Book Notes: The Virtue of Nationalism, Part V

The best part of the book comes at the very end where Hazony writes about the negative reactions that the state of Israel evokes today. The analysis of how the erosion of the nation-state inspires these reactions is absolutely outstanding. I don’t want to narrate it here because I don’t want to spoil it for readers with a clumsy retelling.

The discussion of the seemingly bizarre European treatment of Muslim countries and the third world comes out of the chapters on Israel and is also brilliant.

When I praise an argument as brilliant and outstanding, this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether I agree with it. I hope this is understood. Brilliant to me doesn’t mean “something that echoes my beliefs.” I’m not referring to the degree of my agreement with the author but only to the intellectual quality, logic, coherence, and profoundness of the argument.

One thought on “Book Notes: The Virtue of Nationalism, Part V

  1. \ I don’t want to narrate it here because I don’t want to spoil it for readers with a clumsy retelling.

    I hope I have found the argument online in his ‘letters.’

    More on Kuhn, Kant, and the Nation-State
    http://jerusalemletters.com/more-on-kuhn-kant-and-the-nation-state/

    In the this post, he answers questions:

    // 1. Why do New Paradigmers, who have such a difficult time accepting the legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state’s efforts to defend itself, tend to support the establishment of other independent nation-states, such as a Palestinian Arab state? And why do they tend to overlook the use and abuse of force by scores of other nation-states?

    // 2. Doesn’t attributing the rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment to the collapse of the nation-state paradigm an over-simplification? Aren’t there other factors, including anti-Semitism, that have to be taken into account?

    AND

    Israel Through European Eyes (Part 3 starts talking about Israel)
    http://jerusalemletters.com/israel-through-european-eyes/

    Like

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