I would like to revisit the poetry and political thought of the Jewish National poet Haim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), and offer a radical Mizrahi reading—namely, a reading that examines Jewish and Israeli history and culture through the radical Mizrahi discourse that evolved in Israel in the past generation, as part of Mizrahi resistance to the cultural and social oppression relations between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim(1). This new Mizrahi discourse comprises two dimensions: criticism and alternative. The critical dimension focuses on viewing the state’s founding and dominant ideology and movement – Ashkenazi Zionism – as a national Jewish-European organization that is politically neo-colonial, economically capitalist, and culturally Eurocentric-Orientalist(2). The alternative dimension focuses on economic, political and cultural reform of the country and society. Within this broad generalization there are shades and nuances, of course, and a number of tensions, both theoretical and political, particularly on the question of the Palestinian national struggle (3). Equipped with these critical lenses, I shall try to read Bialik’s poems both in the context of their own time, and in the Israeli context of my own life. I have chosen to read three Bialik poems which I believe are most central to his national poetry, although the first was written in his early days of emerging nationalism: “To the Bird” (“El Hatzipor”) from 1892, “A Small Missive” (“Igeret Ktana”) from 1893, and “City of the Killings” (“Be’ir Hahareiga”) from 1903. Alongside these poems, and in their light, I would like to revisit two lesser known lectures that Bialik delivered, but which are nonetheless critical to our discussion: “The Revival of the Sephardim” (“Tchiyat Hasefaradim”), which he gave to an audience of young Sephardim in Jerusalem in 1926, and “Eretz Yisrael,” (The land of Israel) which he delivered to Jewish youths in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania, 1929. My methodology is critical criticism – deconstructive on its mechanics and Saidian-orientalism on its politico-cultural content. (1) See for example: Chetrit, Sami S. “Mizrahi Politics in Israel: Between Integration and Alternative.” Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 29, No. 4 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 51-65. (2) See: Shohat, Ella. “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Point of View of Its Jewish victims.” Social Text, 19–20, Fall 1988: 1–35. (3) For a recent remapping of the Mizrahi discourse, see: Behar Moshe, “Mizrahim, Abstracted: Action, Reflection, and the Academization of the Mizrahi Cause.” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. XXXVII, No. , Winter 2008, Issue 146. Pp. 89-100.