ABSTRACT
Postcolonial theory can be said to provide apposite elucidation of the Jewish condition and attendant identity mutations within the Jewish intelligentsia which emerged in European Jewry as an outcome of the period of societal transition from pre-modernity to modernity. Zionism's essentially nationalist nature renders it uniquely different from all such models in aspects of paramount explanatory significance. Abandoning the aspiration for integration and assimilation, the individuals underwent a radical identity transformation that led them not only to converge with the ethnicists, but even to assume leadership roles in propelling Jewish ethnic self-affirmation toward fully fledged nationalism in the form of Zionism. In the final analysis, theories of nationalism, which command a vast and profound literature, are far more valuable aids in comprehending the history of Zionism and the nature of the Arab—Jewish conflict than whatever goes by the description of postcolonial theory.
