- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: Pluto Press; First Edition edition (20 Sep 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0745320554
- ISBN-13: 978-0745320557
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
179,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #59 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Political Science & Ideology > Nationalism
- #94 in Books > History > Political History > Nationalism
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
This is an impressive work of deconstruction with many crucial new insights [...] written in such an accessible way, despite the very complicated issues with which Rose deals: such as the cultural and ideological sources of the Zionist narrative. (Ilan Pappe )
Product Description
This is a controversial book. It is a critical account of the historical, political and cultural roots of Zionism. John Rose shows how this powerful political force is based in mythology; ancient, medieval and modern. Many of these stories, as with other mythologies, have no basis in fact. However, because Zionism is a living political force, these myths have been used to justify very real and political ends -- namely, the expulsion and continuing persecution of the Palestinians.
Chapter-by-chapter, John Rose scrutinises the roots of the myths of Zionism. Mobilising recent scholarship, he separates fact from fiction presenting a detailed analysis of their origins and development. This includes a challenge to Zionism's biblical claims using very recent and very startling Israeli archaeological conclusions. He provides a detailed exploration of Judaism's links to the Middle East. He shows clearly that Zionism makes many false claims on Jewish religion and history. He questions its rationale as a response to European anti-Semitism, and shows that, if there is ever to be peace and reconciliation in the land of Palestine, this intellectual dishonesty must be addressed.
Chapter-by-chapter, John Rose scrutinises the roots of the myths of Zionism. Mobilising recent scholarship, he separates fact from fiction presenting a detailed analysis of their origins and development. This includes a challenge to Zionism's biblical claims using very recent and very startling Israeli archaeological conclusions. He provides a detailed exploration of Judaism's links to the Middle East. He shows clearly that Zionism makes many false claims on Jewish religion and history. He questions its rationale as a response to European anti-Semitism, and shows that, if there is ever to be peace and reconciliation in the land of Palestine, this intellectual dishonesty must be addressed.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Rose, self-styled "veteran from the 1968 student revolution", maintains that "Zionism is held together by a series of myths ... that have become part of Zionist folklore". Examples of these "myths" include: the belief that there is racial and ethnic continuity between biblical Israelites and modern Jewry; that Jews endured ubiquitous, unrelieved suffering, ostracism and persecution from the fall of the Second Temple in 70 AD until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and, throughout their long "exile", longed to "return" to the "Promised Land"; that Zionism is not a project of ethnic cleansing to replace the indigenous population of Palestine with "Jewish" immigrants, but a "liberation movement"; that Palestine was an uninhabited land coveted by a landless people before Zionist colonization; that the Bible mandates the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine; that Israel has always sought, and its Arab neighbours have always rejected peaceful relations. Rose in his broadly encompassing, informative, unforgivingly honest book, ten years in the making, sets himself the task of unravelling this "folklore" and succeeds admirably.
He points out that Israeli archaeologists excavated in Palestine for more than five decades in search of Ancient Israel, the United Monarchy of David and Solomon of the 10th century BC, extending from the Euphrates to Egypt, before "the realisation began to dawn that it just might not be there". Contrary to "the Zionist myth at the core of modern Israeli identity", Eretz Yisrael was "at most a small tribal kingdom, if it existed at all", while the god of this "notorious visionary geographical concept", the "God of Israel", was a pagan deity with a female consort named Asherah, who demanded animal and other sacrifices, as Canaanite and all other deities in the region. Of the "myth" that Arab-Jewish relations are inherently adversarial, Rose reminds us that Zionism destroyed a rich, symbiotic Judeo-Mesopotamian-Judeo-Arab-Judeo-Islamic culture that existed for 2600 years with terrorist tactics such as planting bombs in synagogues to promote the "ingathering" of Jews from Arab lands. Indeed, Rose is at his ferocious best when probing the wellsprings of Zionist fanaticism. In 1938, Roosevelt convened the Evian conference to co-ordinate an international solution for the flood of Jewish refugees from Germany. Ben-Gurion opposed the conference and opposed a British plan to allow several thousand Jewish children into the UK. Ben-Gurion: "If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them to Eretz Yisrael [Palestine], then I would opt for the second alternative."
Supporting John Rose are "post-Zionist" Israeli writers and historians such as Simha Flapan, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Ephraim Nimni, Uri Avneri, Ilan Pappé, Tom Segev, the late Israel Shahak, Meron Benvenisti and Avi Shlaim, who are unwilling to perpetuate the "myths" of their predecessors. Perhaps together they will succeed in forcing upon Zionists honest self-examination.
