What is the difference between Judaism and Zionism? The impact of religion on political decision-making in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Until the present day, wide-spread confusion regarding the meaning of the terms Judaism and Zionism persists both inside and outside Israel. The popular opinion is that the terms are synonyms. But this implies the false assumption that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism.

As Ruth Esther Schwarz shows the Israeli right-wing regime uses this dangerous shortcut in order to justify its ongoing colonization of Palestine. Based on the work of Israel¿s New Historians, Schwarz¿s book aims at deconstructing the mainstream mindset concerning Judaism and Zionism.

Therefore, she analyses the nature of the principal ideological streams and their complex interconnections before and after 1948. She focusses on orthodox Judaism, religious Zionism, Jewish radical messianism, Jewish fundamentalism, the ideological change of traditional Zionism and, last but not least, the role of Christian Zionism in the United States.

Keywords:

- Judaism;

- Zionism;

- Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

- religious Zionism;

- nationalism;

- fundamentalism