THE FAILURE OF A UTOPIA: THE HISTORY OF THE LEFT IN ISRAEL

Thomas Vescovi

Foreword by Michel Warschawski

(La Découverte, 372 pages, 2021)

The political Left has played a central role in the history of Israel. Starting as a key player during the creation of the state in 1948, the Left retained its dominance at the Knesset for more than thirty years. However, since the end of the 1970s, and even more so after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Left parties have faced a profound crisis. Confronted by the rise of ultranationalist and religious movements, they have had to enter into unholy alliances to secure parliamentary representation. The question today is: Does the Left still exist in Israel?

Vescovi retraces the history of progressive and revolutionary movements in Israel, from the birth of the Zionist movement in the nineteenth century up to the 2020 elections. With intellectual rigor, the author meticulously analyzes the debates, tensions, and contradictions that have animated and divided these movements. How can one be both a Zionist and a Leftist? How can one create a more just and equal society for both Jews and Palestinians? What should be the response to the assaults of the Zionist Right and religious movements that once were in the minority and are now politically and culturally dominant?

The Failure of a Utopia presents a full account of the decline of the Leftist movements in Israel, unparalleled since Peretz Merhav’s The Israeli Left published in 1980. Based on recent research, as well as face-to-face interviews with political actors, Vescovi offers a comprehensive and riveting political history of Israel. After examining the record as well as the possibilities of a progressive Zionism, he concludes by exploring the conditions for an eventual renaissance.

Thomas Vescovi is an independent researcher of contemporary history. He works for various media (Middle East Eye, Le Monde diplomatique, Moyen-Orient, among others). He is the author of La Mémoire de la Nakba en Israël (L’Harmattan, 2015).