Zionism is driven by the search for a homeland for the stateless and persecuted Jewish people. Yet it has infamously clashed with the rights of the Arabs in Palestine and become so controversial that deep understanding and reasoned public debate is increasingly difficult.

Prominent British writer Jacqueline Rose uses her political and analytical skills to take an unprecedented look at Zionism-one of the most powerful ideologies of modern times. Rose enters the inner world of the movement and asks a new set of questions. How did Zionism take shape as an identity? And why does it seem so immutable?

Rose argues that Zionism colours Israel's most profound self-image. In the most provocative part of her book, Rose proposes that the link between the Holocaust and the founding of the Jewish state-so often used to justify Israel's policies-needs to be rethought.