Herzl's Nightmare: One Land, Two Peoples [Paperback]

Peter Rodgers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2005

Theodor Herzl's dream of a national homeland for the Jewish people was realized when Israel declared its independence in 1948. Yet it was made possible through the deaths of millions of European Jews and at the expense of Palestinian society—a people who would never forget what they saw as a grave injustice. Herzl's dream would prove illusory. This important new study from the former Australian ambassador to Israel shows how little the dynamics of the conflict have actually changed; how eerily reminiscent today's antagonisms and falsehoods are of yesteryear's; and how much today's self-righteous intransigence—on both sides—owes to what went before.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (March 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156025694X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256946
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,596,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A fundamental misperception is at the heart of this book, March 7, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Herzl's Nightmare: One Land, Two Peoples (Paperback)

There is a fundamental misperception at the heart of this book. It is that the intransigence of two peoples, the Israelis and Palestinians prevents their being peace in the Middle East. This perception would seem to be on the surface, fair and balanced, and it often drives the actions of those good- intentioned diplomats like former Australian ambassador to Israel, Rogers, who truly want peace.

The problem is that the story of the conflict is not a balanced or symmetrical one of identical resistance to compromise and mutual recognition. Israelis long for peace with all their hearts. It is true to say that they are tired of wars, and even truer to say that the Jewish tradition does not celebrate military virtues or war. It is also true that at five different historical occasions the Jews of Israel were willing to make a territorial compromise with the Arabs. The Arabs who are after all the overwhelming majority in the area as a whole have always resisted. The agreement at Oslo made when the PLO was virtually finished was a desperate duplicitous maneuver by Arafat which played very well upon the Israeli hunger for peace, and the gullibility of many of its politicians.

Again the main point must be stressed. A nation that wants peace cannot make peace with another people or nation that does not want it. Israel has surrendered land, removed Jews from their homes, made gesture after gesture towards the Palestinians. Anyone who just reads for one day the Palestinian media will understand why all these efforts have been in vain. Demonizing hatred and vicious anti- Semitic propaganda are served up daily to the Palestinian people by their leaders.

Rogers closes his book with a consideration of what the disappearance of Arafat might mean. Quite perceptively he suggests one possibility is the increased Islamization of the Palestinian polity. This has what has happened. And this has brought as of January 2006 the radical Islamic movement Hamas to power in the Palestinian Authority. Their charter not only calls for the destruction of Israel but also calls in its racist way for killing of Jews everywhere.

Unfortunately, it does not look like Israel will have an Arab partner to make peace in the foreseeable future.

Moreover, and this is something that Ambassador Rogers does not see, this particular conflict is more and more being subsumed to a wider conflict , that of radical Islamic civilization against the very fundaments of Western democratic society.

It now looks as if not only Israel will not be at peace for a long time to come, but regrettably as if most of the world will not be either.