barry_x's review
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
I bought this about eight years ago, but only started to read this recently (a bit of a determined effort to get through that 'to-be-read' pile). And yet, I started it just as Israel launched yet another genocidal attack on the people of Gaza, a horrific crime against humanity, an attack on a relatively defenceless population and a war crime as aid, water, food, fuel and electricity is withheld by the apartheid state. Thousands of civilians have died so far, including hundreds of children, and still the world seems to justify it, or claim that all the conflict started with the Hamas attack earlier in the month.
It's so depressing.
This book attempts to capture the ideas around the nation state of Israel, it's stories it tells itself about it's formation and history and how those ideas have changed since the 1940's. The book examines the politics of course, but the focus is more on what historians, academics, thought leaders and media creators have said about the nation since it's inception and how that has shaped narratives. Narratives that continue to dominate sadly.
A key comment about the book, is that other than discourse related to Edward Said's work on Orientalism all the voices discussed are Jewish, and all would describe themselves as Zionist, or post-Zionist.
The book starts on the 1948 war and formation of the state and discusses how narratives quickly formed about this 'war of liberation' and the unlikely heroes (chosen by God) fighting against both the British and the 'other' - the Palestinians who lived there and were ethnically cleansed from their homes. The book shows how the early shapers of the history of Israel completely ignored what happened to the indigenous population and how their interpretation in history books and atlases shaped a completely false perception. There are interesting chapters about early war films and how Palestinians were treated as a multitude of terrorist evil from day one, rather than victims.
Another highlight of the book is the analysis of Arab Jews (Mizrachi) from Iraq and other nearby nations and how they were essentially 'tricked' through terrorism and propaganda to not feel safe at home and move to Israel, where they were treated as second class citizens compared to European Jews. I'd read before about how African and Arab Jews have been subject to racism in Israel, but perhaps I had not picked up the nuance about how Mizrachi Jews sought to define their culture both as Arabic and Jewish, but not 'Arab', and how as a response to racism, they in turn turned to the right wing and Likund being a home for them. This chapter was by far the most interesting for me.
What won't be a surprise to many is a chapter about the weaponisation of the Holocaust and how it is used to both convey to the world that a Jewish state is necessary and also how Jewish people can never be safe elsewhere. The book makes challenging parallels to the actions of Nazi Germany and the Israeli state, seeing how the othering of another people, and the justifications for keeping people in ghettos can be made. It also draws parallels to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and Palestinian resistance and asks how can one action be terrorism and the other not? It mentions that one popular history book has more words on the Palestinian leader who fled to fascist Italy has more words written about him than Hitler, and also shares well known Zionist actions - their role in turning back boats if they contained Jewish refugees who did not want to emigrate to Israel and those famous quotes by David Ben-Gurion about preferring Jewish people to die rather than escape to another nation other than Israel.
There are a couple of chapters which present a ray of hope, and how the post-Zionist thought developed and the difficulty it had breaking through in academia and media. It seems that for a period in the 90's there was a glimmer that an alternative history and greater awareness was possible.
And then the book concludes with the emergence of neo-Zionist thought, and their role in the military, politics, education etc. How new thought has essentially rewritten the fables of the 1940's to now acknowledge what the early Israeli state did, but now, rather than pretending ethnic cleansing didn't happen, rather that it was necessary.
The book's epilogue concludes with the billions of dollars spent in the US by Israel in promoting it's image, especially with pink and green washing. The book notes, that despite this monstrous level of propaganda, much of the world still has a negative opinion of Israel.
What's most depressing is that since this book was published things have got worse for Palestinians, and it seems that whilst public opinion is still not on the side of Israel the major political blocs of the US, UK and EU are - there is still billions of dollars of military aid, and this month the worst excesses of war crimes have been waved through by politicians. They have blood on their hands.
Have things changed in Israel? It really is hard to tell. They have voted in continued right wing governments. The settler movement is still growing. The population there is still scared, not just by Hamas attacks, but the threat of an Arab other. And yet, I have seen people calling for peace, for justice, for healing and understanding. Outside Israel, the ideas of the post-Zionists are well known and supported, but the work isn't needed there, it's needed inside the nation.
