Myths of Liberal Zionism
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...
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One of Israel's most independent writers demystifies the "peace camp" liberals. Publishers Weekly These five long essays— first published in English by Laor, an Israeli poet, playwright, novelist and political commentator—focus not so much on “liberal Zionism,” a term he never defines, but on such subjects as Israeli leaders' appropriation of the Holocaust to gain victim status and, Laor believes, to persecute Palestinians. He also takes on European philo-Semitism and what he sees as the false leftist credentials of such Israelis in the “peace camp” as the writers Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua. Laor himself subscribes to the anti-Zionist shibboleth that “Zionism has no source of legitimization except the old colonial discourse.” Meanwhile, the Palestinians are represented solely as victims, and his prose is often tendentious, as when he writes that the Israeli army's pursuit of Palestinian terrorists in March 2004 marked “a systematic expansion of the activity of its death squads.” There are a few valuable insights, as when Laor focuses on Yehoshua's ambivalent, and sometimes negative, feelings about Israelis who, like himself, whose families have come from Arab countries. But Laor's work lacks nuance and a sense of balance. (Nov. 23)
Foreword Jose Saramago Saramago, JoseIntroduction 11 The Shoah Belongs to Us (Us, the Non-Muslims) 152 The Right of Return (of the Colonial): On the Role of the "Peace Camp" and its French Sponsors 363 It Takes a Lot of Darkness and Self-Love to merge "Us" with "You": Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness 724 "I Don't Even Want to Know Their Names": On Hatred for the East: A. B. Yehoshua, and the Shame of Being Sephardi 1275 In Lieu of a Conclusion: A Banished Thought from the East about a Polish Saltfish 157
\ Publishers WeeklyThese five long essays— first published in English by Laor, an Israeli poet, playwright, novelist and political commentator—focus not so much on “liberal Zionism,” a term he never defines, but on such subjects as Israeli leaders' appropriation of the Holocaust to gain victim status and, Laor believes, to persecute Palestinians. He also takes on European philo-Semitism and what he sees as the false leftist credentials of such Israelis in the “peace camp” as the writers Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua. Laor himself subscribes to the anti-Zionist shibboleth that “Zionism has no source of legitimization except the old colonial discourse.” Meanwhile, the Palestinians are represented solely as victims, and his prose is often tendentious, as when he writes that the Israeli army's pursuit of Palestinian terrorists in March 2004 marked “a systematic expansion of the activity of its death squads.” There are a few valuable insights, as when Laor focuses on Yehoshua's ambivalent, and sometimes negative, feelings about Israelis who, like himself, whose families have come from Arab countries. But Laor's work lacks nuance and a sense of balance. (Nov. 23)\ \
