July 30, 2009

According to a new book about Albert Einstein, the physicist and cofounder of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was hardly a Zionist. In fact, writes the publisher of Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East, Fred Jerome’s book demonstrates that Einstein “favored a non-religious state that would welcome Jew and Palestinian alike.” In other words, a binational state.

But read Einstein on Israel, and this is what emerges: A liberal with a fairly utopian vision of Jewish culture, which he combined with a German refugee’s real-world understanding of what the Jews needed in the wake of the Holocaust and would need to survive. Einstein was uncomfortable with the subjugation and displacement of Arabs, sure, but was still able to ask Nehru to support the “right of the Jews to continue the upbuilding of their ancient homeland without artificial restrictions.”

In other words, our fellow New Jersey Jew was a Zionist, and a lefty to boot. It’s not an oxymoron. Israel’s critics like to pretend it is, because it would clash with their vision of Israel as the new South Africa, or as historical anachronism.

In a withering review in The New Republic, David Billet explains the motivation behind the book: “Jerome’s larger purpose is to bring to bear Einstein’s moral authority upon the cause of replacing Israel with a binational Palestine that would rescue the Jews from the crimes of statehood.”

Nearly every country fails to live up to its founding ideals or contains internal contradictions that are difficult to justify or reconcile. But according to proponents of the binational state, only Israel must solve these conflicts by dismantling itself.

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