Introduction

Abstract

Forty years after its creation the state of Israel is still not formally recognised by the majority of its Arab neighbours. At the simplest level of analysis this denial of Israel’s right to a sovereign, independent form of political existence in what was formerly the British mandate territory of Palestine, might appear to lie at the root of anti-Zionist ideology. The enemies of Zionism, whether they be Palestinian nationalists, Islamic fundamentalists, Pan-Arab radicals, Soviet, East European or Chinese Communists, Trotskyists, Third World ideologues, neo-Marxists or Western liberals, all contest its legitimacy as a movement of national liberation and in varying degrees challenge the right of the Jewish state to exist in its present form.