A fascinating history of how a political movement has turned the world's most diverse, morally-correct culture into an ethno-centric blood-creed of cultural imperialism.
It is written by a secular Jewish professor of History, who worked in France and now teaches in Tel Aviv University.
This book is a history book. The first 100 pages or so beyond the introduction (which is beautiful) is very dry history or European Nationalism. It is tedious reading for the lay person but it sets the stage for the rest of the book.
This book is monumental in its insight, research and revelation. The only shortcoming is that some of the sentences are structurally complex and must be read slowly. This could have been caused by the difficulties is translating from Hebrew to English.
You might have noticed that the reviewers of this book either loved it or hated it, as evidenced by 5 Star and 1 star review rating numbers are much more than 2, 3, or 4 star ratings.
There an obvious reason for that. Sand makes a simple case, based on solid history and references, that the "Jewish race" is an invention of European elitists, driven by the perceived need to nationalize a morally correct, religious, mystical culture. Zionism turned the historic character of this culture on its head.
Shlomo simply shows that the tribal perception that all Jews are related by blood, has been exploited to the maximum, and Sand proves this "Jewish" association to be totally false. Judaism is/was a religious ethnic group/culture through most of its history, and only recently has been remodeled primarily as a blood-identity ethnic group.
Many Palestinians could have more of the original tribal "Jewish blood" than do the Eastern European converts that now oppress them. Few rural Jewish farmers were ever "driven into exile" and may well have converted to Islam centuries ago to keep their farms, and to keep his/her family from scattering into abject poverty and/or homelessness in the wilderness, either of which could have been literally life-threatening.
The great coversions to Judaism in Eastern Europe, North of the Black Sea, in the 700-1000 CE centuries were never recognized by the Zionist, as they rallied Jewish people to believe they were all "bloodline" inheritors of the holy land. This ignoring of historical conversions was essential for the tribal consciousness required to justify the Zionists terrorists seizing farms from indigenous people of former Palestine.
The first 100 pages of the text is difficult reading, as Sand teaches us about the world race towards nationalism in the 20th and 19th century, of which Nazi Germany was the most notorious example. There were rediculous myths and stories of nations' blood line identities in many countries and ethnic groups. The European Jewish people were no different and started the Zionist movement around the turn of the century.
After the first 100 pages or so, the book becomes very interesting. There are footnotes at the bottom of each page, and a robust index.
The book ends declaring that one true democratic State (not a two-state solution; and not an exclusive "Jewish State") of all Israelis, and a right of return for both the indigenous Palestinians as well as Jews, is the only way to peace in Israel.
That's why this book is so contraversial.
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery
