Keen On

The debate about the supposed “colonial” foundations of Israel goes on and on. But I wonder whether Jehuda Reinharz’s definitive new biography of Chaim Weizmann might help clarify the unintentional colonial foundations of the Zionist project. Reinharz explains that Weizmann made his name as a brilliant chemist in the UK, where he leveraged his equally glittering social networking skills into the publication of the 1917 Balfour Declaration. As Reinharz told me, it was Weizmann’s ability to appear like a British aristocrat that enabled him to successfully schmooze imperial Brits like Lloyd-George, Balfour, Astor and Mark Sykes (of Sykes-Picot fame). So even if his Zionist dream wasn’t formally designed as a colonial project, the fact that Chaim Weizmann had to dress up like British colonialist to get his way might have unintentionally resulted in Israel becoming a spooky replica of a European colony. To remix Marx, great men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please.Jehuda Reinharz was