Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing About Zionism and Israel

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone who cares about Israel
Review: "Prophets Outcast" is a gripping, eye-opening collection of some of the smartest and most knowledgeable writers of the 20th century -- including Freud and Einstein, as well as historians and analyists of the present situation -- all concerned about the anti-democratic forces within Israel and Zionism that deny Palestinian rights to statehood. Several of the contributors are Israelis, and their arguments are particulary powerful. It's a deeply moral book, and an antidote to the despair that seems so pervasive today. The introduction, by Adam Shatz, effectively combines passion and reason: the issue, he argues, is not whether Jews will remain in Israel-Palestine, but where -- within the 1967 borders, or in a Greater Israel; and on what terms -- in an increasingly theocratic state, or in a democracy based on Arab-Jewish equality.

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for anyone who cares about Israel
Review: "Prophets Outcast" is a gripping, eye-opening collection of some of the smartest and most knowledgeable writers of the 20th century -- including Freud and Einstein, as well as historians and analyists of the present situation -- all concerned about the anti-democratic forces within Israel and Zionism that deny Palestinian rights to statehood. Several of the contributors are Israelis, and their arguments are particulary powerful. It's a deeply moral book, and an antidote to the despair that seems so pervasive today. The introduction, by Adam Shatz, effectively combines passion and reason: the issue, he argues, is not whether Jews will remain in Israel-Palestine, but where -- within the 1967 borders, or in a Greater Israel; and on what terms -- in an increasingly theocratic state, or in a democracy based on Arab-Jewish equality.

Rating:
Summary: An unimpressive book
Review: No one has to be moral. No one has to support human rights. I think all people ought to do so. But different people will always see things differently.

Still, if one is to support human rights, one has to at least try to support human rights for everyone (or at least not oppose them). And that means supporting Zionism (or at least not opposing it). And that gets us to the theme of this book, which consists mostly of articles encouraging us to oppose Zionism. The authors are, for the most part, opponents of Zionism. They don't seem to want to be a part of the Hebrew nation. Fine. Neither do I. A nation is not for everyone in the world. Nor is a religion.

Anyway, the authors are not trying to provide constructive criticism to Zionists. They are providing advice to humans in general, telling us not to be Zionists. Um, why should we listen to them? That is, I'm a human being. I'm providing advice to humans in general, telling everyone to support Zionism. Does that mean that those of you who don't support human rights ought to take me Seriously? Of course not.

In short, I see no reason why the authors have any particular credentials merely by being Jewish. And in fact, I was struck by their emphasis on Israel. Don't they realize that not everyone in the world is Jewish? Don't they realize that there are Arabs and others who stand to lose quite a bit if everyone abandons support for human rights?

The list of authors does include some Zionists, such as Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, and Ahad Ha-Am. These people supported Jewish nationalism in one way or another. And they wrote before the establishment of modern Israel, when Jewish nationalism did not need to include support for the existence of a Jewish state. However, the more recent contributors are a little different. And while I could argue against their politics, and even more against their facts and logic, my point is that they rarely have anything to offer to those who support human rights.

So when Tony Judt basically wants Israel to give up on being a state where Jews will be guaranteed rights of life, liberty, property, and immigration, he's overlooking the fact that he's setting a precedent for removing rights from everyone, not just from Israeli Jews. When Ella Shohat misrepresents the Arab-Israeli conflict, she is doing a big disservice to the very people she says she wants to help, the Sephardim.

More amusingly, when a very diplomatic (and to my mind, uncontroversial) statement by Lawrence Summers draws an amazing blast from Judith Butler, I think Butler misses a big opportunity to say something, anything, of value. There are plenty of statements that are worthy of criticism. Why on Earth go after that one?

Those of you who aren't sure about how some of the authors stand on equality ought to ask themselves what solutions they would come up with if they did not know who they were. What if you did not know whether you were rich, poor, Arab, Israeli, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Pagan, young, old, woman, man, religious, secular, or whatever? What kind of solution would you see as fair then? What if you had to demand the same rights for everyone, not more for yourself or less for yourself? Would you still decide to deprive Israeli Jews of the rights you demanded for Arabs?

Nevertheless, there are plenty of articles by rather bright authors in this book. And there are a few perceptive statements mixed in with the propaganda. In particular, I loved it when Noam Chomsky demolished the idea that "the rightness of a political idea is never absolute." He's right about that! No matter how absurd things are, we must always remind ourselves that truth, justice, and fairness are never incorrect, even if they are out of fashion or unachievable at the moment. He and the other authors would have done well to take that advice.