Friedman, Robert I. Zealots for Zion: Inside Israel's West Bank Settlement Movement. New York: Random House, 1992. 263 pages.

Robert Friedman, an award-winning writer on U.S. Jewish affairs and the radical right in Israel, is currently a staff writer at the Village Voice in New York. This book is mostly about events and personalities in Israel, but also includes substantial material about the U.S. Zionist lobby that supports the Israeli settlement movement. The connection between the two goes beyond financial support, as some of the settlers interviewed by Friedman are American ex-patriots, burnouts from the 1960s who went looking for the simple life of Good vs. Evil that eluded them in America when the counterculture collapsed.

These ex-patriot hippies were given citizenship, massive subsidies, and Uzi machine guns by the Israeli government, and joined with Zionist natives to build their middle-class tract homes in locations designed to frustrate Palestinian dreams of a homeland. It's a hard life in these settlements, where the major activity centers around raising large families in the Jewish tradition. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL) keep up the pressure. They spy on anyone who dares to believe that Zionism might be less than Holy, and spend huge sums to lobby Congress and denounce their enemies as "anti-Semitic."
ISBN 0-394-58053-2

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