ABSTRACT
“Liberalism is always being surprised.” That was how Lionel Trilling used to describe the characteristic liberal failure to imagine what reason and common sense appeared to gainsay. The relation among liberalism, democracy, and the Jewish nation is directly addressed in two ambitious books on Zionism and Israel by liberals. Bernard Avishai, author of The Tragedy of Zionism and self-styled elegist of Zionism, has cast himself in the role of Epimenides coming to Athens or Plato, to Syracuse, sternly ignoring the contemptible traditional and local idiosyncrasies of the natives in order to bestow on them the blessings of “British liberal tradition,” “secular democracy,” “liberal decency,” and “a written constitution.” This chapter analyzes the development of Zionist ideas, especially in relation to certain crossroads in the development of the yishuv (Palestinian Jewish community), with favorable emphasis on cultural as opposed to political Zionism.
