Jewish Divide Over Israel: Accusers and Defenders »

Before 1967, Israel had the overwhelming support of world opinion. So long as Israel's existence was in harmony with politically correct assumptions, it was supported, or at least accepted, by the majority of "progressive" Jews, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. This is no longer the case. The Jewish Divide Over Israel explains the role played by prominent Jews in turning Israel into an isolated pariah nation.

After their catastrophic defeat in 1967, Arab regimes overcame inferiority on the battlefield with superiority in the war of ideas. Their English-language propaganda stopped trumpeting their desire to eradicate Israel. Instead, in a calculated appeal to liberals and radicals, they redefined their war of aggression against the Jews as a struggle for the liberation of Palestinian Arabs. The tenacity of Arabs' rejection of Israel and their relentless campaign - in schools, universities, churches, professional organizations, and, above all, the news media - to destroy Israel's moral image had the desired impact. Many Jewish liberals became desperate to escape from the shadow of Israel's alleged misdeeds and found a way to do so by joining other members of the left in blaming Israeli sins for Arab violence.

Today, Jewish "progressives" rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults against Jews as "criticism of Israeli policy." Israel's Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews. Eager to evade the "moral taint" of justifying Israel's right to self-defense, Israel's Jewish accusers find themselves, in an age of suicide bombers, complicit in the murder of their fellow Jews.

The essays in this book seek to understand and throw back the assault on Israel led by such Jewish liberals and radicals as Noam Chomsky, Israel Shahak, Norman Finkelstein, Tony Judt, George Steiner, Daniel Boyarin, Marc Ellis, Seymour Hersh, and many others. Its writers demonstrate that the foundation of the state of Israel, far from being the primal sin alleged by its accusers, was one of the few redeeming events in a century of blood and shame.

About the Authors:

Edward Alexander is professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is author of The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies, The Holocaust and the War of Ideas, and Irving Howe: Socialist, Critic, Jew.

Paul Bogdanor is a writer living in London.

Introduction
1. Cynthia Ozick, The Modern "Hep! Hep! Hep!"
2. Alvin Rosenfeld, Modern Jewish Intellectual Failure: A Brief History
3. Edward Alexander, Israelis Against Themselves
4. Assaf Sagiv, George Steiner's Jewish Problem
5. Benjamin Balint, Future Imperfect: Tony Judt Blushes For the Jewish State
6. Paul Bogdanor, The Devil State: Chomsky's War Against Israel
7. Paul Bogdanor, Chomsky's Ayatollahs
8. Paul Bogdanor, Norman G. Finkelstein: Chomsky For Nazis
9. David Roskies, Peter Novick: Blaming Israel For "Too Much" Holocaust Awareness
10. Menachem Kellner, Daniel Boyarin and the Herd of Independent Minds
11. Alan Mittleman, Marc Ellis: The Torah as Suicide Pact
12. Edward Alexander, Antisemitism-Denial: The Berkeley School
13. Jacob Neusner, Jerome Segal and the Stockholm Five: The PLO's Jewish Advisers
14. Martin Krossel, Thomas Friedman, Diplomat From Chelm
15. Rael Jean Isaac, Investigating Seymour Hersh
16. Efraim Karsh, Benny Morris and the Myths of Post-Zionist History
17. Irving Louis Horowitz, New Trends and Old Hatreds: Antisemitism in the Twenty-First Century