As a book 'The Idea of Israel' acts as a quick history of the dominant narratives and counter narratives that formed a nation. It can be quite slow and dry at times, and isn't always engaging. At times it reads like a long 'literature review', and would demand that the scholar or activist do further research. I've read two of Pappe's books recently and I am left with the notion that on both occasions I have to read wider than what is presented.
It's so depressing.
This book attempts to capture the ideas around the nation state of Israel, it's stories it tells itself about it's formation and history and how those ideas have changed since the 1940's. The book examines the politics of course, but the focus is more on what historians, academics, thought leaders and media creators have said about the nation since it's inception and how that has shaped narratives. Narratives that continue to dominate sadly.
A key comment about the book, is that other than discourse related to Edward Said's work on Orientalism all the voices discussed are Jewish, and all would describe themselves as Zionist, or post-Zionist.
The book starts on the 1948 war and formation of the state and discusses how narratives quickly formed about this 'war of liberation' and the unlikely heroes (chosen by God) fighting against both the British and the 'other' - the Palestinians who lived there and were ethnically cleansed from their homes. The book shows how the early shapers of the history of Israel completely ignored what happened to the indigenous population and how their interpretation in history books and atlases shaped a completely false perception. There are interesting chapters about early war films and how Palestinians were treated as a multitude of terrorist evil from day one, rather than victims.
Another highlight of the book is the analysis of Arab Jews (Mizrachi) from Iraq and other nearby nations and how they were essentially 'tricked' through terrorism and propaganda to not feel safe at home and move to Israel, where they were treated as second class citizens compared to European Jews. I'd read before about how African and Arab Jews have been subject to racism in Israel, but perhaps I had not picked up the nuance about how Mizrachi Jews sought to define their culture both as Arabic and Jewish, but not 'Arab', and how as a response to racism, they in turn turned to the right wing and Likund being a home for them. This chapter was by far the most interesting for me.
What won't be a surprise to many is a chapter about the weaponisation of the Holocaust and how it is used to both convey to the world that a Jewish state is necessary and also how Jewish people can never be safe elsewhere. The book makes challenging parallels to the actions of Nazi Germany and the Israeli state, seeing how the othering of another people, and the justifications for keeping people in ghettos can be made. It also draws parallels to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and Palestinian resistance and asks how can one action be terrorism and the other not? It mentions that one popular history book has more words on the Palestinian leader who fled to fascist Italy has more words written about him than Hitler, and also shares well known Zionist actions - their role in turning back boats if they contained Jewish refugees who did not want to emigrate to Israel and those famous quotes by David Ben-Gurion about preferring Jewish people to die rather than escape to another nation other than Israel.
There are a couple of chapters which present a ray of hope, and how the post-Zionist thought developed and the difficulty it had breaking through in academia and media. It seems that for a period in the 90's there was a glimmer that an alternative history and greater awareness was possible.
And then the book concludes with the emergence of neo-Zionist thought, and their role in the military, politics, education etc. How new thought has essentially rewritten the fables of the 1940's to now acknowledge what the early Israeli state did, but now, rather than pretending ethnic cleansing didn't happen, rather that it was necessary.
The book's epilogue concludes with the billions of dollars spent in the US by Israel in promoting it's image, especially with pink and green washing. The book notes, that despite this monstrous level of propaganda, much of the world still has a negative opinion of Israel.
What's most depressing is that since this book was published things have got worse for Palestinians, and it seems that whilst public opinion is still not on the side of Israel the major political blocs of the US, UK and EU are - there is still billions of dollars of military aid, and this month the worst excesses of war crimes have been waved through by politicians. They have blood on their hands.
Have things changed in Israel? It really is hard to tell. They have voted in continued right wing governments. The settler movement is still growing. The population there is still scared, not just by Hamas attacks, but the threat of an Arab other. And yet, I have seen people calling for peace, for justice, for healing and understanding. Outside Israel, the ideas of the post-Zionists are well known and supported, but the work isn't needed there, it's needed inside the nation.
