but you must get through the Introduction and first few Chapters. Then the book begins to roll and you will find yourself unable to put it down. The only complaint I have of this book is that mine is the paperback edition and the print font is too small. Spend a few extra dollars and get the hardback if you are over 40 and need reading glasses. 

Yoram Hazony writes and expresses so clearly what has been on so many of our minds when we see Israel today. The anti-Jewish influence shows up on Israeli TV, in Israeli schoolbooks, Meretz party, and such anti-Zionist newspapers as Ha'aretz. Hazony tells us who these people are and what their background is.

The book describes in great detail, the workings of Herzl, Ben-Gurion and Buber. The inner workings of modern Israeli government are carefully dissected. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the intellectual struggle that is as important to the State as relations with its Arab neighbors. Hazony's unimpeachable scholarship and his fluid writing style makes it an enjoyable must read.
Contents
Acknowledgements

ix
Note on the Text and Sources

xiii
Introduction: The Jewish State Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

xiii
I The Culture Makers Renounce the Idea of the Jewish State 3
II The Political Struggle for a Post-Jewish State 39
III An Introduction to the History of the Jewish State 77
IV Theodore Herzl’s “Jewish State” versus Rousseau’s Social Contract 81
V Herzl As Statesman: The Creation of a Jewish State of Mind 117
VI The Desperados 157
VII Martin Buber and the Rejection of the Jewish State 181
VIII The German Intellectuals and the Founding of the Hebrew University 195
IX The Intellectuals’ Assault and Ben-Gurion’s Response, 1929 – 1948 209
X The Professors’ Struggle Against the Jewish State, 1939 – 1948 235
XI Ben-Gurion’s Jewish State and Buber’s Dissent, 1948 –  1961 267
XII The Incubator: The Hebrew University, 1948 – 1961 285
XIII The Triumph of the Intellectuals 307
EPILOGUE: The Specter of David Ben-Gurion 323
Appendix: Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel  341
Appendix: Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel  417

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