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August 11, 2000/10 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.48
Hazony plays to naive Americans in 'Jewish State'
SYBIL KAPLAN
Special to Jewish News
Most Amerian Jews are uninformed about the Israeli political scene, although many are familiar with Israel's founding and history. When you mention left and right, hawk and dove, however, the meanings may not be fully understood and, given the history of U.S.-Israel relations and the bias shown by the U.S. for one party over another, issues become even more confusing.
Yoram Hazony's book, "The Jewish State," (Basic Books, $28 hardcover), subtitled "the struggle for Israel's soul" is a tome American Jews who have more than a passing concern about the State of Israel should read.
Hazony's grandfather came to Palestine from Kiev in 1924; his mother and father, a nuclear physicist, came to the U.S. in the mid-1960s. Yoram Hazony left hoping to broaden his experiences abroad. Ha-zony and his fiancˇe returned to Israel in 1986, and married a year later. He served in the army and reserves, and in 1991 he became an aide to then Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 1994, he left politics to start a research institute "to focus on public issues that had been neglected."
Hazony began to see the Jewish state being dismantled in favor of a non-Jewish political state. With this realization, he ultimately set out to write a book to reveal that "establishment cultural figures ... are today paving the way to the ruin of everything Theodor Herzl and other leading Zionists sought to achieve."
In Part I of the book, he seeks to prove that the idea of a Jewish state is "under systematic attack from its own cultural and intellectual establishment" and to trace the history of the struggle over the idea of the Jewish state.
What's shocking is that leading Israeli historiographers are seeking to revise Jewish history by creating a post-Zionism or universal Zionism advocating adding an Arab symbol to the flag of Israel; having another anthem replace "Hatikvah"; and revoking the Law of Return which allows Jews to become preferred citizens of Israel.
Hazony says the members of the Israel academia are waging a struggle against the "Jewish state, its historic narrative, institutions and symbols."
What is more frightening is the fact that these ideas are being picked up by authors of fiction whose works are taught in the Israeli school system and universities.
Part II presents the history of the idea of a Jewish state beginning with Theodor Herzl who brought the Zionist Congresses into being and allowed the creation of himself as a "player on the world stage with access to the leadership of Europe such as no other Jewish leader had ever had."
Hazony also includes the philosophies of other Zionist leaders such as Ahad Ha'am and Max Nordau.
Part III introduces the revolutionary Russian youth, David Gruen (Ben Gurion) and Yitzhak Tabenkin and the founding of the Labor movement. It also traces the Zionist career of Chaim Weizmann and the beginnings of the British Mandate era.
"If Weizmann identified the weakness of Jewish Palestine in its lack of financial resources, David Ben-Gurion identified it with the fact that the authority of the government in Palestine was in the hands of the British - a fact that meant the Jewish community could not make decisions regarding immigration or land policy, could not tax itself or set economic policies conducive to creating Jewish places of employment, and could not even defend itself against Arab attack."
Hazony then presents the role of Martin Buber who waged a lifetime struggle as an anti-Zionist against the idea of the Jewish state. He, along with Judah Magnes, president of the Hebrew University for 24 years, were leaders of Jewish universalism and among the leading forces internally against the Zionists.
The book is critical reading for those who feel strongly about Israel and its future. It's an easy read and the issues are presented clearly.
Although some may think Hazony argues too strongly for the return to the principles of Herzl on which the state was founded, the historians, academicians and literary figures he cites as being at the forefront of destroying the purposes and foundations of the state will have a hard time disproving their intentions.
Sybil Kaplan is a free-lance writer living in Kansas.
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