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A review by books_ergo_sum
Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic by Ilan Pappé
reflective
5.0
Pappé’s nonfiction writing style—measured, no stone left unturned, primary source heavy—was the best way to cover this topic. This was so detailed. But it was worth it!
My favourite part of this book was its emphasis on understanding the origin of the Zionist lobby. Because, well before Israel existed, this lobby was fully entrenched in the upper echelons of our governments.
✨ And the origins of the Zionist lobby (from the 1800s to mid-1900s) were NOTHING like you’d expect. Early lobbyists for Zionism were mostly not Jewish. In fact, they were mostly antisemitic. The early Zionist lobby was an alliance between anti-immigrant types (who wanted to redirect Eastern European Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms to somewhere besides the UK) and British imperialists who coveted parts of the soon-to-crumble Ottoman Empire. With some Evangelical Christians who wanted to bring about Armageddon sprinkled in. And later some rightwing anti-communists who antisemitically associated Jews with the Bolsheviks (looking at you, Churchill).
Most Jews weren’t onboard with the early lobbying efforts. And the speech Pappé included *against* the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the only Jewish member of Parliament at the time is something I can’t stop thinking about—especially because he’s said to have been “close to weeping” as he spoke 😢
This book felt like the other side of the coin of Pappé’s history of Israel books—it answered the “But how are they getting away with this?!” question.
Yes, we went into detail (and I mean DETAIL) about how the lobby promoted politicians they expected to give carte blanche to Israel’s actions and punished politicians they expected wouldn’t.
But this book wasn’t a story about: “how has Israel, a foreign government, gained so much control over our democracies?” No, the story was: how is this lobby a uniquely British and American phenomenon? Which brought so much clarity to this particular political problem. Loved it.
My favourite part of this book was its emphasis on understanding the origin of the Zionist lobby. Because, well before Israel existed, this lobby was fully entrenched in the upper echelons of our governments.
✨ And the origins of the Zionist lobby (from the 1800s to mid-1900s) were NOTHING like you’d expect. Early lobbyists for Zionism were mostly not Jewish. In fact, they were mostly antisemitic. The early Zionist lobby was an alliance between anti-immigrant types (who wanted to redirect Eastern European Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms to somewhere besides the UK) and British imperialists who coveted parts of the soon-to-crumble Ottoman Empire. With some Evangelical Christians who wanted to bring about Armageddon sprinkled in. And later some rightwing anti-communists who antisemitically associated Jews with the Bolsheviks (looking at you, Churchill).
Most Jews weren’t onboard with the early lobbying efforts. And the speech Pappé included *against* the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the only Jewish member of Parliament at the time is something I can’t stop thinking about—especially because he’s said to have been “close to weeping” as he spoke 😢
This book felt like the other side of the coin of Pappé’s history of Israel books—it answered the “But how are they getting away with this?!” question.
Yes, we went into detail (and I mean DETAIL) about how the lobby promoted politicians they expected to give carte blanche to Israel’s actions and punished politicians they expected wouldn’t.
But this book wasn’t a story about: “how has Israel, a foreign government, gained so much control over our democracies?” No, the story was: how is this lobby a uniquely British and American phenomenon? Which brought so much clarity to this particular political problem. Loved it.