The fate of zionism Book

As regards the current political landscape and peace negotiations, this book offers criticism of Israel where criticism is due (primarily its expansionist policies in the West Bank), and criticism of the Palestinians and Israel's neighbors where criticism is due (embodied in the "Three No's" of the post-1967 War Khartoum Resolution: no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no recognition of Israel). Though Hertzberg recognizes that there are those on both sides of the conflict who are willing to make concessions for the sake of peace, he points out that this is of little consolation when there are far-right forces in both camps that, if Palestine were to become a state, compromise the security of both Israel and the nascent Palestine.

As regards the history of Israel, Hertzberg rejects the notions that criticism of Israel stems from anti-Semitism and nothing else (though it can often evolve into anti-Semitism), and also rejects the equally "easy" and equally erroneous idea that Israel is a colonialist entity. This is simply because for many Jews (my own family included), the choice was either Palestine or death.

In terms of the future, Herrzberg argues that the conflict is essentially intractable if left in the hands of Israelis and Palestinians. He says that all current peace negotiations are empty talk, for a variety of reasons, which are carefully dealt with in the book. And he urges that this should not be brushed off as regional conflict, as the Southern/Northern Ireland conflict is; this conflict should scare everyone, primarily because of the risk that rogue anti-Israel groups will get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. He actually isn't too worried about anti-Israel countries getting such weapons, and analyzes why this poses a far smaller threat than a small group of extremists getting hold of, for example, some of Russia's unaccounted-for stock. As such, he suggests that it is specifically the responsibility of the United Stated to intervene in a constructive way: make Israel stop expanding in the West Bank (he argues that nothing sheer of withholding funding from Israel equal to the amount it spends on settlement construction can accomplish this), empower moderate Palestinian and Israeli security forces that can keep extremist militant groups at bay, and generally do what it can to prevent military escalations in the region. Everything else, Hertzberg argues, must run its course, lest the US run the risk of becoming a Middle Eastern empire.