also viewable on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/palestinebookshelf/p/what-price-israel-by-alfred-m-lilienthal Copy of the summary: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KiBSLYqj5qd2TXU4cE9pLfRGg3Pdis7rd5fwQxwx-Tw/edit?pli=1&tab=t.gws9mcgs6xrs MAIN THESIS If Israel is "the Jewish state," Jews who are citizens of other countries are exposed to a charge of dual loyalty. Lilienthal argues that what is called rising antisemitism is largely anti-Israelism, produced by occupation, settlements, and the oppression of Palestinians. Lilienthal considered Judaism a religion, not a race or a nationality. Hebrew, Israelite, Jew, and Judaism name different groups in different periods and should not be collapsed into one continuous people. Zionism, he says, puts nation above faith, claims the diaspora for an "ingathering," and leaves American Jews with no honorable Zionist position except moving to Israel. HISTORICAL CONTEXT Lilienthal notes that with the return from Babylon in 538 BC: many captives stayed in exile, and Alexandria later held more Judaeans than Jerusalem. He uses this against the claim of an unbroken 2,000-year longing to return. He traces the words Hebrew, Israelite, and Jew to separate periods, and says the later use of "Jew" for anyone practicing Judaism broke any lineal claim to the ancient community in Canaan. The political story runs from Herzl and the Balfour Declaration through the 1947 UN partition vote, the May 1948 declaration, Truman's recognition, and the early-1950s fight over refugees, Jerusalem, and American Jewish allegiance. CONTROVERSY AND RECEPTION Lilienthal, a Jewish lawyer and writer, was attacked by the American Israel lobby after the 1949 article. The review says he later received a death threat he attributed to the Haganah. His denial of a Jewish people or race anticipated later arguments such as Shlomo Sand's, and remains sharply disputed by both Zionist historians and many scholars of Jewish peoplehood. Critics of the book treat the partition-pressure and forced-migration claims as overstated or conspiratorial, and argue that he downplays Arab rejection of partition and the Jewish refugee crisis after World War 2. Find other summaries like this at Palestine Bookshelf: www.palestinebookshelf.org #EndTheOccupation
