Conversations with History - Rich Cohen

The Diaspora and Israel

Rich Cohen
Contributing editor, Vanity Fair And Rolling Stone


Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Rich Cohen, contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, for a discussion of his new book Israel is Real. Cohen reflects on writing, story telling, and finding his voice as a writer. The conversation then focuses on the changing conception of a homeland for Jews in the Diaspora--the theme of his new book. Cohen describes Jewish responses to defeat by the Romans and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. He explains how Jews turned the loss of the real Zion to a focus on an ideal Zion that would be realized in an unknown future. He then traces the rise of the Zionist movement and the ways in which the establishment of the State of Israel brought to the surface tensions between Jews for whom Zion was a virtual vision and Jews in Israel for whom Zion had become a real state with a border, an army and a concern for security and land. He concludes with an analysis of the implications of his book for the current debate with regard to U.S. policy toward Israel.

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/iis/Kreisler.html
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/
http://conversationswithhistory.typepad.com/conversations_with_histor/
http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&...

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[veritasetmens]

@quantumsufi Interesting.... and where did the "Palestinians" get it from?

[garfreed]

@quantumsufi The idea that Jews are thieves is a stereotype that goes back centuries before the establishment of the state of Israel. Google the phrase "Jews are thieves." You'll get 12,800 hits.

[feereel]

arabs r technically inferior

[quantumsufi]

Lut us never ever forget that behind all the smoke and games and I can prove this and you cant prove that....... That land of Israel was stolen from the palestinian people. Any jew who is happy to call Israel home is accepting stolen goods.oww and the first zionist Rich was the devil himself.

[bewaver]

@CoolHandLuke24 What you said makes a lot of sense my fiend.

[beebobox]

religion sucks.

[CoolHandLuke24]

Does any Jew remember who came to their rescue 60 years ago? Let me refresh...THE GREATEST GENERATION. JEWS SHOULD SHOW RESPECT TOWARD THEIR COMMON MAN AND QUIT BEING ELITISTS. LEAVING ISRAEL WOULD SHOW THE WORLD THEY WOULD RATHER LIVE IN PEACE THAN BRING THE WHOLE WORLD INTO ANOTHER SHOWDOWN. Do the right thing or history will repeat itself, mark my word. Anyone who thinks I'm taking this to seriously needs to brush up on their history.

[patnais102]

His part about the spiritual Jerusalem is quit interesting.The parallel between Socrate's republic is amazing, Socrate basically said a republic can not exist somewhere else than in our mind, the city he describe must be our mind.Zionism is an aberration, it is an historical and spiritual regression.

[Texoki]

Very interesting.

Thank you