Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society
Author: Michel Warschawski
Translator: Peter Drucker
Publisher: CornerStone Publications, Kharagpur, India
Pages: 124
Price: Rs 80
Michel Warschawski’s Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society, translated by Peter Drucker, is a compact yet ferociously concentrated critique of the moral and political trajectory of Israel, written from the vantage point of an Israeli Jew who has turned against Zionism while remaining deeply engaged with Jewish ethical traditions. The book is short in length but immense in analytical weight, offering a searing account of how Israeli society has transformed itself from a state that once imagined itself as a liberal, democratic haven for Jews into a militarized, increasingly authoritarian regime that sustains itself through the systematic repression of Palestinians and the internal disciplining of its own dissenters. Warschawski writes as an insider who has watched the erosion of any genuinely democratic or humanist impulse within Israeli society and who sees the country not as a model democracy but as a settler‑colonial regime hurtling toward self‑destruction. His central claim is that Israel’s foundational project—building a Jewish state in Palestine—has produced a society that is increasingly closed, paranoid, and violent, and that this trajectory cannot be reversed without a radical break from the Zionist paradigm itself.
The title Toward an Open Tomb is deliberately apocalyptic: it evokes the image of a grave that has been pried open, suggesting that the Israeli project is already entombed in its own contradictions, yet still moving forward, as if driven by a death‑instinct rather than a life‑affirming vision. Warschawski argues that the Oslo process, which many outside observers once treated as a hopeful chapter, actually exposed the hollowness of Israel’s professed commitment to peace; the breakdown of Oslo and the eruption of the second Intifada did not come out of nowhere but were the logical culmination of decades of occupation, settlement expansion, and refusal to recognize Palestinian national rights. He describes how Israeli society has gradually normalized practices that would have been unthinkable in earlier decades: the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes, the use of human shields, the targeting of ambulances and hospitals, and the routine humiliation of civilians at checkpoints and roadblocks. These are not presented as isolated atrocities but as structural features of a regime that depends on domination and terror to maintain its control.
One of the book’s strengths is its refusal to treat Israel as an abstract political entity; instead, Warschawski situates the state within the texture of everyday Israeli life, showing how militarism, nationalism, and racism seep into family relations, education, media, and even religious discourse. He traces the transformation of the Israeli Left, once associated with the Labor‑Zionist establishment, into a force that now oscillates between liberal‑humanist rhetoric and complicity with occupation, often rationalizing violence in the name of security or “realism.” The figure of the “left‑wing colonizer” appears repeatedly in his analysis: the Israeli who claims to oppose the settlements and the occupation while still accepting the basic premise of a Jewish state that privileges Jews over non‑Jews and that cannot exist without control over Palestinian land and bodies. For Warschawski, this figure embodies a deep existential schizophrenia, constantly forced to reconcile a professed commitment to democracy and human rights with the reality of a regime built on dispossession and exclusion.
The book also offers a sharp critique of Israeli Jewish society’s treatment of Mizrahi Jews—those of Middle Eastern and North African origin—who were often recruited as foot soldiers of the Zionist project and then relegated to the margins of the Ashkenazi‑dominated elite. Warschawski shows how the state used Mizrahi immigration both to bolster its demographic weight and to create a buffer population between the Ashkenazi core and the Palestinian “other,” while simultaneously subjecting Mizrahi communities to economic neglect and cultural denigration. This internal hierarchy, he argues, mirrors and reinforces the broader colonial structure: just as Palestinians are cast as the permanent outsider, so too are Mizrahim positioned as second‑class citizens within the Jewish polity, their difference marked by accent, religion, and class. By linking internal Israeli social divisions to the external regime of occupation, Warschawski underlines the point that Zionism is not only a political project vis‑à‑vis the Palestinians but also a social order that reproduces inequality and domination among Jews themselves.
A particularly striking section of the book is its analysis of the “new face of racism,” in which Warschawski charts the shift from older forms of overt discrimination to more coded, ostensibly liberal modes of exclusion. He notes how Israeli discourse increasingly frames Palestinians not as political subjects with legitimate grievances but as a demographic threat, a security menace, or a cultural pathology that must be contained. This racialized imagination, he argues, is not confined to the far Right; it permeates mainstream politics, media, and even much of the so‑called peace camp, which often speaks of Palestinians in terms of “management” and “containment” rather than justice or equality. The result is a society in which violence against Palestinians is no longer experienced as shocking but as a normal, even necessary, part of maintaining order. Warschawski’s description of this moral numbing is one of the book’s most disturbing contributions, because it suggests that the real crisis is not merely political or military but ethical: a collective loss of the capacity to recognize the humanity of the Other.
