Judenstaat, an alternate history of Israel

[Independent voter]

I consider myself a friend of Israel, it's a democracy with a thriving economy. If I could wave a wand and make Jews and Palestinians like each other and form one country I would.

This is an alternate history. What if part of Germany were given to the Jews after WWII to form Israel? Israel becomes a buffer state between NATO and the Soviets?

It certainly would've reduced a lot of Muslim rage around the world.






http://boingboing.net/2016/06/21/jud...ate-histo.html

Theodor Herzl's seminal 1896 essay Der Judenstaat called for the creation of Jewish state as an answer to the ancient evil of antisemitism; its legacy, Zionism, underpinned the creation of Israel; in Judenstaat, Simone Zelitch's beautifully told, thoughtful and disturbing alternate history, the Jewish state is created in Saxony, not Palestine, and takes the place of East Germany.
The Judenstaat, whose flag, the Star and Stripes, is a set of concentration camp uniform strips overlaid with a six-pointed yellow star, becomes a non-aligned power, sitting uneasily (but usefully) between the Soviets and the Americans, but dominated by Moscow, with a kind of austerity that's informed by a sense of noble mission and a siege mentality that's heightened by the memory of the Saxon terrorist snipers who targeted Jews on the street.

Zelitch's story opens on the eve of Glasnost, with the Kremlin liberalizing its policies and markets and the Cold War starting to thaw. Judit Klemmer, a historian and film director, labors over a retrospective movie telling the story of the formation of Judenstaat, working in a national museum that is preparing an exhibit for a national celebration of the country's fiftieth anniversary. As she works at her table, she is haunted by the ghost of her husband, an orphaned Saxon musical conductor who was assassinated by a terrorist sniper in the street as retribution for his collaboration with Judenstaat and his marriage to her, a Jew.

Klemmer is a broken person, her only meaningful interaction with the handsome young Stasi officer who visits her monthly to ask her to accept more state assistance and protection. She refuses him, and goes back to the dorm-room in the old brutalist Soviet block she insists on living in, dutifully visiting her mother, wearing her dead husband's huge duffel coat every day, hiding in it.

But there is a secret haunting Klemmer: a mysterious visitor has left her with a can of archival film that hints that the origin story of Judenstaat isn't all that it appears to be, hints that the old sectarian rifts that sent one of the country's founders into exile were not all they seemed, hints that the story of her husband's assassination didn't happen the way she was led to believe.

Klemmer is an unwavering straight-arrow historian, refusing to accept any relativism or nuance in her history: things are true or they are not. Her job, as an historian, is to find the truth, even if it threatens to shatter her and her nation.

As Klemmer ventures into the neighborhoods given over to ultra-orthodox Jews -- "black hats" -- to unravel the mystery, her confusion only deepens, as she finds that no one is quite whom she believed them to be.

Judenstaat uses the technique of alternate history to offer biting commentary on modern Israel, on the post-Cold War era in which we live, on religion and nationhood. Like Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union (in which the Jewish state is created in Alaska) and Jo Walton's Farthing (in which the British make uneasy peace with a Europe dominated by an ascendant Third Reich), Zelitch's story asks more questions than it answers, but asks them from a safe fictional remove that throws a light onto issues that are otherwise obscured by the heat of the day's politics.

[GennGreymane]

Well it would suck at least until the 80s because being a buffer state sucks! Also the arab states would still have issues since most of it is internal.

[Independent voter]

Well it would suck at least until the 80s because being a buffer state sucks! Also the arab states would still have issues since most of it is internal.

Be good for trade though.

[GennGreymane]

Be good for trade though.

Certainly good for other deals too. Although does this factor in the east/west German divide? Wouldnt having a new buffer state impact that?

[Independent voter]

Certainly good for other deals too. Although does this factor in the east/west German divide? Wouldnt having a new buffer state impact that?

Yeah, you'd have to count on the Germans not wanting it back. But then again, today's Israel is a tiny country so it wouldn't take up much of Germany.

[lonely zergling]

We germans already lost enough parts of our land after the war.

[Independent voter]

We germans already lost enough parts of our land after the war.

Germany is all back together today right? What parts are missing?

[Ravenblade]

Yeah, you'd have to count on the Germans not wanting it back. But then again, today's Israel is a tiny country so it wouldn't take up much of Germany.

It might have worked in the early days but given Saxony's location and role in early post-war days it would have hardly been a "buffer state". Given the size of the initial population vs. the size of the state of Israel it's more likely they wouldn't have got more than a patch of land, much tinier than Israel for sure whose boundaries are defined in the old scriptures if you will.

- - - Updated - - -

Germany is all back together today right? What parts are missing?

Silesia, Pomerania, all of Eastern Prussia to begin with.

My grandmother was a displaced from Eastern Pomerania, she has never forgotten how they had to leave. First the loss and then the stigma of being "enriching refugees". It pretty much was the subject of all her talks up until high age.

[Kontinuum]

What about Madagascar?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan

[Macaquerie]

I don't know if that would have worked. The whole foundational principle behind Zionism is that Jews would never be safe from persecution as long as they stayed in Europe. Sure, antisemitism isn't as big of a problem in Europe nowadays, but then again you could argue that's only because most Jews left the continent decades ago so the antisemites don't have many targets to go after.

[ranzino]

Just no. Jews would have disliked the idea from the start and so far away from Jerusalem too ? Besides Germany would have objected.

[Independent voter]

Just no. Jews would have disliked the idea from the start and so far away from Jerusalem too ? Besides Germany would have objected.

Jerusalem is what? A four hour flight away? Same timezone so there's no jet lag? You could make it a weekend trip.

[ranzino]

Jerusalem is what? A four hour flight away? Same timezone so there's no jet lag? You could make it a weekend trip.

Jews are not satisfied with weekend trips to their holy site, you know ?

[Grimbold21]

Placing the victims of the Holocaust right next to the country that was the perpetrator of it? You'd want an european version of the Israel/Palestine mess?

[oxymoronic]

We germans already lost enough parts of our land after the war.

umm considering you should have none left i think you won on that.

[Combatbutler]

Germany is all back together today right? What parts are missing?

Germany lost about 50% of its territory because of the world wars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German..._1871-1918.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German...hland_topo.jpg

umm considering you should have none left i think you won on that.

And surpressing millions of germans after the war would have worked out so well? Look at the poles, dissolving a nation with people having strong ties to that nationality is just asking for trouble. You'd have no peace, so give those that consider themselves a different nationality their little corners.

[ranzino]

Not because i'm german myself, but the idea in the opening post is more than far away from any possible reality.

[Independent voter]

Not because i'm german myself, but the idea in the opening post is more than far away from any possible reality.

It could've been done in 1946. There was a huge amount of guilt.

[Kuntantee]

Giving "Germany" to Jews after WWII. Do you thrive for another holocaust or what? The easiest way to enrage people is to attack their homeland.

[Independent voter]

Giving "Germany" to Jews after WWII. Do you thrive for another holocaust or what? The easiest way to enrage people is to attack their homeland.

I don't believe it's "all" of Germany. Israel is a pretty small country after all.