In his substantial and far-reaching review of The Question of Zion, Shalom Lappin aims to discredit the book on grounds of argument and scholarship, arguing that my objective in the book is ‘to characterise Zionism as a collective mental disorder.’ In the course of his review, Lappin makes many points and presents a number of historical arguments that merit a response. But this phrase from the first sentence of the review – he later describes me as determined to paint Zionism as ‘the offspring of psychological deformation’ – already indicates the extent to which Lappin has completely misunderstood my purpose.