Books, Arts & Manners: The Transformation of Zionism

The Tragedy of Zionism: Revolution and Democracy in the Land of Israel, by Bernard Avishai (Farrar, 389 pp., $19.95)

Zionism, said a Zionist named Baruch Nadel, is “a movement of Western Jews to save the Eastern Jews that built a home for Oriental Jews.” Bernard Avishai’s The Tragedy of Zionism is oddly titled: He is aware that an entity or institution can, in its existence, change radically from its original conception, but it’s not altogether clear how it is tragic that Israel has turned out differently from what its founding generation expected.

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Joseph Sobran

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The Tragedy of Zionism: Revolution and Democracy in the Land of Israel, by Bernard Avishai (Farrar, 389 pp., $19.95)

Zionism, said a Zionist named Baruch Nadel, is “a movement of Western Jews to save the Eastern Jews that built a home for Oriental Jews.” Bernard Avishai’s The Tragedy of Zionism is oddly titled: He is aware that an entity or institution can, in its existence, change radically from its original conception, but it’s not altogether clear how it is tragic that Israel has turned out differently from what its founding generation expected.