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Zionism’s Identity Crisis, or The Final Defeat of Cultural Zionism
Why Cultural Zionists like Einstein and Arendt Should Be Called Anti-Zionists Today
In 2018, Israel’s Knesset passed the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. The chairman of the committee that drafted it said,
“This is the law of all laws. It is the most important law in the history of the State of Israel, which says that everyone has human rights, but national rights in Israel belong only to the Jewish people. That is the founding principle on which the state was established.” —Amir Ohana
The Nation-State Law has been criticized by Israelis and foreigners alike for excluding anyone in Israel who is not Jewish — one of its consequences was demoting Arabic from an official language to a special status language—but Ohana told the truth. It is not the principle that the best Zionists wanted, but it is the principle that Modern Israel was founded on.
In the 19th century, two incompatible visions of Zionism developed. Theodor Herzl wanted a Jewish state where Jews were the dominant majority—his approach is remembered today as political Zionism. Ahad Ha’am wanted a homeland for Jews in a state where Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived together in peace as equals—his approach is…
