Einstein on Israel and Zionism focuses on correcting a widely accepted story - that Einstein was a major supporter, a "champion" of the state of Israel - a story told and retold primarily by the mainstream media. While Einstein was a secular Jew, had mixed feelings about Zionism, and supported the goal of a Jewish "homeland" within Palestine, he never wavered from arguing forcefully for equal rights and equal power for the Arabs -- whom he called "kinfolk" of the Jews. His nationalism had no room for any kind of aggressiveness or chauvinism. For him, the domination of Jew over Arab in Palestine, or the perpetuation of a state of mutual hostility between the two peoples would mean the failure of Zionism.
Einstein on Israel and Zionism focuses on correcting a widely accepted story - that Einstein was a major supporter, a "champion" of the state of Israel - a story told and retold primarily by the mainstream media.
While Einstein was a secular Jew, had mixed feelings about Zionism, and supported the goal of a Jewish "homeland" within Palestine, he never wavered from arguing forcefully for equal rights and equal power for the Arabs -- whom he called "kinfolk" of the Jews. His nationalism had no room for any kind of aggressiveness or chauvinism. For him, the domination of Jew over Arab in Palestine, or the perpetuation of a state of mutual hostility between the two peoples would mean the failure of Zionism.
