Myths of Liberal Zionism »

Yitzhak Laor is a distinguished Israeli poet, novelist and veteran political activist. A longtime editor and writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz, he now also edits an independent journal of literature and political thought, Mita'am.

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, Jose

Introduction 1

1 The Shoah Belongs to Us (Us, the Non-Muslims) 15

2 The Right of Return (of the Colonial): On the Role of the "Peace Camp" and its French Sponsors 36

3 It Takes a Lot of Darkness and Self-Love to merge "Us" with "You": Amos Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness 72

4 "I Don't Even Want to Know Their Names": On Hatred for the East: A. B. Yehoshua, and the Shame of Being Sephardi 127

5 In Lieu of a Conclusion: A Banished Thought from the East about a Polish Saltfish 157