Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel [Paperback]

Haim Watzman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374530858 | ISBN-13: 978-0374530853 | Publication Date: May 29, 2007 | Edition: 1st

A vivid dispatch from the front lines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

When American-born Haim Watzman immigrated to Israel, he was drafted into the army and, after eighteen months of compulsory service, assigned to Company C, the reserve infantry unit that would define the next twenty years of his life. From 1984 until 2002, for at least a month a year, Watzman, who had never aspired to military adventure, was a soldier.

Watzman was a soldier as he adjusted to a new country, married, raised his children, and pursued a career as a writer and translator. At times he defended his adopted country's borders; at other times he patrolled beyond them, or in that gray area, the occupied territories. A religiously observant Jew who opposed Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he served in uniform in conflicts that he demonstrated against in civilian clothes. Throughout, he developed a deep and abiding bond with the diverse men of Company C--a fellowship that cemented his commitment to reserve service even as he questioned the occupation he was enforcing.

In this engrossing account of the first Intifada, the period of the Oslo Accords, and Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank as lived by citizen-soldiers in the field, Watzman examines our obligations to country, friends, family, and God-and our duty to protect our institutions even as we fight to reform them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Watzman, a writer and translator, served in the reserve infantry of the Israeli army, one month a year, from 1984 to 2002. On one level this thoughtful and absorbing book is a frank (and often funny) barracks-room memoir, capturing the tedium, terror and grinding discomfort of military life, with a sharp eye (and gifted memory) for details of character and place. The periodic nature of Watzman's service gives the book a serial viewpoint into the tumultuous events of the years from before the rise of the first intifada to the re-occupation of the West Bank, always from a unique front-line perspective. We also come to know the other men in Watzman's unit, representative of Israeli society only in their disparateness. As an observant Jew and patriot who is also vocally opposed to the West Bank and Gaza settlements, Watzman himself defies easy stereotyping, and his depiction of the motivations and opinions of his comrades and countrymen, especially as they shift over time, is likewise unclichéd, affectionate but critical. Agent, Simon Lipskar at Writers House. (June 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This compelling account of one soldier in Israel's army of occupation, offers beautifully written insights into the Israel experience. Haim Watzman's fears, doubts and moral dilemmas, but above all his passionate love for the country of his choice, place Company C among the most important books on Israel today." --Tom Segev, author of Elvis in Jerusalem and One Palestine, Complete

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374530858
• ISBN-13: 978-0374530853
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington DC. I attended Duke University and, after graduating in 1978, a went to Israel for a year that has turned into a lifetime. Except for my year and a half of regular army service, I have made my livingas a freelance translator and journalist. My translations include Tom Segev's The Seventh Million, Elvis in Jerusalem, and One Palestine Complete, as well as David Grossman's The Yellow Wind, Sleeping on a Wire, and Death as a Way of Life.

I live in Jerusalem with my wife, Ilana, and my four children, Mizmor (21), Asor (20), Niot (16), and Misgav (14). We are active members of Kehilat Yedidya, a liberal Orthodox community equally concerned about democracy in Israeli society and traditional Jewish values.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The View of a Citizen Soldier, June 15, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel (Hardcover)

Born in America, Haim Watzman immigrated to Israel. Once a citizen of Israel he was drafted into the Israeli Army. After eighteen months of active duty he spent the years from 1984 to 2002 as a reservist serving one month a year on active duty with Company C.

An excellent writer, Mr. Watzman writes of the history of that time from the view of a low ranking soldier. He observed from a low ranking infantrymans point of view the Oslo Accords, Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank, and broadened this to seeing how the rest of the world viewed these same events. At the same time, he has the ability to examine our oblications and our duty to country from both the view of the solfier and the outsider.

Above all else, what comes through is the small unit comradery. Soldiers don't fight for home, mother and country. They fight so as to not let down their fellow soldiers.

At the same time literate, sensitive and giving a military view, this is quite a book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting account of life as a soldier, June 12, 2005

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel (Hardcover)

I found this book intriguing. It covers the years 1984 to 2002, during which time the author served as a part-time soldier. And, of course, there was plenty of violence in the region during that time.

Watzman did not like the idea of Israel's presence in the disputed West Bank, a region which has an overall Arab majority. Nor did he like the fact that Jews often justified Israel's presence there on the basis of religion, not for practical reasons, or on the basis of justice or human rights. And while I disagree with that politically, he's the Israeli, not I.

Still, I found it interesting to see what Watzman thought about the idea of refusing to obey illegal orders. Clearly, one can be given orders that need to be disobeyed for moral reasons. But disobedience is risky and it lets down one's comrades (by making everyone less trustworthy). He was lucky: he never got an order that, by being out of line, put him to that test. But that may not be true of everyone. As the author reminds us, it certainly is not true of Arabs who have received orders to murder Israeli civilians at random, as suicide bombers. And Watzman is confident that he would disobey such an order, whether he were a Jew, an Arab, or anyone else.

When violence broke out in September, 2000, much of the world's media refused to admit that Arabs were responsible for it. Was that a triumph of Arab propaganda, or of media bias? Maybe. But it was not a total triumph. After all, the morale of Israel's soldiers could have been a serious issue. However, that morale was sky-high. Watzman explains why. Israelis across the political spectrum had no doubts about who the bad guys were. Arafat had overplayed his hand. Saying that no Jewish temple ever stood on the Temple Mount sure was fun. But it was the icing on the cake for those who had seen Arafat turn down very significant proposed Israeli territorial concessions. Arab demands to destroy Israel with violence and the "return" of Arab "refugees" were also unambiguous. Watzman's company was united. Religious issues were secondary compared to the need for defend the citizenry. All agreed that they had to fight back.

I recommend this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Many times better and more informative than Jarhead, February 19, 2006

By 

BuzS "buzs" (ny, ny) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Company C: An American's Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel (Hardcover)

I loved Anthony Swofford's Gulf War memoir, Jarhead, but with no disrespect to its author or to Kirkus Reviews which calls it "an Israeli Jarhead", Company C offers a far richer reading experience. American-born Watzman served for almost 20 years in the Israeli military, starting with the regular army in 1982, moving to the reserves in '84. This period covers a broad swath of modern Israeli history, and Watzman brilliantly demnstrates how he was able (overcoming personal conflicts) to mix his political views -- anti-settlements -- with his soldierly duties, which often required defending settlers and unapologetically executing missions to which he was opposed in principle. His company C contained people from across the full spectrum of Israeli politics (die-hard expansionists to socialistic peaceniks to religious zealots). Watzman showed exceptional dedication in doggedly reporting for duty year after year into middle age, leaving his work and wife and 4 kids every year to report for front-line duty, when so many of his peers were easily managing to escape reservist service. Even after an illness left him permanently disabled and almost crippled and he'd passed his 40th birthday (ancient for a footsoldier), Watzman insisted on doing battle for his adopted country. He is a true hero and patriot and a wonderfully entertaining writer.