'The Jewish March of Folly': Vindicating Zionism while warning the Jewish People - review

Amotz Asa-El's "The Jewish March of Folly" posits that Jewish history is characterized by a recurring pattern of political self-destruction, driven by internal divisions and flawed leadership. The book, a bestseller in Hebrew and now available in English, argues against explanations that solely blame external forces or attribute calamities to divine will. Instead, Asa-El focuses on the "choices made by Jewish political leaders themselves" throughout history.

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Maybe Jews just aren’t good at politics.

The book draws parallels with Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly," applying the concept of disastrous decisions made despite viable alternatives to millennia of Jewish history. Asa-El identifies "a dozen forgotten civil wars" fought across approximately 12 centuries, from the biblical period to the Roman era. He contends that these internal conflicts, often overlooked when viewed individually, form a crucial narrative of "Jewish political suicide" that has shaped the people's destiny.

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Throughout decades of reporting on Israeli politics, he kept encountering “deaf ears, resolute voices, and narrow minds that collectively convinced me that my forebears’ anarchism, tribalism, factionalism, and fatalism are alive and well,” and still “threaten my people’s future.”

Asa-El's motivation stems from decades of reporting on Israeli politics, observing what he describes as "deaf ears, resolute voices, and narrow minds" that perpetuate historical tendencies towards "anarchism, tribalism, factionalism, and fatalism." He sees contemporary parallels in Israel's current political climate, particularly the toxic debates and governance issues that intensify anxieties around elections.

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Rather than emphasizing what others have done to us, he mourns what we’ve done to ourselves.

The review suggests that while the book's title and thesis are stark, its updated version arrives at a time when contemporary Israeli society is deeply divided. The "dozen forgotten civil wars" serve as a historical foundation for Asa-El's argument that understanding these past mistakes is crucial for navigating present challenges and ensuring the Jewish people's future. The book's grandeur lies in its vast historical canvas and conceptual approach, moving beyond chronological periodization to articulate a powerful, albeit somber, thesis.

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The book begins with a rich rereading of the Bible you didn’t get in school. Asa-El highlights the “dozen forgotten civil wars that the Jewish people’s ancestors fought across some 12 centuries.” Their “overarching causes, their fateful results, and those results’ disastrous effect on the Jewish people’s future, to this day, are what this book is about.”