One hundred and ten years since Herzl’s
“Altneuland” was published, nearly 65 years since the founding of the
modern State of Israel fulfilled its key prophecy, and some two decades
since the notion of post-Zionism became fashionable, Zionist ideas are
getting a new look in locales ranging from think tanks to education
centers to the halls of academia. With Zionist concepts regarded as
having continuing valence despite the fact that Israel has long since
been established, and with the word “Zionism” being assertively kept in
play despite the hostile badmouthing it has received in some quarters,
the meaning and relevance of Zionism today is being studied and
advanced. While much of this work is theoretical, there is practical
application to be promoted as well.
Most simply, the basic Zionist concept
enunciating the right of the Jewish people to national
self-determination in their historic homeland merits being understood,
if young Jews, and the world at large, are to understand what Israel is
about and what makes it tick. This is especially the case at a time when
the classic Zionist narrative that attached Jews to Israel and
galvanized the world has lost much of its punch, and when the conditions
that made the Zionist dream an imperative have faded into the mists of a
history not widely known or cared about. With post-nationalist,
universalistic concepts holding sway in many intellectual quarters,
especially in Europe and much of the American university environment,
and with Israel’s enemies mounting a full-scale campaign denying
Israel’s right to exist, the need for giving Zionism an effective
hearing becomes all the more important.
The terms of abuse that are currently attached
to Israel and its Zionist underpinnings are not entirely original. They
in part build on the United Nations’ notorious “Zionism is racism”
resolution of 1975. Today, however, joined with “apartheid” charges and
Nazi analogies, the calumny at the core of that slogan has been
incorporated into a wide-ranging, sometimes-blatant assault on Israel’s
very legitimacy.
With Israel’s existence as a modern country
based on a foundational idea, it is no wonder that, as Member of Knesset
Einat Wilf has observed, the delegitimization of Israel would begin
with the undermining of that idea. It is thus appropriate for today’s
scholarly and education-based considerations of the framing of a Zionism
that is relevant for the 21st century to be joined by an approach with
more operational purposes as well.
A
growing ideological antipathy to Zionism. Muslim activists hold
pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli placards at a rally in Jakarta,
Indonesia (photo credit: AP/Achmad Ibrahim)
What is needed, I would posit, is the
development and advancement of a Zionism for our times, a Zionism that
is at once authentic, honest, and contemporary. By “authentic” I mean
true to foundational Zionist principles. By “honest” I mean open to
facts and complexities of a sort that earlier generations may not have
been aware of or minimized. And by “contemporary” I mean reflecting the
vibrancy, democratic ethos and diversity of today’s Israel, rendered in a
voice and idiom that speak to today’s generations in a compelling
fashion.
In today’s postmodern world of narratives, it
is necessary for this Zionism to be rendered both through discourse that
sustains intellectual rigor and through a cogent, gripping narrative
that captures the imagination with language and imagery that speak to
the mind and the heart. Herzl knew the value of narrative in projecting
his vision through what Shlomo Avineri has called “his great non-utopian
novel,” and writers like Leon Uris and Meyer Levin rendered the story
of the establishment of the state through narrative as well. The time
has come to dedicate attention to the framing of something in its way
comparable for our time, however relatively humble in scale it may be
and however vague the result may seem right now.
The ultimate purpose for approaching
contemporary Zionism in this way now is to advance understanding of the
basis of Israel’s existence and to enhance a sense of personal
connection with the state and its people. The practical goal of the
exercise I am calling for is to rebut the mendacious, all-too-common
demonization of Israel as an evil colonial power and of Zionism as a
racist ideology, and to counter the misleading Palestinian narrative
that is used to attract adherents to the delegitimization cause.
This isn’t a simple matter, and the work I am
talking about should both complement and benefit from the other
contemporary work on Zionism that I referenced at the opening of this
piece. But given the challenges that Israel faces from those with an
ideological antipathy to Zionism and an abiding hatred for Israel as the
nation-state of the Jewish people, it is work of the highest
significance.
___
At the recent annual meeting of the
Association for Israel Studies, which took place at Haifa University,
the author moderated a session called “Zionist Israeli Education: New
Prospective for the 21st Century.”
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