As a book 'The Idea of Israel' acts as a quick history of the dominant narratives and counter narratives that formed a nation. It can be quite slow and dry at times, and isn't always engaging. At times it reads like a long 'literature review', and would demand that the scholar or activist do further research. I've read two of Pappe's books recently and I am left with the notion that on both occasions I have to read wider than what is presented.
kfreedman's review against another edition
More academic than my taste usually selects. But there’s a good review on Zionism in academics and in popular culture, as well as the movements of Zionism -> post-Zionism -> neo-Zionism. I didn’t read this thoroughly enough to feel confident on the topic but enough to feel like it was worthwhile.
sbahour's review against another edition
5.0
This book will go down in history as a monumental recording of the Israeli History Industry for generations to come. At its core, the book is a snapshot into a decade of inner Israeli dynamics, from 1990 to 2000, when the basic assumptions that Israel propagated for decades about how the ‘miracle’ of Israel came into being started to be challenged. The history of how this decade was reached is as fascinating as how horrific has been its aftermath.
Except for its last chapter, this book is not for everyone. Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, takes the reader through the maze of knowledge creation in Israel and how that journey has interacted with power. The invaluable intellectual contribution and framing that Professor Pappe provides cannot be overstated. He documents for all serious researchers who follow how the dust (or more like blood) of Israel’s foundational moment has yet to settle. The events in and around 1948 that led to the creation of Israel and the colossal loss of Palestine were such a historic tragedy that even the well-oiled Israeli and Zionist public relations machines have been unable get traction to settle the historic account.
In today’s messy and distracted world, those who write (or for that matter, make films and movies, produce theater and art, compose music, write poetry, and the like) frequently have a moment when they question the value of their creative works. Well, Professor Pappe makes it abundantly clear where all these creative works fall in the bigger picture and why it is of utmost importance that we never lose sight that every progressive act of creativity which speaks truth to power is a data point towards rectifying the injustices of the world. When the injustice is the source of a nation’s creation, the process of correction is excruciatingly slow, but inevitable if strategically addressed.
The last chapter of The Idea of Israel is titled, “Brand Israel 2013”. This is a brief but shockingly telling account of how much money and brain power Israel is willing to dump into a bottomless bucket while trying to force feed a fabrication into mainstream knowledge. The notion of actually correcting the historic mistakes, any of them, is not even considered.
As I noted above, the book is not for everyone;
If you are an Israeli and are a product of the Israeli education system, especially under the age of 40, read this book.
If you are a Jewish-American and have been blindly consuming your institutional, mainstream “idea of Israel,” read this book.
If you are a U.S. lawmaker, writing the annual checks to Israel and playing jack-in-the-box every time the Israeli prime minister speaks in the Congress, read this book.
If you are a Palestinian who thinks Israelis are not worth engaging because they all know the history, read this book.
My hat is off, again, to Professor and friend, Ilan Pappe, for an invaluable contribution to peace with justice.
Happy purposeful reading.
###
Except for its last chapter, this book is not for everyone. Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, takes the reader through the maze of knowledge creation in Israel and how that journey has interacted with power. The invaluable intellectual contribution and framing that Professor Pappe provides cannot be overstated. He documents for all serious researchers who follow how the dust (or more like blood) of Israel’s foundational moment has yet to settle. The events in and around 1948 that led to the creation of Israel and the colossal loss of Palestine were such a historic tragedy that even the well-oiled Israeli and Zionist public relations machines have been unable get traction to settle the historic account.
In today’s messy and distracted world, those who write (or for that matter, make films and movies, produce theater and art, compose music, write poetry, and the like) frequently have a moment when they question the value of their creative works. Well, Professor Pappe makes it abundantly clear where all these creative works fall in the bigger picture and why it is of utmost importance that we never lose sight that every progressive act of creativity which speaks truth to power is a data point towards rectifying the injustices of the world. When the injustice is the source of a nation’s creation, the process of correction is excruciatingly slow, but inevitable if strategically addressed.
