One of the state's key features is its ability to oblige its citizens to risk their lives on its behalf by being sent into war. However, what is it about the state (or its equivalent) that makes this obligation justifiable? Justifying the Obligation to Die is the first monograph to explore systematically how this obligation has been justified. Using key texts from political philosophy and just war theory, it provides a critical survey of how this obligation has been justified and, using illustrations from Zionist thought and practice, demonstrates how the various arguments for the obligation have functioned. The obligation to risk one's life for the state is often presumed by theorists and practitioners who take the state for granted, but for the Zionists, a people without a state but in search of one and who have little history of state-based political thought, it became necessary to explain this obligation. As such, this book examines Zionism as a Jewish political theory, reading it alongside the tradition of Western political thought, and critiques how Zionist thought and practice sought to justify this obligation to risk one's life in war—what Michael Walzer termed "the obligation to die." Finally, turning to the political thought of Hannah Arendt, the author suggests how the obligation could become justifiable, although never entirely justified. For the obligation to become at all justifiable, the type of politics that the state enables must respect human diversity and individuality and restrict violence so that violence is not a continuation of politics.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction 2 "If only I could die for him..." 3 Us Fight? But We're Jewish! 4 Argument Structure Chapter 5 Chapter 1. Just War and Obligation 6 An Introduction to Political Obligation and Just War 7 Forgetting about Obligation 8 Conclusion Chapter 9 Chapter 2. The Jewish Question and Zionism 10 Introduction 11 Material and Ideational Origins 12 Zionisms, Obligation, Redemption 13 Conclusion Chapter 14 Chapter 3. Aristotle, War, the Good Life, and Zionism 15 Introduction 16 Aristotle and the Just War Tradition 17 Aristotle and the Justice of War 18 The Subject in a Normative Space 19 From Ancient Greek Thought to Modern Zionism 20 Zionism as the Political Realm: A Jewish Political Theory 21 A Zionist Obligation to Die 22 Conclusion Chapter 23 Chapter 4. For the State 24 Introduction 25 The Common Good: Thomas Aquinas 26 The Common Life: GWF Hegel 27 An Obligation to Die for the Community 28 Nation, Freedom, Spirit, and Obligation 29 Conclusion Chapter 30 Chapter 5. Salvation 31 Introduction 32 Saint Augustine 33 Thomas Aquinas and the Religious Argument 34 Religious Zionism: An Obligation to Die for the Future 35 Religious Zionism and Militarism 36 Religion, Land, and Being Obliged to Die 37 The Problems of Messianic Territorial Politics 38 Conclusion Chapter 39 Chapter 6. Wishful Thinking: Consent, Contract, and the Obligation to Die 40 Introduction 41 Thomas Hobbes 42 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 43 Immanuel Kant 44 Michael Walzer 45 Consent and Choice 46 The Jewish Experience of the Human/Citizen Dichotomy 47 Conclusion Chapter 48 Chapter 7. Justifying the Obligation to Die 49 Introduction 50 The Death of Socrates 51 Politics and Plurality 52 Arendt and the Obligation to Die 53 Political Alternatives in Zionism 54 The Problem of Violence 55 Conclusion Chapter 56 Conclusion: The Obligation to Die 57 Judging the Obligation to Die 58 Politics, Morality, the Obligation to Die, and Zionism 59 The State and the Obligation to Die