What book to give a Zionist?

[u/Jche98]

My cousin is a Zionist. He made Aliyah and has served in the IDF in Gaza and Lebanon. He was in the brigade that responded to Oct 7 and lost one of his best friends to a Hamas bullet that day. I've spoken with him and he's open to learning more. I'm looking for a book to give him which is a very GENTLE introduction to an alternative viewpoint from Zionism, something that won't scare him. Can anyone recommend something.

[u/loselyconscious]

Is he a big reader? can he handle a more academic leaing book? Is he interested in Judaism/Jewish history, or would a book more narrowly focused on the war and occupation be better?

[u/Jche98 → u/loselyconscious]

He's even published his own short story so I'm sure he'll be able to handle anything

[u/loselyconscious → u/Jche98]

Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness by Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi's more well-known book is The 100-Year War on Palestine, but I think this is a better book to ease someone into it. It essentially attempts to establish the legitimacy of Palestinian Identity as more than just a reaction to Zionism and, thus, their "claim" to the land without going too much into rejecting Zionism. (Admittedly, though, it's been a while since I read it)

The Necessity of Exile by Shaul Magid is a book about concepts of diaspora in Judaism by a scholar who still considers himself a Zionist but rejects the version of Zionism that became hegemonic after 48.

If he has feminist or queer commitments, Unheroic Conduct by Daniel Boyarin, it doesn't get into Zionism until the later chapters but goes into the antisemitism, sexism, and homophobia that is core to the Zionist project

[u/Artistic-Vanilla-899 → u/loselyconscious]

Majid just worked with Omer Bartov in an interesting doc How Israel Won the West https://youtu.be/lTxoFvVqDoo?si=VcaAGnTtgvEvWeMM

Oh yes, Omer Bartov also an excellent scholar