The last chapter of The Idea of Israel is titled, “Brand Israel 2013”. This is a brief but shockingly telling account of how much money and brain power Israel is willing to dump into a bottomless bucket while trying to force feed a fabrication into mainstream knowledge. The notion of actually correcting the historic mistakes, any of them, is not even considered.
As I noted above, the book is not for everyone;
If you are an Israeli and are a product of the Israeli education system, especially under the age of 40, read this book.
If you are a Jewish-American and have been blindly consuming your institutional, mainstream “idea of Israel,” read this book.
If you are a U.S. lawmaker, writing the annual checks to Israel and playing jack-in-the-box every time the Israeli prime minister speaks in the Congress, read this book.
If you are a Palestinian who thinks Israelis are not worth engaging because they all know the history, read this book.
My hat is off, again, to Professor and friend, Ilan Pappe, for an invaluable contribution to peace with justice.
Happy purposeful reading.
###
kosr's review against another edition
5.0
Brand Israel
A few weeks into reading this book, two Israelis, both male, saw it open in my hands whilst we were travelling on a train into central London. They were visiting the capital for a few days, and, to be frank, were pretty surprised to see someone reading about their country, seeing - as I was to find out - they were fresh off the plane from Heathrow. In all honesty, I handled the encounter terribly. I wasn't truthful about the books content, as well as my feelings toward the Israeli government. The treatment of certain minority groups within Israeli society; it's historic stance toward the Palestinian people; and it's continued aggression toward criticism; all these topics went unmentioned. Perhaps it was my fear of what would happen seeing as I was, for the first time, face-to-face with two men (late 20's / mid 30's) who were from Israel. I know most young Male and Female citizens of Israel see time in the IDF, and as such, I assumed I wouldn't stand a chance physically if anything got heated (not that I assumed they would do such a thing, but I'm a natural worrier). However, in reality I don't believe this is a good enough excuse. One should stick to his / her principles especially in the face of others who might disagree. Despite that shame, I hope to see the experience as a learning curve for the future. One things for certain, I highly doubt they would have been as friendly if they'd known what this book was about.* Another aspect I took from this conversation is to be honest in my convictions regarding what I see and hear about the world around me. As such, I won't hold back from how I feel regarding what I know about the state of Israel from this point forward.
I had no plans to read this book; at least not this year. However, a quick stop off at a bookshop in central London that deals in pretty hard Left material changed that fact pretty quickly. As such, this is my first read through of anything by Ilan Pappe, which wasn't a bad thing as I've wanted to read his work for quite some time. As it stands, I'm really glad I picked up The Idea of Israel .
The short and short of this book goes as follows. If you want to understand the "alternative" history of Israel - one full of dissident academics, poets, writers and filmmakers - then this is the book for you. In fact, this is important enough of a read for me to suggest anyone interested in understanding Israel beyond the propaganda the state / foreign affairs department churn out picking this up.
What Pappe traces through the pages of this text is the rise, fall and almost steroid-like resurrection of the "Idea" of Israel. From classical Zion colonial beginnings, through to the post-Zionist period in which many re-examined just exactly what the state stood for, and finally to what we have now; Neo-Zionism. A jacked up, dangerously celebratory militaristic society that practically admonishes anything or anyone left of Genghis Khan. Whats worse, the state is looking more ethnocentric and Eurocentric by the year. A recent interview by Abby Martin as part of the Empire Files with Israeli citizens only shows how much the pendulum has swung toward rampant nationalism and racist views regarding the 'other' (PLEASE see links in comment).
How Pappe does this is by examining everything outside of the military and government. Historians, Artists, filmmakers and musicians are all under the microscope in these pages. What tapestry the chapters weave gives a clear example of how history is made to fit a states current agenda. Distortion or refusal of other strands of history (in this case, the Palestinians) are but a few points of this issue.
One chilling example is how, as Pappe explains, classical Historians of Zionism would look to ignore or omit certain aspects of Palestinian history (ethnic cleansing for example) in previous decades, whereas now the new curriculum and history sees that same history laid bare, but simply justified as 'right'. It's hard to explain, but it's a new state guided history that almost takes on messianic proportions with regards to Israels existence.
