ZEEV STERNHELL, The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State, trans. David Maisel (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997). Pp. 432. $18.95

In: International journal of Middle East studies: IJMES, Band 33, Heft 4, S. 633-635

Abstract

The principal focus of Zeev Sternhell's screed is Labor Zionism, although like other
Israeli so-called new historians, he touches on relations with the country's Arabs, tensions
between the Ashkenazi elite and Sephardi under-class, the Yishuv and the Holocaust, and
attitudes toward and perceptions of Diaspora Jewry. The author, whose professional field has
been European history, mainly France and Italy, was motivated to undertake this study by
"serious doubts" (p. ix) about the generally accepted ideas sanctioned by Israeli
historiography and social science. Using his skills as a professional historian, he probed Zionist
and Israeli government archives and reread original texts to compare what he perceived as social
and political realities with the ideology guiding policies. Sternhell is critical of traditional Israeli
historiography because of the damage it has caused by separating Jewish history from general
history. The consequences, he asserts, are "truly appalling" (p. x), resulting in
paralysis of any real critical sense and perpetuation of "myths flattering to Israel's
collective identity" (p. x). This has led many historians of Zionism "to lock
themselves up in an intellectual ghetto" (p. x), leading to ignorance and emotional
blindness.