Caminos opuestos : Contra el sionismo

In Opposite Paths, Judith Butler takes up Edward Said’s belated suggestion that, through an analysis of Palestinian dispossession in relation to the traditions of the Jewish diaspora, it is possible to forge a new value system that works for a single state. Drawing on Jewish philosophical frameworks and an analysis of key currents of thought, derived in part from Jewish sources but always in relation to the non-Jewish, Butler articulates a critique of political Zionism and its practices of state-sponsored nationalism and racism, as well as illegitimate state violence. She draws on thinkers such as Edward Said, Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi, Martin Buber, Walter Benjamin, and Mahmoud Darwish to articulate a new political ethic that redefines binationalism and exposes the limitations of a communitarian framework that transcends Zionism’s colonial legacy. Butler examines the rights of the dispossessed, the need for pluralistic coexistence, and the dangers of arbitrary state violence, showing how these can be deployed as a critique of Zionism, even when that is not their explicit aim. She argues that questioning Israel's claim to represent the Jewish people is as important as demonstrating that a strictly Jewish framework is not an adequate basis for a definitive critique of Zionism, and she promotes a position in which coexistence is governed not by cultural uniformity, but by given social plurality. Jewish ethics must transcend its Jewish exclusivity to realize the ethical and political ideals of coexistence in a radical democracy.