The State of Israel vs. the Jews

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ABOUT THE STATE OF ISRAEL VS. THE JEWS PopMatters: Best Book of the Year From an award-winning journalist, a perceptive study of how Israel’s actions, which run counter to the traditional historical values of Judaism, are putting Jewish people worldwide in an increasingly untenable position. More than a decade ago, the historian Tony Judt considered whether the behavior of Israel was becoming not only “bad for Israel itself” but also, on a wider scale, “bad for the Jews.” Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, this issue has grown ever more urgent. In The State of Israel vs. the Jews, veteran journalist Sylvain Cypel addresses it in depth, exploring Israel’s rightward shift on the international scene and with regard to the diaspora. Cypel reviews the little-known details of the military occupation of Palestinian territory, the mindset of ethnic superiority that reigns throughout an Israeli “colonial camp” that is largely in the majority, and the adoption of new laws, the most serious of which establishes two-tier citizenship between Jews and non-Jews. He shows how Israel has aligned itself with authoritarian regimes and adopted the practices of a security state, including the use of technologies such as the software that enabled the tracking and, ultimately, the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Lastly, The State of Israel vs. the Jews examines the impact of Israel’s evolution in recent years on the two main communities of the Jewish diaspora, in France and the United States, considering how and why public figures in each differ in their approaches. Contents Cover Other Titles Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Introduction: An unbridgeable hiatus Israel, I hardly knew you A country at an impasse If force doesn’t do the job, apply more force Israel fascinates the new ethnocentric leaders 1: Imposing Fear, Teaching Contempt - The reality of the military occupation The most moral army in the world? A very coherent incoherence The flourishing of a Jewish Ku Klux Klan Israel, the leader in the war on terrorism 2: Pissing in the Pool from the Diving Board - How Israel has changed in fifty years The end of denial The meaning of the Azaria affair Impunity and the coarsening of society A whiff of fascism 3: But What’s Your Blood? - The nation-state of the Jewish people “Bad for Israel and the Jewish people” The triumph of ethnocracy “Vital space” for the Jewish people 4: This Country Belongs to the White Man - An emerging idea: racial purity A plague on Black “infiltrators” Links with white supremacists The search for the “Jewish gene” 5: Locate. Track. Manipulate. - Cybersurveillance, Israel’s new politico-commercial weapon The tradition of weapons sales The latest in cybersurveillance Operating under the radar Israel and the Khashoggi affair First the Palestinians, then Israel’s dissidents 6: The Shin Bet State Is Here - When people vote for authoritarian democracy Israel extends its net from Palestinians to deviant Jews BtS, the enemy within BDS, the strategic threat The security state in action 7: A Species on the Verge of Extinction - Israeli civil society is suffering Who needs a Supreme Court anymore? The civic opposition in disarray 8: Hitler Didn’t Want to Exterminate the Jews - Netanyahu, fake history, and his anti-Semitic friends Did the Mufti of Jerusalem instigate the Holocaust? The cement of Islamophobia Jews for Jesus, and vice versa The alliance with Eastern Europe’s age-old anti-Semitism Soros, Trump, and anti-Semitism 9: It’s Not Necessary or Healthy to Keep Quiet - The crisis in American Judaism American Jews are turning their backs on Israel Why is this change happening now? Crisis in the Democratic Party In the United States, a challenge to Israel’s status 10: No, No! You can’t quote me on that! - The blindness of French Jews From La Révolution to right-wing Zionism CRIF: community organization or pro-Israeli lobby? Ethnic separateness and the burden of cowardice 11: I Am Exhausted by Israel - A schism in Judaism? Which Israel do you support, exactly? That’s the weakness that will bring us down Diaspora renewal in the United States? Toward a schism in Judaism? 12: The Last Goddamn Thing We Need - After Trump The Donald’s deplorable legacy Biden’s challenge: dealing with an apartheid state The Iran wager Conclusion: Israel vs. the Jews Tony Judt, in memoriam After Gaza Acknowledgments Notes Index About the Author