The Myths of Liberal Zionism

Description

Yitzhak Laor is one of Israel's most prominent dissidents and poets, a latter-day Spinoza who helps keep alive the critical tradition within Jewish culture. In this work he fearlessly dissects the complex attitudes of Western European liberal Left intellectuals toward Israel, Zionism and the "Israeli peace camp." He argues that through a prism of famous writers like Amos Oz, David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua, the peace camp has now adopted the European vision of "new Zionism," promoting the fierce Israeli desire to be accepted as part of the West and taking advantage of growing Islamophobia across Europe. The backdrop to this uneasy relationship is the ever-present shadow of the Holocaust. Laor is merciless as he strips bare the hypocrisies and unarticulated fantasies that lie beneath the love affair between "liberal Zionists" and their European supporters.

Yitzhak Laor is a distinguished Israeli poet, novelist and veteran political activist. A longtime editor and writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz, he now also edits an independent journal of literature and political thought, Mita'am.

Brave, yes-Laor is a poet-determined, yes-his unmasking of the hypocrisy of Israeli writers such as Amos Oz is irrefutable-modest, yes-he often speaks of his doubts-yet what makes his book so original and urgent is its historical reasoning: a disciple of Herodotus, Laor observes, narrates and questions all the ancient and contemporary half-truths concerning Jews, Europe and colonialism, which have culminated in Israel turning Gaza into a Ghetto! You do not simply read through, you think through this essential book. -- John Berger I can find appropriate words for Laor's book: it is a gift, incredible and beautiful, so wonderful that I am sure that the American Zionist community will spurn it. * Electronic Intifada * Israel's most celebrated dissident, and perhaps its greatest living poet. * Harper's Magazine *