Post-Zionism, Post-Modernism, and Globalization: A Zionist Critique of Israel as "Start-Up Nation" in the Writings of Eliezer Schweid

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the later work of Eliezer Schweid on the questions of Zionism, post-Zionism, globalization, and postmodernity. It argues that Schweid viewed postmodernity as emerging in the post-World War II era where communism and socialism largely collapsed, leaving free-market capitalism as the dominant force in world economies and, by extension, as the template for moral living. This produced, among other things, neoliberalism and globalization that threatened the very core of Zionism as an ideology of collective Jewish self-determination built on a democratic socialist ethos. On Schweid's reading, the neoliberal and globalist (postmodern) developments produce a serious challenge to Zionism. This includes, I argue, the idea of Israel as "Start-Up Nation," which is often championed as the success of contemporary Zionism.