Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood

The ghost of the Holocaust is ever present in Israel, in the lives and nightmares of the survivors and in the absence of the victims. In this compelling analysis, Idith Zertal considers how Israel has used the memory of the Holocaust to define and legitimize its existence and politics. Drawing on a range of sources, she exposes the pivotal role of the Holocaust in Israel's public sphere, in its project of nation building, its politics of power, and its perception of the Palestine conflict. She argues that the centrality of the Holocaust has led to a culture of death and victimhood that permeates Israel's society and self-image. For this updated paperback edition, Tony Judt, the world-renowned historian and political commentator, has contributed a foreword in which he writes of Zertal's courage, the originality of her work, and the "unforgiving honesty with which she looks at the moral condition of her own country."Zertal, Idith is the author of 'Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood', published 2005 under ISBN 9780521616461 and ISBN 0521616468.