Joel Kovel. Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine.

PositionBOOKS IN BRIEF--SUMMER 2008 - Book review

Joel Kovel. Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press. 2007. 320 Pages. Paper $26.95.

Kovel, discusses the origins of Zionist ideology and its capitalist roots and calls for a secular universal form of a state. Israel's state- sponsored racism is incorrigible as apartheid South Africa, deserves the same resolution. Zionism and democracy are essentially incompatible. A single-state secular democracy may need a visionary movement and this can be done by overcoming Zionism first. Therefore, it is not enough to merely denounce Zionist crimes. He suggests that we must undo the racist core of the Zionist state because Zionism cannot be reasoned away but must be confronted.

In the first part he analyzes the unnatural history of this bad idea (Zionism) that was based on situating the dream of Jewish renewal in the very center of Islam. He says it was foolish and will one day bring Israel down. Zionism is an artificial nationalism. The result of this Zionism is the establishment of Jewish control over that land and the elimination of its indigenous inhabitants. "Violence in the spirit of vengeance, especially random violence toward innocent civilians, only mirrors Israeli violence, gives Zionism its required daily dose of Jewish...

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