In an investigation into the history of Israel’s founders, The General’s Son, the author, Miko Peled, born in Jerusalem and a human rights activist, reveals the ugly truth of Zionism’s beginning and purpose. He tells us that Theodor Hertzl, the founder of Zionism, claimed that the only real Jews are secular and Zionist. According to Hertzl, Jews are a nation because, as he put it, “our enemies made us one without our consent; distress binds us together.” On the other side of the argument, as far back as the Ninth Century, Rabbi Sa’adiya Ga’on observed in his book,