At the same time, Warschawski refuses to reduce Israeli society to a monolithic bloc of oppressors. He pays careful attention to the small but persistent currents of resistance within Israel—anti‑Zionist Jews, radical leftists, human‑rights activists, and ordinary citizens who refuse to accept the official narrative of security and victimhood. These forces, he insists, are crucial because they demonstrate that the logic of domination is not inevitable, that there are alternative ways of being Jewish and Israeli that do not require the subjugation of Palestinians. His own trajectory—from a religiously observant youth to a member of the Matzpen group, a Trotskyist‑influenced anti‑Zionist movement—is emblematic of this alternative: he retains a deep attachment to certain strands of Jewish ethical and prophetic tradition while rejecting the nationalist appropriation of Judaism that underpins the Israeli state. For Warschawski, the possibility of a different future depends on amplifying these dissident voices and forging alliances across national and religious lines, especially between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, as well as with broader international movements for justice.
The translator, Peter Drucker, renders Warschawski’s French‑language text into clear, direct English that preserves both the polemical edge and the analytical precision of the original. The translation is particularly effective in handling the book’s dense political vocabulary—terms such as “settler‑colonial,”“binational,” and “anti‑Zionist”—without smoothing over their radical implications. Drucker also retains Warschawski’s frequent references to Jewish texts, history, and thinkers, which are essential for understanding how the author situates his critique within a specifically Jewish moral framework rather than as an external, secular denunciation. The result is a text that can be read both as a critique of Israeli policy and as an internal Jewish debate about the meaning of Jewish identity, memory, and responsibility in the wake of the Holocaust and the Nakba.
In terms of structure, Toward an Open Tomb moves from a diagnosis of the present crisis to a reflection on possible exits from it, even if those exits appear remote. Warschawski does not offer a utopian blueprint; instead, he sketches a series of conditions under which Israeli Jewish society might begin to dismantle its own foundations of domination: the recognition of Palestinian national rights, including the right of return; the dismantling of the settlement project; the transformation of Israel from an ethnocracy into a genuinely democratic state for all its inhabitants; and, perhaps most difficult of all, a collective reckoning with the crimes of the past. He calls for what he terms a “cultural revolution,” a shift in consciousness that would move Israeli Jews from a mindset of domination to one of solidarity and coexistence. This is not a call for easy reconciliation or sentimental co‑existence; it is a demand for a painful, honest confrontation with history and with the ongoing structures of violence.
The book’s tone is often bleak, even despairing, yet it is not without hope. Warschawski’s hope is not based on optimism about the Israeli political establishment or the international community, both of which he treats with deep scepticism, but on the persistence of resistance and the possibility of moral awakening. He insists that the crisis of Israeli society is not merely a Palestinian problem or an external affair; it is an internal crisis that threatens the very possibility of a liveable future for Jews in the region. In this sense, Toward an Open Tomb is not only a critique of Israel but also a warning to Israeli Jews: that the path they are on leads not to security or flourishing but to isolation, hatred, and, ultimately, self‑destruction.
For readers in South Asia, and particularly for those engaged with questions of nationalism, minority rights, and state violence, Warschawski’s analysis offers a powerful mirror. The mechanisms he describes—mythologized founding narratives, the sacralization of territory, the instrumentalization of religion for nationalist ends, the gradual normalization of repression—are not unique to Israel but resonate with other contexts where majoritarian states claim to speak for a chosen people while marginalizing or dispossessing others. At the same time, the book’s specificity is part of its strength: it does not offer a generic theory of oppression but a concrete, historically grounded account of how one particular settler‑colonial project has reshaped the society that sustains it.
Warschawski’s analysis of the second Intifada, which erupted in 2000, is particularly illuminating in light of the reviewer’s observation that Israel claims to be a liberal face before the world while purifying the image of its weapons. The author explains that the Israeli response to the Al‑Aqsa Intifada was not simply a reaction to Palestinian violence but a calculated effort to “teach the Palestinians a lesson for having dared to reject Ehud Barak’s ‘extremely generous offer’ at Camp David” (p‑12). This framing reveals the deep sense of entitlement that underpins Israeli policy: the assumption that any Palestinian refusal to accept Israeli terms is not a legitimate political stance but an act of ingratitude that must be punished. Warschawski shows how this logic of vengeance is embedded in the very structure of Israeli military and political decision‑making, producing a cycle of violence in which each act of Palestinian resistance is met with disproportionate retaliation, all justified under the banner of “self-defence.”
The massacres carried out in the name of a misused term “self-defence” is echoed in Warschawski’s account of Israeli military operations in the occupied territories. He documents how Israeli forces routinely target civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools, and hospitals, under the pretext of combating terrorism, while at the same time denying Palestinians the right to resist occupation. This double standard, he argues, is not an aberration but a central feature of Israeli strategy: the state reserves for itself the monopoly on legitimate violence while branding any Palestinian act of resistance as criminal or terrorist. The result is a situation in which Israeli society becomes increasingly desensitized to the suffering of Palestinians, viewing their deaths as an unfortunate but necessary byproduct of security.
Warschawski’s analysis of the features of Israeli society that are intended to break Palestinian resistance is particularly relevant to the reviewer’s observation that racism and violence have always been present in Israeli culture, even if liberal values and democratic pretensions once held them in check. He notes that “racism and violence have always been in Israeli culture, admittedly, but generally liberal values and democratic pretensions held them in check” (p‑36). The “preventive” strikes and reprisals that characterize Israeli military policy, he explains, serve a dual political objective: for the more moderate factions, they are a means of breaking the back of Palestinian resistance and forcing Palestinians to accept a solution that no current of Palestinian opinion has ever endorsed; for the extremists, they are a prelude to a more comprehensive ethnic cleansing operation. As he writes, “But beyond the logic of vengeance, the ‘preventive’ strikes and reprisals have a dual political objective. For the most moderate Israeli politicians—in particular the Labor party and part of the high command—they are a way to break the back of a resistance that has now lasted more than thirty‑five years and make the Palestinians accept a ‘solution’ that up to the present every current of Palestinian opinion has rejected. For the extremists, the violence in the occupied territories is meant to get the Palestinians to leave—what the Moledet Party calls ‘voluntary transfer’—or else lead to an escalation culminating in a large‑scale ethnic cleansing operation” (p‑37). This distinction is crucial because it shows that the violence is not merely a response to immediate security threats but a deliberate strategy aimed at reshaping the demographic and political landscape of Palestine.
The Oslo Accords have increased the settlement by 40 percent is corroborated by Warschawski’s account of the Oslo process. He notes that during the seven years of the “peace process,” the number of Jewish settlers in the occupied territories grew by more than 40 percent, even as Israel promised to withdraw from these areas. This contradiction, he argues, reveals the true nature of the Oslo Accords: they were not a genuine attempt to end the occupation but a mechanism for consolidating Israeli control over Palestinian land while creating the illusion of progress. As he puts it, “As a proof of this generosity, the Palestinians witnessed during the seven years of the ‘peace process’ a more than 40 percent increase in Jewish settlement on lands that Israel had promised to withdraw from in five years. But for the Israeli public the essence of the peace process was in place. We were on our land (including the 40 percent of the occupied territories, classified as C areas, that were gradually becoming ours) and they were on theirs—shut up in a Gaza Strip increasingly plunged into poverty and in West Bank autonomous areas surrounded by accelerating Jewish settlement” (p‑71). The result, as Warschawski describes it, is a situation in which Palestinians are confined to increasingly impoverished enclaves—Gaza and the West Bank autonomous areas—surrounded by expanding settlements and subject to constant surveillance and repression.
