Israel In Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism

In the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7 and the Israeli response, historian and current affairs commentator Yakov Rabkin brings together his writings that shed light on the violence in Palestine since the creation of the State of Israel.

For decades, Yakov Rabkin has drawn attention to the danger Israel has posed to both Palestinians and Jews, both in Israel and in other countries. Far from protecting Jews, the State of Israel has contributed to creating and aggravating a situation that over time has become increasingly intractable.

The author describes Palestine as it was on the eve of Zionist colonisation, recalling how Jews initially reacted to the Zionist movement and its goals. He highlights how Zionism, disdaining Jewish tradition, created a "new Hebrew man" steeped in a powerful mix of victimhood and exclusive nationalism and therefore oblivious to the fate of the Palestinians. He reminds us that Jewish identity is traditionally based on a spiritual commitment open to all races, the concept of Israel denoting not so much a geographical region but a community of believers.

A return to the Land of Israel achieved by political and military means is antithetic to the Jewish tradition. In fact, Zionism has well-documented Protestant and Anglo-Saxon roots, which explains the massive support Israel enjoys among millions of Evangelical Christians around the world, and, on the other hand, why Jews have played such a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian protests sparked by violence against Gaza. At the same time, it shows how since 1967, there emerged a new national Judaism to provide religious legitimacy to the Zionist state.

Avoiding polemics and sensationalism, this book allows the reader to reconsider the nature of the Israel/Palestine tragedy that has spilled over beyond Israel/Palestine. The book is rather short and targets the general reader. It requires no previous expertise in the subject, yet shows deeper and less known aspects of the conflict and, thus, opens perspectives on novel approaches to peace.

This book has also been published in French, Japanese and Spanish language editions

Yakov M. Rabkin has been Professor of History at the Université de Montréal since 1973. He has also held visiting positions at universities in Australia, France, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States. A graduate of the State University of Leningrad, he completed his doctoral thesis in the history of science at the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow. After his emigration from the Soviet Union, Rabkin studied Judaism at religious institutions and in private sessions with rabbis in Montreal, Baltimore, Paris and Jerusalem. His areas of expertise include contemporary Jewish history, international relations, and science and technology policies. He has authored hundreds of articles and several books. His most recent book, Israel In Palestine - Jewish Rejection of Zionism, has been published in French, Japanese and Spanish.

Charles W. Freeman, Jr. is an American retired diplomat and writer. He served in the United States Foreign Service, the State and Defense Departments in many different capacities over the course of thirty years. Most notably, he worked as the main interpreter for Richard Nixon during his 1972 China visit and served as the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992. He is a past president of the Middle East Policy Council, co-chair of the U.S. China Policy Foundation and a Lifetime Director of the Atlantic Council.