I hope others picks this book up. It's incredibly relevant to today.
* Note: I understand not all Israelis agree with the state of Israel in it's current form. However, as I understand - especially after reading this book- there are few and far between major dissidents that question the mere concept of Israel as an entity, and Zionism as a whole within the general population of the Israel itself (at least vocally). As such, seeing as this is exactly what the author is / does, I find it hard to believe the men in front of me would have agreed with my stance on the state as well as the subject of the book.
A few weeks into reading this book, two Israelis, both male, saw it open in my hands whilst we were travelling on a train into central London. They were visiting the capital for a few days, and, to be frank, were pretty surprised to see someone reading about their country, seeing - as I was to find out - they were fresh off the plane from Heathrow. In all honesty, I handled the encounter terribly. I wasn't truthful about the books content, as well as my feelings toward the Israeli government. The treatment of certain minority groups within Israeli society; it's historic stance toward the Palestinian people; and it's continued aggression toward criticism; all these topics went unmentioned. Perhaps it was my fear of what would happen seeing as I was, for the first time, face-to-face with two men (late 20's / mid 30's) who were from Israel. I know most young Male and Female citizens of Israel see time in the IDF, and as such, I assumed I wouldn't stand a chance physically if anything got heated (not that I assumed they would do such a thing, but I'm a natural worrier). However, in reality I don't believe this is a good enough excuse. One should stick to his / her principles especially in the face of others who might disagree. Despite that shame, I hope to see the experience as a learning curve for the future. One things for certain, I highly doubt they would have been as friendly if they'd known what this book was about.* Another aspect I took from this conversation is to be honest in my convictions regarding what I see and hear about the world around me. As such, I won't hold back from how I feel regarding what I know about the state of Israel from this point forward.
I had no plans to read this book; at least not this year. However, a quick stop off at a bookshop in central London that deals in pretty hard Left material changed that fact pretty quickly. As such, this is my first read through of anything by Ilan Pappe, which wasn't a bad thing as I've wanted to read his work for quite some time. As it stands, I'm really glad I picked up The Idea of Israel .
The short and short of this book goes as follows. If you want to understand the "alternative" history of Israel - one full of dissident academics, poets, writers and filmmakers - then this is the book for you. In fact, this is important enough of a read for me to suggest anyone interested in understanding Israel beyond the propaganda the state / foreign affairs department churn out picking this up.
What Pappe traces through the pages of this text is the rise, fall and almost steroid-like resurrection of the "Idea" of Israel. From classical Zion colonial beginnings, through to the post-Zionist period in which many re-examined just exactly what the state stood for, and finally to what we have now; Neo-Zionism. A jacked up, dangerously celebratory militaristic society that practically admonishes anything or anyone left of Genghis Khan. Whats worse, the state is looking more ethnocentric and Eurocentric by the year. A recent interview by Abby Martin as part of the Empire Files with Israeli citizens only shows how much the pendulum has swung toward rampant nationalism and racist views regarding the 'other' (PLEASE see links in comment).
How Pappe does this is by examining everything outside of the military and government. Historians, Artists, filmmakers and musicians are all under the microscope in these pages. What tapestry the chapters weave gives a clear example of how history is made to fit a states current agenda. Distortion or refusal of other strands of history (in this case, the Palestinians) are but a few points of this issue.
One chilling example is how, as Pappe explains, classical Historians of Zionism would look to ignore or omit certain aspects of Palestinian history (ethnic cleansing for example) in previous decades, whereas now the new curriculum and history sees that same history laid bare, but simply justified as 'right'. It's hard to explain, but it's a new state guided history that almost takes on messianic proportions with regards to Israels existence.
I hope others picks this book up. It's incredibly relevant to today.
* Note: I understand not all Israelis agree with the state of Israel in it's current form. However, as I understand - especially after reading this book- there are few and far between major dissidents that question the mere concept of Israel as an entity, and Zionism as a whole within the general population of the Israel itself (at least vocally). As such, seeing as this is exactly what the author is / does, I find it hard to believe the men in front of me would have agreed with my stance on the state as well as the subject of the book.
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