The Israeli excuse for the 2000 violence—that Israelis saw peace as a commitment by the Palestinian leadership and therefore interpreted the new wave of resistance as proof of their incapacity or lack of desire to make peace—is echoed in Warschawski’s analysis of Israeli public opinion. He shows how Israeli society has come to view the Oslo process as a one‑way street: Palestinians are expected to deliver security and stability in exchange for limited autonomy, while Israel retains the right to expand settlements and maintain control over key resources. When Palestinians resist, this is not seen as a legitimate response to ongoing occupation but as a betrayal of the peace process. As he writes, “Israelis had seen peace as a commitment by the Palestinian leadership, and as the sole means necessary to stop the violence; so naturally Israelis saw the new wave of acts of resistance as proof of the Palestinian leadership’s incapacity or even lack of desire to make peace” (p‑75). This framing, Warschawski argues, allows Israelis to absolve themselves of responsibility for the violence and to project all blame onto Palestinians.
The civil society in Israel has been subordinated to the state is reflected in Warschawski’s account of the erosion of democratic norms and institutions. He describes how the media, universities, and legal profession have all been brought into line with the dominant nationalist consensus, with dissenting voices marginalized or silenced. Lawyers who defend Palestinian clients are threatened, journalists who criticize the government are dismissed or censored, and academics who challenge the official narrative are subjected to harassment and intimidation. The result, Warschawski argues, is a society in which the state exercises a near‑total control over public discourse, leaving little room for alternative perspectives.
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by the right wing in 1995 and the characterization of Shimon Peres as right wing are also relevant to Warschawski’s analysis of the Israeli political spectrum. He notes that Rabin’s assassination was not an isolated act of violence but a symptom of the deepening polarization within Israeli society, in which the right wing increasingly views any concession to Palestinians as a betrayal of the Jewish people. Peres, he argues, is not a genuine peacemaker but a figure who combines rhetorical support for peace with a willingness to intensify repression in the occupied territories. As he writes, “Peres’s approach can be summed up in a manifestly absurd formula: make major concessions to the religious parties in order to win them over to the peace process, and simultaneously slow down negotiations while intensifying repression in the occupied territories and Lebanon in order to reach a political consensus with the right” (p‑82). This duality, Warschawski suggests, is characteristic of much of the Israeli left, which is more concerned with maintaining the status quo than with achieving genuine justice.
The decline of sensitivity to corruption and the erosion of the ability to accuse is echoed in Warschawski’s account of the moral decay of Israeli society. He argues that the normalization of violence and the erosion of democratic norms have led to a situation in which corruption and abuse of power are no longer seen as shocking but as routine. This moral numbing, he suggests, is a direct consequence of the occupation, which has created a culture of impunity in which those in power are shielded from accountability.
The four elements of the new ideology—nationalist militarism, avowed racism, messianism, and the willingness to question every democratic norm—is central to Warschawski’s analysis of the crisis of Israeli society. He argues that these elements combine to create a generalized paranoia in which Israelis view the entire world as an existential threat to Jewish survival. As he writes, “The new ideology combines four main elements: a nationalist militarism more or less associated with religious fundamentalism; avowed racism; a die‑hard spirit impregnated with messianism; and a willingness to question every democratic norm. Put together, these elements help shape a generalized paranoia, which leads Israelis to view the whole world as an existential threat to Jewish survival in the Middle East or anywhere else” (p‑93). This paranoia, he suggests, is not a rational response to real threats but a projection of the anxieties produced by the occupation itself.
Finally, after 9/11 Israel has carried out human rights violations with greater impunity is reflected in Warschawski’s account of the impact of the global “war on terror” on Israeli policy. He notes that the post‑9/11 climate has allowed Israel to frame its actions in the occupied territories as part of a broader struggle against terrorism, thereby legitimizing practices that would have been widely condemned in earlier decades. This framing, he argues, has enabled Israel to intensify its repression of Palestinians while maintaining the support of key international allies.
In conclusion, Toward an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society is a powerful and provocative critique of the moral and political trajectory of Israel, written by an Israeli Jew who refuses to abandon either his Jewish identity or his commitment to justice. It is not a balanced “two‑sided” account in the conventional sense; it is a polemic, a moral indictment, and a call to action. Yet precisely because it comes from within the society it criticizes, it carries a weight that external condemnations often lack. For anyone seeking to understand not only the politics of Israel/Palestine but also the broader dynamics of nationalism, militarism, and ethical responsibility in our time, Warschawski’s book remains an indispensable text.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
M.H.A.Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir.
First published in New Age Islam
