Plowshares Into Swords: From Zionism to Israel

Arno Mayer

This rich, authoritative history chronicles the Zionist Israeli quest from its originsin pre-Great War Europe. Mayer traces the development of political Zionism'sprimal resolve to implant a state for Jews in a Middle East of ever greater strategicimportance. He provides new perspectives on key turning points as well as onsuch enduring issues as the young country's dire need for imperial protection, theoil imperative, the hidden ascendance of Jabotinsky's martial and expansionistcanon, reliance on the American Jewish and Christian evangelical lobbies, thepost-colonial backlash against Western supremacy, the asymmetry of powerbetween Israelis and Palestinians, the Zionist Israeli leaders' studied prevaricationon borders, and the emergence of political Judaism and political Islam.Incorporating reflections on founding violence, sovereignty, resistance, terror,and religious politics, Ploughshares into Swords is an absorbing, challengingnarrative of Zionism and Israel in the context of world history.