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Podcast: New Books in American Politics
Episode: Eric Alterman, "We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight Over Israel" (Basic Book, 2022)
Description: Fights about the fate of the state of Israel, and the Zionist movement that gave birth to it, have long been a staple of both Jewish and American political culture. In We Are Not One: A History of Americaâs Fight Over Israel (Basic Books, 2022), Eric Alterman traces this debate from its nineteenth-century origins. Following Israelâs 1948â1949 War of Independence (called the ânakbaâ or âcatastropheâ by Palestinians), few Americans, including few Jews, paid much attention to Israel or the challenges it faced. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, however, almost overnight support for Israel became the primary component of American Jewsâ collective identity...