Outside Europe there is almost no nationalism that today’s politically fashionable (and, in the universities, dominant) postcolonialists—and their allies of other forms of postmodernist persuasion—do not see as progressive, if not yet in accomplished fact then at least potentially, prospectively. The one great exception to this general rule, or inclination to see all the “new nationalisms” as progressive and humane, is, of course, Israel, and the case of modern Jewish nationalism, otherwise known as Zionism. Why this exception? The reasons are complex, but two main elements, usually working in combination, may be readily identified. The first involves the historical origins…