Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective

The comparative dimension is, all too often, missing from writing on Israeli history. Zionist ideology restricts comparisons between Zionism and other forms of nationalism. Also, Zionist claims to have initiated a radical rupture with the Jewish past mask continuities between Israel and the experiences of modern diaspora Jewry. Over the past two decades, Israeli historiography has become more critical, and a number of books have presented Israel as a variant of settler-colonialist societies such as the United States and South Africa. The framework of continuity across space commands attention, but it lacks nuance and is often built upon politicized foundations. Moreover, this framework neglects areas of continuity across time, between Israel and the Jewish past. Israel in History: The Jewish State inComparative Perspectiveseeks to address these issues. The essays in this book combine a variety of comparative schemes, both internal to Jewish civilization and extending throughoutthe world. These frameworks include: modern Jewish society, politics and culture historical consciousness in the 20th-century western world, and the matrix of Western colonialism, Third World anti-colonialism and post-colonial state-building. The book's underlying theme is the need to study Israeli history within multiple and overlapping comparative frameworks. The benefit of comparison is not limited to a richer understanding of the circumstances under which Israel was born and has developed. Rather, an open-ended, comparative approach offers a useful means of correcting the biases found in so much scholarship on Israel, be it sympathetic or hostile.Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspectivewill appeal to scholars and students with research interests in Middle East studies and Israeli history.