The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine

by Tikva Honig-Parnass

Overview

The Israeli Left has long held the view that the historic Zionist Labor movement stands firmly in the humanistic, democratic, and even socialist traditions. These progressive credentials are routinely called forth as cause to dismiss any of Israel’s leftwing critics and their charges of injustice. Yet, a closer examination of these claims reveals a carefully constructed mythology used to obscure a more sordid reality.

False Prophets of Peace unearths the central role played by the Israeli Left in laying the foundation for the colonial settler project and its campaign of dispossession. Far from its professed radicalism, Honig-Parnass deftly exposes Left Zionism’s contributions to Israel’s exclusivist ideology and its participation in attempts to legitimize the apartheid treatment of Palestinians. Its fervent support of a Jewish-only state not only undermined the “peace process” from the very start but continues to serve as a barrier to reaching a just peace that recognizes the national and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608461301
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	11/15/2011
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tikva Honig-Parnass was raised in the Jewish community of pre-state Palestine, fought in the 1948 war and served as the secretary of the then Radical Left Zionist Party of Mapam (The Unified Workers Party) in the Knesset (1951-1954). In '60 she definitively broke with Zionism and joined the ranks of the Israeli Socialist Organization, known as "Matzpen". Since then she has played an active role in the movement against the '67 occupation as well as in the struggle for the Palestinian national rights.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Erasing Palestinians from the Land - Past and Present

Chapter 2: A "Jewish Majority" Fosters Racism

Chapter 3: Equal Rights

Chapter 4: A Theocratic Jewish State

Chapter 5: The Assertion of the Democratic Nature of the State

Chapter 6: Post-Zionism – A Failed Departure from Left Zionist Discourse

Chapter 7: Revisionist Social Sciences: Pre-State Colonization and the 1948 War

Chapter 8: The Post-Modernity Stream of Post-Zionism

Chapter 9: The Zionist Left and the Peace Process

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"The Zionist Left, formerly hegemonic, has declined since 1977 and is now marginalized, while the differences between it and the center and Right have almost disappeared. But the myth of its 'progressive' nature persists among Western liberals. Based on her knowledge as a former insider, and on her familiarity with the relevant material, Tikva Honig-Parnass performs an invaluable service in forensically deconstructing the myth.”
—Moshé Machover, author, Israelis and Palestinians: Conflict and Resolution

"These books, [Israelis and Palestinians, and False Prophets of Peace] are important contributions not only for historical perspective but for present-day understanding … The fundamental insights of the formative Israeli revolutionary left remain as impressive as ever – inspiring in their clarity of vision, even if it’s distressing to see how, if anything, political discourse about Israel and Palestine has regressed as much as advanced in half a century."
—David Finkel, Against the Current

"After reading Honig-Parnass’ book, one is left with a clear impression that liberal Zionists are neither ‘Israel’s best’ and nor is their double-speak a simple reflection of hypocrisy. Liberal Zionists were, and remain at the heart of the problem."
—Ramzy Baroud, the Palestine Chronicle

"[A]t a time when the hasbarah is working overtime to present Israel as a place where liberal democratic values, individualism and LGBT rights thrive amidst a sea of fundamentalist obscurantism, False prophets of peace is essential reading for winning the debate against those keen to smear solidarity with Palestinian rights as employing double standards and engaging in the demonisation of the ‘only democracy in the Middle East."
—Leandros Fischer, the Weekly Worker


"The Zionist Left, formerly hegemonic, has declined since 1977 and is now marginalized, while the differences between it and the center and Right have almost disappeared. But the myth of its 'progressive' nature persists among Western liberals. Based on her knowledge as a former insider, and on her familiarity with the relevant material, Tikva Honig-Parnass performs an invaluable service in forensically deconstructing the myth.”
—Moshé Machover, author, Israelis and Palestinians: Conflict and Resolution

"These books, [Israelis and Palestinians, and False Prophets of Peace] are important contributions not only for historical perspective but for present-day understanding … The fundamental insights of the formative Israeli revolutionary left remain as impressive as ever – inspiring in their clarity of vision, even if it’s distressing to see how, if anything, political discourse about Israel and Palestine has regressed as much as advanced in half a century."
—David Finkel, Against the Current

"After reading Honig-Parnass’ book, one is left with a clear impression that liberal Zionists are neither ‘Israel’s best’ and nor is their double-speak a simple reflection of hypocrisy. Liberal Zionists were, and remain at the heart of the problem."
—Ramzy Baroud, the Palestine Chronicle

"[A]t a time when the hasbarah is working overtime to present Israel as a place where liberal democratic values, individualism and LGBT rights thrive amidst a sea of fundamentalist obscurantism, False prophets of peace is essential reading for winning the debate against those keen to smear solidarity with Palestinian rights as employing double standards and engaging in the demonisation of the ‘only democracy in the Middle East."
—Leandros Fischer, the Weekly Worker

From the Publisher