The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State »

"Sternhell's objective is to take a complete inventory of [two forces shaping Israeli identity]: nationalism and socialism. This wide-ranging ambition, borne of a historian's true inspiration, rests on impressive documentation."--François Furet, Le Nouvel Observateur

Publishers Weekly

Every national history has its myths. In this political/intellectual history, Sternhell, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, targets the Israeli myths that its founders were socialists committed to building a just society. The author argues that leftist Zionist intellectuals and political leaders in the first half of the centuryicons such as Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as well as lesser-known figuressubsumed whatever socialist principles they had to the goal of creating a Jewish state. "Socialism was never an aim in itself but a tool for the advancement of national objectives, an incomparably effective mobilizing force," he writes. Those who are familiar with, and believers in, standard Zionist history will feel challengedwhile those who are less familiar will probably be a bit lost given the lack of a larger context. Sternhell's (Neither Right nor Left) method of comparing early labor Zionist leaders with their European counterparts comes across as a matter of opinion and an unfair comparison: the Zionists worked, after all, in a vastly different historical context. One also wishes that more attention was paid to the links between early Zionist thought and the extreme nationalism of the post-1967 era. If this book is any indication, the battle over the history of Zionism is far from finished. (Jan.)