When he was aged fourteen, Mike Marqusee was accused by his father of being a "self-hating Jew". The year was 1967, and young Mike, raised in a liberal New York household, reasoned that if America was wrong in Vietnam then Israel "was wrong in taking over all that Arab land"; Zionism, he thought, seemed kind of racist. His dad exploded. Four decades on and hardened in his beliefs, Marqusee is still trying to grapple with what it means to embody that apparent contradiction: an anti-Zionist Jew.

His book takes its title from the Babylonian Rabbi Hillel's ethical aphorism: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?". One of Marqusee's main protests is against the clannish, knee-jerk tendency towards Zionism in those, he implies, who should know better: members of a left-wing international Jewry with a blind spot when it comes to a movement grounded in colonialism, apartheid, atavistic land claims and social eugenics. "Zionism", he argues, "involves, undeniably, a denial to others of democratic and equal rights."

Woven in with the story of Marqusee's own intellectual awakening is the tale of his grandfather EVM, who stands for him as a paradigm of this failure of the secular Jewish Left. EVM was an East Coast lawyer, activist and columnist during the 1930s, 40s and 50s, a defender of civil rights who ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket in 1946, securing 20 per cent of the vote. But when it came to Israel, Marqusee finds, EVM succumbed to militancy, bigotry and false analogy: "He defined the war in Palestine as a continuation of the struggle against fascism" - but EVM was also drawn to the right-wing Zionist militarist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who shared much in his politics with Mussolini. By 1948, the formerly pacifistic EVM had become bloodthirsty in his rhetoric, referring to "Arab marauders" and "robbers", and gleefully anticipating population "redistribution".

EVM was doubtless a fascinating and contradictory character, but If I Am Not For Myself suffers from the intensity of its focus on his life. Using him as an exemplar of Jewish myopia was a nice idea, but Marqusee's narrative becomes bogged down in recounting the vicissitudes of EVM's political career and personal life. One can sense too much the enthusiastic grandson, leafing through an inherited briefcase of clippings, trying to create a story. Marqusee is more compelling when remembering his own experiences - the Jew-baiting at a 1960s summer camp ("we discovered that there was a world out there where Jews were not the norm"); a defining encounter with a chauvinistic Israeli soldier ("You have to understand these [Arabs] are dirty people. They go to the toilet in the street").

Marqusee produces an erudite and well-argued potted historical overview to support his anti-Zionistic stance. A chapter looks at the Book of Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, replete with "icons of intolerance", though using Old Testament teaching as a grist to his mill could be considered a bit of a cheap trick. A polemical chapter on 1948 recounts the horrors of the Nakba. We are reminded that the 32-per-cent Jewish population of 1947 Palestine was given 55 per cent of the land by a United Nations plan; that after hostilities had ceased in 1949 the Jewish state had acquired 78 per cent; that around 800,000 Arabs were made refugees ("No surrender" was the cry of EVM). An excellent section on the Jewish Diaspora criticizes "Zionism's disastrously reductive impact on Jewish identity". In 1948, there were 800,000 Jews in Arab countries, and, with the exception of Iraq, most were treated well, not least in Morocco, where Jews remained under the protection of the Sultan. But the Zionist drive for aliyah (immigration to Israel), aided by various Mossad terror tactics and growing Arab resentment in the wake of the Nakba, encouraged the diverse pan-Arab Jewish population to uproot. This, Marqusee shows, has irreparably damaged the understanding between two peoples with so much to share historically, culturally and religiously.

Marqusee can occasionally sound like an apologist for anti-Jewish feeling. Conspiracy theories about Mossad involvement in 9/11 do more than "smack of" anti-Semitism. He can also sound shrill in his protestations, writing as though he is alone, chipping away at "the presumed monolith of Jewish backing for Israel". It would have been nice to hear mention of groups such as Jews Against the Occupation or Jews for Justice for Palestinians, of which Marqusee himself is a signatory.

Marqusee is clear on the meaning of anti-Zionism: "Anti-Zionists, of course, do reject the idea that there should be a Jewish state in Palestine". But what of supporters of a two-state solution who abhor current (and past) Israeli practices? Are they by definition pro-Zionist? Moreover, he fails to suggest solutions. It is one thing to dismiss a two-state solution, but his one-state utopia requires some explanation. Nevertheless, he should be lauded for this provocative and timely book, which throws up a host of important questions. Why should a Jew who takes umbrage at Israel be labelled a self-hater? If "holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel" is one part of the working definition of anti-Semitism for the EUMC (European Union Monitoring Committee on Racism and Xenophobia), then what does this say about claims of "the centrality of Israel in Jewish life" propounded by Britain's United Synagogue? Mike Marqusee is frank in his answers, and forthright in his summation: "Jews are in denial about Israel, Zionism, the Nakba, the occupation, the wall".

Mike Marqusee
IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF.
Journey of an anti-Zionist Jew.
307pp. Verso. £16.99.
978 1 84467 214 1

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