| Summary/Abstract |
The main challenge for all sorts of progressivism – socialism included – has been to find the right balance between individual rights, group rights and humanity, and from the nineteenth century onwards, nationalism became the preferred road to attain this balance. Labour Zionism, as part and parcel of progressive Zionism, strove from its early days to achieve these goals, enjoying support from West European socialists holding the same progressive convictions. The main obstacle confronted by early Zionist socialists and their non-Jewish partners in their quest for a better world was not the alleged contradictions between universalism, nationalism and individualism, but the enduring tendency to reject the Jewish right for national self-determination. This undying predisposition, prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century among political elites (Arab and otherwise), is still alive in academic circles.
|