Customer Reviews

Against The Wall: Israel's Barrier to Peace

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The other reviewer writes, "And Lindsay Bremner has an article on bantustans in which she fails to note the similarities between Israel (a small area into which Jews in the Middle East have been stuffed, while Jews are not particularly welcome elsewhere in the region) and a bantustan!"

This is slightly lunatic. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of Israel have been "stuffed" into that space by the systematic policy of relocation and nation-building known as Zionism, not herded into it by their hostile neighbors. Among Israel's other striking differences from a bantustan, we should perhaps note its (a) higher standard of living than surrounding states, (b) regional military superpower status, (c) large nuclear arsenal, (d) unique relationship to the world's sole military hyperpower, the US, entailing billions in foreign military and economic aid (largest recipient in both categories of US aid for decades), (e) thriving global trade relationships, (f) thriving tourism industry, (g) inhabitants' freedom to travel or, in most cases, emigrate at any time to Europe or the US (among other destinations), (h) military occupation of adjacent territory and illegal settlement of much of that occupied territory. An archetypal bantustan!

OK -- this isn't exactly a review of the book. But neither was the previous post. I give 5 stars because rational critical discussion of Israel's behavior is sorely needed, and going by my knowledge of Sorkin's earlier anthology on Jerusalem (The Next Jerusalem), this book is highly likely to be rational and responsible.

I'm for human rights, and I want human beings to be allowed to be neighbors. But I'm also against murder. The Israeli separation barrier is dramatically reducing murders of Jewish civilians by Arab terrorists, and I approve of that. And I think the authors of this book are refusing to oppose these murders. If they do not like the separation barrier, I think they should try to help stop the murders.

There are some truly awful articles in this book. We see Stephanie Koury defend an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling against the separation barrier in spite of the fact that this ruling may well be the greatest judicial travesty of the 21st century. And Lindsay Bremner has an article on bantustans in which she fails to note the similarities between Israel (a small area into which Jews in the Middle East have been stuffed, while Jews are not particularly welcome elsewhere in the region) and a bantustan!

This book is a barrier to peace.