Deconstructing Zionism A Critique of Political Metaphysics

by Vattimo, Gianni; Marder, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781441143457
• ISBN10: 1441143459
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-11-21
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This volume in the Political Theory and Contemporary Philosophy series provides a political and philosophical critique of Zionism.

While other nationalisms seem to have adapted to twenty-first century realities and shifting notions of state and nation, Zionism has largely remained tethered to a nineteenth century mentality, including the glorification of the state as the only means of expressing the spirit of the people. These essays, contributed by eminent international thinkers including Slavoj Zizek, Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Gianni Vattimo, Walter Mignolo, Marc Ellis, and others, deconstruct the political-metaphysical myths that are the framework for the existence of Israel.Collectively, they offer a multifaceted critique of the metaphysical, theological, and onto-political grounds of the Zionist project and the economic, geopolitical, and cultural outcomes of these foundations.

A significant contribution to the debates surrounding the state of Israel today, this groundbreaking work will appeal to anyone interested in political theory, philosophy, Jewish thought, and the Middle East conflict.

Author Biography

Gianni Vattimo is an internationally recognized Italian philosopher, politician, and author. Since 1964 he has been a professor at the University of Turin. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, UCLA, NYU, and SUNY and is the author and co-author of many books, including Christianity, Truth, and Weak Faith (2009) and Hermeneutic Communism (2011).

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. He is the Associate Editor of Telos: A Quarterly Journal of Critical Thought and the author of The Event of The Thing: Derrida's Post-Deconstructive Realism (2009).

Table of Contents

Introduction: “If not now, when?”
Gianni Vattimo & Michael Marder

Chapter 1: Anti-Semitism and Its Transformations
Slavoj Žižek

Chapter 2: How to Become an Anti-Zionist
Gianni Vattimo

Chapter 3: Is Judaism Zionism? Or, Arendt and the Critique of the Nation-State
Judith Butler

Chapter 4: Decolonizing the Nation-State: Zionism in the Colonial Horizon of Modernity
Walter Mignolo

Chapter 5: Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt on the Jewish Question: Political Theology as a Critique
Artemy Magun

Chapter 6: Notes on the Prophetic Instability of Zionism
Marc H. Ellis

Chapter 7: The Spirit of Zionism: Derrida, Ruah, and the Purloined Birthright
Christopher Wise

Chapter 8: Rex, or the Negation of Wandering
Ranjana Khanna

Chapter 9: The Hermeneutical Stance: Being Discharged at the Margins of Political Zionism
Santiago Zabala

Chapter 10: The Zionist Synecdoche
Michael Marder

Chapter 11: Sharing Humanity: Towards Peaceful Coexistence in Difference
Luce Irigaray

Index