This book, "Judaism or Zionism: What Difference for the Middle East?" was a joint production of two groups, AJAZ [ American Jewish Alternative to Zionism] led by Rabbi Elmer Berger, 1968-1995, and EAFORD [International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination], headquartered in London.
This reviewer will focus on two facts related to the role of Rabbi Elmer Berger. The first fact is obvious, Rabbi Berger's own essay, "The inauthenticity of 'Jewish People' Zionism" is perhaps his definitive statement separating the religion, Judaism, a universal and moral faith, from political Zionism, which is the cause of a good deal, but not all of the present tragedy in the Middle East.. Rabbi Berger's analysis is aided by those of other American and Israeli Jewish scholars such as Klaus Herrmann, Norton Mezvinsky, and Amos Oz.
The fact that is not obvious and is not mentioned in the book, is that the financial support of the Conference that led to this book's eventual publication, and the financial support of this publication appeared to be in part due to a forme senior official of the CIA, Kermit Roosevelt. After Kermit Roosevelt left the CIA -out of frustration in 1958, he went to work for the U.S. Oil Companies with an interest in the Middle East.
In a very real sense. this 1986 book was an attempt to present the "B Team" policy alternative to the people and policy makers of the U.S. that posited an end to the slavish acceptance of a Zionist perspective through which the U.S. would view the Middle East.
The key questioned asked in the book is- does Israel need to be a "Jewish State," as defined by the present leaders of Isreal, or would it be better off - free of its supposed role as a homeland for a theoretical Jewish people.
Sooner or later, the policy recommendations of this "B team" led by Rabbi Elemer Berger should and will become the "A team," U.S. policy.