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Original Sins: Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel
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- GenresHistoryNonfictionIsrael
232 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
153 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 24, 2025
Thoughtful, Dense
I chose this book as my next read because it had the fewest number of pages among all the PDF files of unread books on my phone. That reasoning turned out to be a mistake; despite its relatively brief length, this title is not easy to take in because it provides a lot to chew on regarding a variety of important issues.
The author, an Israeli academic, squarely confronts things like:
- The fundamental injustice of Zionism, which is that it is a program where an imported alien minority usurps the majority of their rights and homeland against their repeatedly expressed will.
- The shocking intensity of Jewish ethnocentrism.
- Jewish preponderance in revolutionary leftist movements.
- The hypocrisy of diaspora Jewish communities who are fanatically left-wing on every issue except Israel.
- The myth of a Jewish dispersal from Roman Palestine in 70 AD that led to the much-touted "diaspora". To cite but one example, in the first century BC, Strabo, one of the foremost geographers of antiquity, stated that it was almost impossible to find an inhabited place on earth into which the Jewish race had not penetrated and become dominant.
- The "Holocaust Industry" (a term he pioneered nearly a decade before Norman Finkelstein's bombshell book with that title made it ubiquitous!), i.e. the grotesque and illogical spectacle where Jews sob about the harms done to them in Europe during the Second World War as if that somehow gives them a legal title to Palestine and perpetual license to inflict grave injustice on the natives there as if they were somehow responsible for the Germans bringing Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP into power.
There is only one flaw here, but it's a notable one: the author's view of antisemitism. From my recollection, he claims that Jews made sincere attempts to assimilate into Gentile societies, only to be spurned. But that belies his own observation that Jewish "conversion" to Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries was wholly insincere, a mere formality, and simply a ticket to personal advancement in the professions for material gain. Also, his stunningly frank admissions about Jewish ethnocentrism and its characteristic attitude of abrasive contemptuousness towards non-Jews seems like a much more likely culprit for the origin of anti-Jewish attitudes.
Aside from that, this is a very thoughtful book that deserves to be widely read.
I chose this book as my next read because it had the fewest number of pages among all the PDF files of unread books on my phone. That reasoning turned out to be a mistake; despite its relatively brief length, this title is not easy to take in because it provides a lot to chew on regarding a variety of important issues.
The author, an Israeli academic, squarely confronts things like:
- The fundamental injustice of Zionism, which is that it is a program where an imported alien minority usurps the majority of their rights and homeland against their repeatedly expressed will.
- The shocking intensity of Jewish ethnocentrism.
- Jewish preponderance in revolutionary leftist movements.
- The hypocrisy of diaspora Jewish communities who are fanatically left-wing on every issue except Israel.
- The myth of a Jewish dispersal from Roman Palestine in 70 AD that led to the much-touted "diaspora". To cite but one example, in the first century BC, Strabo, one of the foremost geographers of antiquity, stated that it was almost impossible to find an inhabited place on earth into which the Jewish race had not penetrated and become dominant.
- The "Holocaust Industry" (a term he pioneered nearly a decade before Norman Finkelstein's bombshell book with that title made it ubiquitous!), i.e. the grotesque and illogical spectacle where Jews sob about the harms done to them in Europe during the Second World War as if that somehow gives them a legal title to Palestine and perpetual license to inflict grave injustice on the natives there as if they were somehow responsible for the Germans bringing Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP into power.
There is only one flaw here, but it's a notable one: the author's view of antisemitism. From my recollection, he claims that Jews made sincere attempts to assimilate into Gentile societies, only to be spurned. But that belies his own observation that Jewish "conversion" to Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries was wholly insincere, a mere formality, and simply a ticket to personal advancement in the professions for material gain. Also, his stunningly frank admissions about Jewish ethnocentrism and its characteristic attitude of abrasive contemptuousness towards non-Jews seems like a much more likely culprit for the origin of anti-Jewish attitudes.
Aside from that, this is a very thoughtful book that deserves to be widely read.
September 19, 2009
A controversial monograph--frequently dismissed as nothing more than revisionist history by more traditional isreali historians. I agree that the work is very definatly left leaning in interprtation but overall I found it to be a more honest interpretation of Zionism, Isreal, and its contributions to the conflict. A through discussion of the poor and prejudicial treatment of Palestinians by Israeli's is included and by far the most important topic covered in the book. The author is Israeli which adds to the value of the critical self-reflective point of view the author takes in examining zionism and the history of Israel.
November 30, 2023
we love debunking revisionist history!!!!
July 30, 2007
Wow! This book really clarified for me the history of Zionism and all of it's contradictions. Original is very easy to read but full of sharp analysis. Terms like Diaspora Jew and Orthodox Zionist vs Secular Zionist become clear. The ideal Jew, according to Zionists, is so close to the German Nazi Aryan ideal it is stunning. The colonialization of Palestine and the apartheid methods used in the name of Zionism should be read by most Americans who still see Israelis as victims.
There are a lot more bits I can drop, but it's better you read it yourself. If you've gotten bored with seeing the conflict play out on TV, read this and it will deepen your understanding!
cg
There are a lot more bits I can drop, but it's better you read it yourself. If you've gotten bored with seeing the conflict play out on TV, read this and it will deepen your understanding!
cg
May 17, 2008
The little-known history of Jews and how Israel was formed. It's an excellent read and a facinating story!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews