Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell | |
---|---|
Paris Institute of Political Studies | |
Occupation(s) | Historian, writer |
Known for | Research on the roots of fascism |
Spouse | Ziva Sternhell |
Children | 2 daughters |
Awards | Israel Prize, 2008 |
Zeev Sternhell (Hebrew: זאב שטרנהל; 10 April 1935 – 21 June 2020) was a Polish-born Israeli historian, political scientist, commentator on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and writer. He was one of the world's leading theorists of the phenomenon of fascism.[1] Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and wrote for Haaretz newspaper.
Biography
Zeev Sternhell was born in
In the winter of 1951, at the age of 16, Sternhell immigrated to Israel under the auspices of Youth Aliyah, and was sent to Magdiel boarding school.[5][6] In the 1950s, he served as a platoon commander in the Golani infantry brigade, including the Sinai War. He fought as a reservist in the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War.[2] and defined himself in 2008 as still a 'super-Zionist'.[2]
In 1957–1960, he studied history and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a BA cum laude. In 1969, he was awarded a Ph.D. from the Institut d'études politiques de Paris for his thesis on "The Social and Political Ideas of Maurice Barrès".[7]
Sternhell lived in Jerusalem with his wife Ziva, an art historian, with whom he had two daughters. He died on 21 June 2020, due to complications from a medical surgery.[8]
Academic career
In 1976, Sternhell became co-editor of The Jerusalem Quarterly, remaining an active contributor until 1990. He started teaching political science at the Hebrew University in 1966, becoming a full professor in 1982. In 1989, he was elected to the Léon Blum Chair of Political Science at the Hebrew University and became a member of the editorial board of History and Memory. In 1991, the French government awarded him the title of "Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" for his outstanding contribution to French culture.[9] In 1996, he was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Political Ideologies.
Awards and recognition
In 2008, Sternhell was awarded the
Research
Zeev Sternhell considered
- The Georges Boulanger who almost succeeded in his attempt at a coup d'état in 1889;[11]
- Revolutionary syndicalism, which had a notable impact on currents among Italian anarcho-syndicalists.
- The synthesis of ideas crystallised by the publications of the Cercle Proudhon around the years 1910–1912.[12]
The First World War provided the key circumstances that would prove favourable for transforming these French ideological trends - fascist ideology essentially had been incubated in France, he argued, in the milieu of the 1880s - into a political force in Italy in the aftermath of war.[13][12] Historians challenge his view that the key ingredients of fascism were formed in that early period, in France. The essential synthesis was a consequence of World War I, and not specifically French.[13]
His research has sparked criticism, in particular from French scholars who argue that the
Stanley G. Payne, for example, remarks in A History of Fascism that "Zeev Sternhell has conclusively demonstrated that nearly all the ideas found in fascism first appeared in France," though it first developed as a political movement in Italy.[15]
Sternhell's identification of
Political views
Sternhell is widely viewed as assuming the mantle worn by predecessors such as
He described himself as liberal.[17] Regarding Zionism, Sternhell said in an interview with Haaretz:
I am not only a Zionist, I am a super-Zionist. For me, Zionism was and remains the right of the Jews to control their fate and their future. I consider the right of human beings to be their own masters a natural right. A right of which the Jews were deprived by history and which Zionism restored to them. That is its deep meaning. And as such, it is indeed a tremendous revolution that touches the lives of each of us. I felt that revolution when I immigrated to Israel alone at the age of 16. Only then, when I disembarked at Haifa from the ship Artza, did I stop being an object of others' action and became a subject. Only then did I become a person who is in control of himself and not dependent on others.[2]
In The Founding Myths of Israel (published in Hebrew in 1995), Sternhell said the main moral justification the Zionists gave for the founding of Israel in 1948 was the Jews' historical right to the land. In the epilogue, he writes:
In fact, from the beginning, a sense of urgency gave the first Zionists the profound conviction that the task of reconquering the country had a solid moral basis. The argument of the Jews' historical right to the land was merely a matter of politics and propaganda. In view of the catastrophic situation of the Jews at the beginning of the century, the use of this argument was justified in every way, and it is all the more legitimate because of the threat of death hanging over the Jews. Historical rights were invoked to serve the need of finding a refuge.[18]
Sternhell argued that after the Six-Day War in 1967, the threat to the Jews had disappeared, which changed the moral basis for retaining conquests:
No leader was capable of saying that the conquest of the West Bank lacked the moral basis of the first half of the twentieth century, namely the circumstances of distress on which Israel was founded. A much-persecuted people needed and deserved not only a shelter, but also a state of its own. [...] Whereas the conquests of 1949 were an essential condition for the founding of Israel, the attempt to retain the conquests of 1967 had a strong flavor of imperial expansion.[19]
Sternhell saw Jewish settlement on the West Bank as a wish of religious Zionism and part of labour Zionism, that the more moderate part of labour Zionism was unable to withstand because this wish was in line with deep Zionist convictions. He saw settlements on the West Bank as a danger to "Israel's ability to develop as a free and open society", because they put nationalistic aims over social and liberal aims.[20]
He said something fundamental changed with the Oslo agreements: "In the history of Zionism the Oslo agreements constitute a turning point, a true revolution. For the first time in its history, the Jewish national movement recognized the equal rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence."[21] He ends the epilogue with: "The only uncertain factor today is the moral and political price Israeli society will have to pay to overcome the resistance that the hard core of the settlers is bound to show to any just and reasonable solution."[20]
In a 2014 interview, Sternhell claimed indicators of fascism exist in Israel.[22]
Controversies
Defamation trial
Sternhell was taken to court by Bertrand de Jouvenel, in 1983, after Sternhell in his work Neither Right nor Left (Ni droite, ni gauche) described him as having been a fascist in the 1930s. Jouvenel—on whose behalf Raymond Aron testified, the only intellectual on the anti-totalitarian left to defend his past[23][24]—sued him on nine counts of defamation. The judge, finding Sternhell liable on two counts, made him make amends with a fine that was more symbolic than punitive, and took care to allow Sternhell to retain the offending passages in future editions of his book, which Robert Wohl states was a 'major defeat' for the plaintiff.[25]
Settler movement
Sternhell was threatened on several occasions for his
Pipe bomb attack
On 25 September 2008, Sternhell was the victim of a pipe bomb attack at his home, and was injured in the leg and hospitalized.[29] Jerusalem police, who found fliers offering more than 1 million shekels (approximately $300,000) to anyone who kills members of Peace Now at the scene, suspected that he was attacked by right-wing settler extremists for his views. From his hospital bed, Sternhell said that "the very occurrence of the incident goes to illustrate the fragility of Israeli democracy, and the urgent need to defend it with determination and resolve."[30]
"On the personal level", he continued, "if the intent was to terrorize, it has to be very clear that I am not easily intimidated; but the perpetrators tried to hurt not only me, but each and every one of my family members who could have opened the door, and for that there is no absolution and no forgiveness."
In October 2009, Israel police arrested
Selected bibliography
- "Fascist Ideology", Fascism, A Reader's Guide, Analyses, Interpretations, Bibliography, edited by Walter Laqueur, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976. pp 315–376.
- Ni droite ni gauche. L'idéologie fasciste en France, Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1983; transl. Neither Right nor Left: Fascist Ideology in France, Princeton Univ. Press, 1995 (ISBN 0-691-00629-6)
- The Birth of Fascist Ideology, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, published by Princeton University Press, 1989, 1994 (ISBN 0-691-04486-4)
- ISBN 1-4008-0770-0) (abstract)
- Maurice Barrès et le nationalisme français ("Maurice Barrès and French nationalism") – Bruxelles : Editions Complexe, 1985; originally published by A. Colin, 1972.
- La droite révolutionnaire, 1885–1914. Les origines françaises du fascisme, Paris: Seuil, 1978 and Paris: Gallimard, « Folio Histoire », 1998.
- "Paul Déroulède and the origins of modern French nationalism", Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 6, no. 4, 1971, pp. 46–70.
- "The Roots of Popular Anti-Semitism in the Third Republic", in Frances Malino and Bernard Wasserstein, eds. The Jews in Modern France, Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1985.
- "The political culture of nationalism", in Robert Tombs, ed. Nationhood and Nationalism in France, from Boulanger to the Great War, 1889–1918, London: Harper Collins, 1991.
- Les anti-Lumières: Une tradition du xviie siècle à la guerre froide, Paris: Fayard, 2006 and Paris: Gallimard, « Folio Histoire » (édition revue et augmentée), 2010 ; transl.: The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition, Yale University Press, 2009 (ISBN 9780300135541)
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-14588-9p. 6.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ari Shavit (6 March 2008). "Amazing grace". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- New York Times21 June 2020.
- ^ a b Gad Lerner,'Da soldato a studioso del fasci-nazismo,' in Il Fatto Quotidiano, 21 June 2020.:'non aveva ancora 7 anni quando la madre e la sorella furono uccise dai nazisti'.
- ^ a b c Tamara Traubmann (8 February 2008). "Haaretz's Ze'ev Sternhell wins Israel Prize in political science". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-812-98464-4pp. 151–152.
- ISBN 978-0-253-03399-4p. 190.
- ^ Aderet, Ofer (21 June 2020). "Zeev Sternhell, leading voice of Israeli left and renowned political scientist, dies at 85". Haaretz. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
- ^ 'Zeev Sternhell, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,' The Times of Israel 11 December 2014
- ISBN 978-0-190-27850-2p. 166.
- ISBN 978-1-134-55297-9pp. 63–64
- ^ a b Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Naia Asheri, Naissance de l'idéologie fasciste', Fayard 1989 p. 46
- ^ a b Robert Wohl 1991 p. 83.
- S2CID 143789500.
- ISBN 978-0299148744.
- ISBN 978-0-691-00629-1p.305, n.12
- ^ Daniel Williams, NEWS ANALYSIS : Liberalism on Defensive in Once-Receptive Israel, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 1991
- ISBN 0-691-01694-1.
- ISBN 0-691-01694-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-691-01694-1.
- ISBN 0-691-01694-1.
- ^ "Signs of Fascism in Israel Reached New Peak During Gaza Op, Says Renowned Scholar". Ha'aretz. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-108-48444-2p.241.
- ISBN 978-1-412-83794-1p.33.
- ^ Robert Wohl, 'French Fascism, Both Right and Left: Reflections on the Sternhell Controversy,'. The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 63, No. 1, (1991), pp.91–98, p.91.
- ^ a b Shahar Ilan; Roni Singer-Heruti (25 September 2008). "Dichter: Prof attack takes us back to days of Rabin assassination". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ Zeev Sternhell (11 May 2001). מול ממשלה סהרורית [Against the Government Sleepwalker]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ a b Nadav Shragai (26 September 2008). "Red flag for the right". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
- ^ Rory McCarthy (26 September 2008). "Israeli peace advocate attacked". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
- ^ Philip Weiss, 'Wake [Up! (Leftwing Israeli Injured by Pipe-Bomb Warns of ‘Disintegration of Democracy,’)' Mondoweiss 25 September 2008
- Ynetnews. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ^ "News in Brief". Haaretz. 3 October 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
The Campaign for Saving the People and the Country claims that the bombing, generally believed to have been carried out by right-wing extremists in response to Sternhell's left-wing political activism, was a provocation aimed at turning public opinion against the settlers to make future evacuations easier. 'The timing and nature of the operation leave no room for doubt it was the work of a provocateur', it wrote. (Ofra Edelman)
- ^ "Israeli Police Arrest West Bank Settler over Palestinian Killings". The Irish Times. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2014.(subscription required)
- ^ Amos Harel; Chaim Levinson (2 November 2008). "U.S.-born Jewish terrorist suspected of series of attacks over past 12 years". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
External links
- Zeev Sternhell (12 May 2005). "'The Anatomy of Fascism': Zeev Sternhell, reply by Adrian Lyttelton". The New York Review of Books. - Sternell's response to a book review of The Anatomy of Fascism
- Nicolas Zomersztajn (2000). "Entretien avec Zeev Sternhell: Le phénomène fasciste" [Interview with Zeev Sternhell: The fascist phenomenon]. Regards (in French). Brussels. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019.
- "Sternhell.HTML". Archived from the original on 3 August 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Zeev Sternhell (May 1998). "Zionism's secular revolution". Le Monde diplomatique (English edition).
- "Ze'ev Sternhell". Palestine: Information with Provenance (PIWP database). Select material from Zeev Sternhell – English.
- "New History, Old Ideas" by Edward Said on Sternhell, in Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21–27 May 1998 Issue No. 378[dead link]
- Avi Shlaim (1 December 2003). "The War of the Israeli Historians".
- "Zeev Sternhell". Denis Touret. Short extracts.
- "The war against the Enlightenment". European Journal of Political Theory. 10 (2): 277–286. April 2011. S2CID 144174559.(subscription required) Review of Sternhell's book The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale, 2010).
- Martin Mauthner (2016). Otto Abetz and His Paris Acolytes - French Writers Who Flirted with Fascism, 1930–1945. UK: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-784-1