Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

X PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION
the Jewish nature of the state), and to criticize the elected authorities. Certain
liberal freedoms—such as freedom of the press, of expression and of association—have
been protected, and the public arena is both variegated and secure.
That is why it was possible to publish this book, and why its reception in 2008
was lively and aroused genuine debate.
Furthermore, the tight grip of the national myths has long been loosened.
A younger generation of journalists and critics no longer echoes its parents'
collectivist ethos, and searches for the social models cultivated in London
and New York. Globalization has sunk its aggressive talons into the cultural
arenas even of Israel and has, in the process, undermined the legends that
nurtured the "builders' generation." An intellectual current known as post-
Zionism is now found, though marginally, in various academic institutions,
and has produced unfamiliar pictures of the past. Sociologists, archaeologists,
geographers, political scientists, philologists, and even filmmakers have been
challenging the fundamental terms of the dominant nationalism.
But this stream of information and insights has not reached the
plateau on which resides a certain discipline, called "The History of the
Israelite People" in Hebrew academies. These institutions have no departments
of history as such, but rather departments of general history—such as
the one I belong to—and separate departments of Jewish (Israelite) history. It
goes without saying that my harshest critics come from the latter. Aside from
rioting minor errors, they chiefly complained that I had no business discussing
Jewish historiography because my area of expertise is Western Europe. Such
criticism was not leveled against other general historians who tackled Jewish
history, provided they did not deviate from the dominant thinking. "The
Jewish people," "the ancestral land," "exile," "diaspora," "aliyah," "Eretz Israel,"
"land of redemption" and so forth are key terms in all reconstructions within
Israel of the national past, and the refusal to employ them is seen as heretical.
I was aware of all this before I began writing this book. I expected my
attackers to claim that I lacked a proper knowledge of Jewish history, did not
understand the historical uniqueness of the Jewish people, was blind to its
biblical origin, and denied its eternal unity. But it seemed to me that to spend
my life at Tel Aviv University amid its vast collection of volumes and documents
about Jewish history without taking time to read and tackle them would have
been a betrayal of my profession. Certainly it is pleasant, as a well-established
professor, to travel to France and the United States to gather material about
Western culture, enjoying the power and tranquility of academe. But as a historian
taking part in shaping the collective memory of the society I live in, I felt it
was my duty to contribute directly to the most sensitive aspects of this task.