square of tlie camp every 1 “^ minutes.rnThe true costs of maintaining Bondstcelrnarc not available —to all our inquiriesrnabout the price tag. Captain Berg’s responsernwas “a few million dollars.” Accordingrnto various estimates in the U.S.rnmedia, $’500 million has been spent onrnthe camp so far. Before departing, wernhad a snack at an enormous restaurantrnserving 25 kinds of meals and 10,000 por-rnHons a day. It was opened by Bill Clintonrnon November 23, 1999. There is alreadyrna supermarket and a Burger King. All ofrnthis for five ears? What is becoming thernbiggest American town in Emope wasrncertainly designed to last far longer.rnThe ghost of Sgt. James Leroy Bondsteelrnhaunts the campgrounds, and his faternshould serve as a warning to those whornthink that America’s mission in Kosovornhas been accomplished: By Balkan standards,rnthe war has not even begun.rnMarko Lopusina, a Belgrade-basedrnjournalist who has covered hitemational,rnBalkan, and Yugoslav politics for over 20rnyears, is the author of Wars, Lies, andrnVideotapes: The CIA and the NewsrnMedia .•gainst Yugoslavia.rnLetter FromrnInner Israelrnby Jacob NeusnerrnPost-Zionism and AmericarnContemporary debates on the nature ofrnAmerican nationalit)’—are we a peoplernpossessed of a shared tradition and culture,rnor arc we simplv a mosaic of ethnicrngroups that function in a common svstem?rn—find their coimterpart in contemporar)’rnIsrael. The legitimae’ of Israel asrn”the Jewish state” is called into questionrnnot bv Palestinians or Israeli Arabs but bvrnIsraeli Jews, most of tlicm cliildren of severalrngenerations of Zionists. These “post-rnZionists” seek to transform Israel into arnmere political contrixance rather than arn”Jewish state.”rnThe ver’ legifimacv of the Jewish staternhas been challenged bv Israeli intellectuals:rnphilosophers and lawyers, poets andrnnoelists, journalists and tele’ision personalities.rnThe belief that a sovereignrnJewish state is illegitimate enjoys wide acceptancernin Israel.rnThe implicafions of po.st-Zionism transcendrnthe particidarities of Jewish politics.rnAt stake — as in Germany, Russia,rnAmerica, Canada, and Australia —is thernnatme of the nation-state. Canadiansrnand Australians have decided to treatrntheir national cultures as negotiable; Russia,rnGermany, and America are strugglingrnwith the notion that a nation representsrnmore than an agreement amongrndiverse people to share common real estaternand a common market. Is it acceptablernnot to regard English as central tornAmerican life? Do Americans ha’e arncommon histor}’, a narrative that all of usrntell about ourselves and our countrv,rneven though not all of us have ancestorsrnwho participated in that stor)? These arernthe issues in America that parallel the Israelirndebate. And just as American historyrnis supposed to teach that the UnitedrnStates was always wrong, so Israeli historiansrnseek to dismiss the notion of the Jewsrnas a unitary and distinct people.rnYoram Hazony, in a remarkable newrnbook. The Jewish State: The Struggle forrnIsrael’s Soul, documents the ongoing attemptrnto dismantle the intellectual foundationsrnof Israel as a Jewish state. Hernnames names and outlines the histon’ ofrnthis anfi-Zionist worldview. He finds thernsources of today’s intellectual anti-Zionismrnin the universalism of German Jewsrnfrom the 19th centurvTorward. He tracesrnthe transfer of that ideologv to the .state ofrnIsrael through Martin Buber and GershomrnSeholem, among others, and singlesrnout the Hebrew University ofrnJerusalem as the center of post-Zionism.rnIt is not surprising that he could not getrnhis book published in Israel imfil it hadrncreated a sensation in the United States.rnThe book contrasts the Zionist widirnthe post-Zionist definition of Israeli education.rnJewish nationalist aims of thernschool system involved teaching “the valuesrnof Jewish crdture,” “love of tiie homeland,”rnand “loyalt) to the Jcwisli people.”rnNow, the goals are “to work to realizerndemocratic alues . . . to work to realizernhuman riglits and civil rights… to be involvedrnin the affairs of the public and ofrnsocietv’.” Hazony finds “disproportionalrnemphasis on purcl)^ universal values asrnopposed to Jewish ones.” The Ministn,’ ofrnEducation has just issued To he Citizensrnin Israel, which presents the idea of Israelrnas a Jewish state as merely one optionrnamong many: “Nation-states” are simplyrna matter of choice. Hazon’ cites .AsarnKasher, a professor of philosophy at TelrnAviv Uniersit’:rn”A Jewish state ” is a state in whosernsocial coloration tiicre is forrnd thernclear expression of. . . the Jewishrnidentities of its citizens. In a “Jewishrnand democratic” state this socialrncoloration is not created b’ forcernnor in the law but rather throughrnthe aggregation of file free choicesrnof the citizens.rnHazony argues that the intellectual as-rn.sault on Zionism, Americanism, and otherrndefinitions of the nation-state tiiat linkrnpeople to culture, language, tradition, andrnhiston finds its source in Rousseau, whornset in motion the principles of therngreat revolution that would sunderrnthe tics binding the peoples of Europernto their past. .. [H]e ad-rn’anced the claim that there existsrnonly one legitimate political constitution,rnuniversally applicable to allrncountries, which we may call a “social-rncontract state”: a politicalrnregime in which all individuals, regardlessrnof die differences of naturernand histor’ that divide them, renouncernthese differences, so thatrn”all become equal through convention”rnunder a state tiiat obliges allrnequally on behali of all.rnNo wonder, then, Oiat the same debatesrnrage throughout tiie world on thernmeaiting of the nation-state: for instance,rnin Germany, in die form of the disputernoer citizenship; and in the UnitedrnStates, over immigration policy and thernpositive reading of the American experiencernin histor)-.rn.American Jews have taken two positions.rnIn America, we have tended to favorrna social-contract state, leaving amplernspace for minorities to maintain their di.stinetrnidentities: Canada is the model. InrnIsrael, American Jews favor the Zionistrnpolicy, affirming die Jewish people as anrnempowered political entih’ and tiie staternof Israel as the instrument of that empowerment.rnWhile die language may shift,rnthe issue endures, and Hie debate willrncontinue.rnfacoh Neusner is Research Professor ofrnReligion and ‘llieology at Bard College,rnAnnandale-onTIudson, New York.rnNOVEMBER 2000/39rnrnrn