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  • Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925-2005 by Nadav G. Shelef
  • Robert W. Nicholson
Nadav G. Shelef . Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925-2005. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. Pp. x, 283. Paper $24.95. ISBN 9780801448706.

Zionism created a revolutionary new Jewish identity when it appeared in the late nineteenth century. Unlike religious or cultural approaches to Jewishness, classical Zionism emphasized the ethnic, territorial, and political possibilities [End Page 94] of a corporate Jewish existence. However, Zionist identity has never been monolithic. Even in its earliest years, the Zionist movement was split by rival groups proposing very different definitions of Jewish nationalism. To further complicate the situation, each of these groups has altered its ideology over time. In his book Evolving Nationalism, Nadav G. Shelef sets out to chronicle these changes and to provide a compelling explanation for how and why the three main Zionist movements abandoned or modified some of their deepest philosophical principles.

Shelef's historical analysis builds upon what he calls the "evolutionary dynamic." This dynamic is characterized by gradual, unguided changes in group ideology resulting from external pressures and competition between political movements. Essentially, it is survival of the fittest in the sociopolitical realm. In nation-states where domestic infighting is frequent and where no single group can seize power alone (i.e., parliamentary democracies like Israel), the evolutionary dynamic is especially powerful. Political movements in such places must often, for sake of either convenience or necessity, "hold their collective noses" to make alliances with rivals. (14) These alliances produce new ideological variants which, when successful, lead to the formation of new social norms. In Shelef's words, "the evolutionary dynamic expects change to take place when a new rhetorical variant of a nationalist ideology is so successful that it is promoted at the expense of the old ideological formulation until, under the right conditions, the new version displaces the old one." (11)

Shelef's book focuses on the three main Zionist movements—Labor Zionism, Religious Zionism, and Revisionist Zionism—and documents how each has adjusted its core principles over time in response to external stimuli. The book is divided into two parts. Part One is dedicated exclusively to the topic of territorial borders, while Part Two focuses on more abstract issues of destiny and identity. Shelef's final chapter recaps his evolutionary model and attempts to broaden it for use outside the Israeli context.

Shelef's clearest example of evolutionary change involves the issue of borders. How was it that Zionism's original conception of the Jewish state— which included not only the East Bank of the Jordan but also Southern Lebanon and the Sinai—ultimately shrank down to the tiny entity that emerged after 1948? Shelef uses extensive archival and cartographic evidence to demonstrate how the positions of the three Zionist movements shifted on this issue. The Labor Zionists, he shows, modified their original territorial vision as early as the 1930s to reinforce their leadership of the wider Zionist movement, accommodate political supporters (including American Jews), and later, to ensure a demographic Jewish majority in the new state. The Religious Zionists, meanwhile, quietly retreated from their grand biblical vision ("from the River of Egypt...to the River Euphrates") to preserve power in the new Labor-led coalition. The Revisionists held out a little longer, but by the 1950s they too began to realize the need to modify their position or face political irrelevance. Eventually, even they abandoned their irredentist claims to forge a consensus with their former rivals. The result? A new and generally-accepted "map image" of the State of Israel that provided the baseline for future debate. [End Page 95]

Shelef goes on to show how the same evolutionary principles led to transformations in other areas. Some of the more interesting examples include Labor Zionism's retreat from socialism to gain control of the World Zionist Organization; Labor and Revisionist sidelining of stringent secularism to gain the favor of Religious Zionists; and a reversal of the general Zionist antipathy toward the Diaspora to gain the moral and financial support of Jewish communities worldwide. In all of these cases, Shelef argues persuasively that...

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