He points out that Israeli archaeologists excavated in Palestine for more than five decades in search of Ancient Israel, the United Monarchy of David and Solomon of the 10th century BC, extending from the Euphrates to Egypt, before "the realisation began to dawn that it just might not be there". Contrary to "the Zionist myth at the core of modern Israeli identity", Eretz Yisrael was "at most a small tribal kingdom, if it existed at all", while the god of this "notorious visionary geographical concept", the "God of Israel", was a pagan deity with a female consort named Asherah, who demanded animal and other sacrifices, as Canaanite and all other deities in the region. Of the "myth" that Arab-Jewish relations are inherently adversarial, Rose reminds us that Zionism destroyed a rich, symbiotic Judeo-Mesopotamian-Judeo-Arab-Judeo-Islamic culture that existed for 2600 years with terrorist tactics such as planting bombs in synagogues to promote the "ingathering" of Jews from Arab lands. Indeed, Rose is at his ferocious best when probing the wellsprings of Zionist fanaticism. In 1938, Roosevelt convened the Evian conference to co-ordinate an international solution for the flood of Jewish refugees from Germany. Ben-Gurion opposed the conference and opposed a British plan to allow several thousand Jewish children into the UK. Ben-Gurion: "If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them to Eretz Yisrael [Palestine], then I would opt for the second alternative."
Supporting John Rose are "post-Zionist" Israeli writers and historians such as Simha Flapan, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Ephraim Nimni, Uri Avneri, Ilan Pappé, Tom Segev, the late Israel Shahak, Meron Benvenisti and Avi Shlaim, who are unwilling to perpetuate the "myths" of their predecessors. Perhaps together they will succeed in forcing upon Zionists honest self-examination.
43 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is an indispensible tool for thinking about the problems in the Middle East today. John Rose has done a valuable job of pulling apart, in one place, all the myths that Zionism has propagated and which continue to get an extensive airing in the Zionist-friendly media today. The other story is hardly ever told, yet it is these myths which are now such an obstacle to peace between Israelis and their Palestinian and Arab neighbours. I had a pretty strong feeling that Zionism was a bad idea, despite the fact that it attracted many honest and eloquent followers, and now I have some idea just how shaky its intellectual and historical foundations are. The style of writing occasionally seems a bit rushed and he relies heavily on secondary sources, but given the scope of the book this is probably inevitable. I now want to read some of the Israeli archaeological sources that he cites.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
John Rose forensically disects the key set of myths that have underpinned the Zionist project since its inception. He provides us with a powerful, systematic and highly readable debunking of that mythology, exposing the lies, misinterpretations and distortions of history perpetrated by successive generations of Zionist leaders and intellectuals.
The myths that Rose has assembled fall broadly into two historical categories, the first dealing with the Jews in the ancient and medieval worlds, the second with Jews in the modern world.
Rose proceeds to demolish the following Zionist myths: that there was a state of Israel under David and Solomon, that Jews were persecuted because they were Jews in the ancient world - in fact the Diaspora occurred for economic reasons, that hostility to Jews grew in Europe due to the rise of a Christian merchant class rather than a mythical eternal anti-semitism, that there has been persecution of Jews in the Arab/Islamic world when, in fact, the vast majority of the 1,500 year history shows the opposite, that Palestine was an empty land before Zionists settled there, that Israel faced destruction in 1948 and 1967 and that the Jews left the Arab countries due to Arab anti-semitism rather than the influence of Zionism.
One by one, the mythical props of Zionism are knocked over. Excellent.
The myths that Rose has assembled fall broadly into two historical categories, the first dealing with the Jews in the ancient and medieval worlds, the second with Jews in the modern world.
Rose proceeds to demolish the following Zionist myths: that there was a state of Israel under David and Solomon, that Jews were persecuted because they were Jews in the ancient world - in fact the Diaspora occurred for economic reasons, that hostility to Jews grew in Europe due to the rise of a Christian merchant class rather than a mythical eternal anti-semitism, that there has been persecution of Jews in the Arab/Islamic world when, in fact, the vast majority of the 1,500 year history shows the opposite, that Palestine was an empty land before Zionists settled there, that Israel faced destruction in 1948 and 1967 and that the Jews left the Arab countries due to Arab anti-semitism rather than the influence of Zionism.
One by one, the mythical props of Zionism are knocked over. Excellent.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Demonstrates that there is nothing 'noble' about Zionism.
This is a very interesting and well written book. In just over 200 pages it manages to dissect the various myths which underpin Zionism. Read more
Published 22 months ago by RepublicanStones
Zionism debunked
This is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the Middle East. The origins of the colonisation of Palestine by the Ottoman Empire, followed by Britain followed... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2006
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