Customer Reviews

How Israel Lost: The Four Questions

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Richard Ben Cramer, has committed a courageous but relatively unpopular act by writing this book. He does not seem to fear sacred cows. Cramer dares to discuss Israel's activities in the occupied territories and the viability of an independent Palestinian State, and by this very act, he impacts the boundaries of the Israeli Palestinian discussion. American Jews are concerned, primarily, with the preservation and security of Israel. But are Israeli leaders as concerned with the principles the state was founded on - the principles I believed in while growing up? "We shall be like a light unto the nations of the world," is what I was taught. Israel was to be a beacon of hope and democracy in a hostile world. Cramer, through personal observation and challenging arguments, questions whether the Israelis, and Jews who support them, have forgotten their original high standards and goals. Are we failing ourselves as a people, as a nation? Cramer's narrative revolves around four questions, a modification of the Four Questions asked during the Passover seder: "Why do we care about Israel? Why don't the Palestinians have a state? What is a Jewish state? Why is there no peace?"

Cramer believes that Israel, as the occupier, has become just as much a victim of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinians. He argues that the enduring occupation has corrupted and corroded both Israeli and Arab societies. And he asks, is Israel losing her very soul? I don't know if Mr. Cramer is saying anything here that hasn't been discussed before. All I know is that he has consolidated many of my own thoughts and clarified various issues which have weighed heavily on me for over 30 years. The rise of the Knesset's right wing coalition is discussed at length. The Israeli Supreme Court is taken on for its failure to issue injunctions against demolitions, security checkpoints, land expropriations, torture and assassinations that impact the lives of dozens of innocents along with those targeted. How is it possible for a just and humane society to treat the Palestinians so harshly? And, yes, I can ask this while understanding the violence the Israelis have been subjected to for more than half a century.

Cramer paints an extraordinary realistic portrait of the two societies, highlighting people and situations with his wonderful humor and humanism. He is at his best when giving advice to Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat!! His writing and observations are startlingly clear, and his ability to work well with languages lend vigor and flair to the blunt, honest narrative. His anecdotes and personal observations are what make this book so compelling.

This is journalism at its best and bound to spark conflict and controversy. I, myself felt, and continue to feel, conflicted about the issues discussed here. I grew up in a secular, Zionist household - Zionism meaning, (to me), "a political movement holding that the Jewish people constitute a nation and deserve a national homeland - a return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel." The joining of Jews of all persuasions, left and right, religious and secular, to work together toward tangible and spiritual goals. On the one hand, the author articulately expresses some of my complex feelings and emotions about the Jewish State - many of the problems and paradoxes confronting it - the terrible malaise afflicting it. I relate to his disillusionment. On the other hand I am the first to argue, to defend, to blame the violence, the Intifadas, etc., for the actions of the Israeli government.

In Cramer's words, "To me, it's an open-and-shut case: You can't ask two generations of your boys to act in the territories as the brutal kings of all they survey ('Break their bones,' was the order to his troops from the sainted Yitzhak Rabin, during the first Intifada -- six years before he became Israel's martyr to peace) -- and then expect those boys to come home, and live in lamblike gentleness as citizens, husbands, dads."

A must-read for anyone interested in this major issue which so strongly impacts the today's world.
JANA

For two years here in America I've been trying from time to time to convey Israeli/Palestinian reality to Americans, with partial success. Many times I encountered surprise or misunderstanding, because what I said contradicted existing misconceptions. This is because, to put it mildly: the typical American discourse about Israel is more fiction than reality. I thought to myself: one should write a whole book, just to bring reality in.

It turns out someone just did. It is Richard Ben Cramer, who won a Pulitzer prize for his Israel and Middle East reporting in the late '70's and early '80's. Now he returned to the land, and was so dismayed by what he found that he named his book "How Israel Lost". The name is perhaps an overkill (forgive the pun) and makes the book less attractive to some.

Forget the name. Go to the nearest library or bookstore and get it. The thing I liked most about it was the unromantic approach and the off-the-cuff language. That's the way people think, act, write and talk in Israel/Palestine. The typical American sugar-coated texts seem to remove the essence of what's going on. Cramer's definitely a "leftist" in the sense that he thinks Israel's out of line with the Occupation - no excuses accepted - but you won't find any romantic admiration of Israel's peace movement (or of the Palestinian cause) in his book. In fact, there's not a single Israeli peace activist there (as far as I can remember). And not because he wants to portray Israelis as warlike: Cramer is simply interested in the mainstream, a place where the peace movement does not exist anymore. As he aptly describes.

The book is divided into 4 parts, to "answer" 4 questions like the 4 questions of Passover eve. Parts 1 and 3 look at Israel, part 2 at Palestine, and part 4 wraps them up together. The first 3 parts are mostly based on individual stories. If by the end of part 1 you think Cramer is just another "self-hating anti-Israeli", hold your breath till part 2, where he lashes out equally harshly at the Palestinian leadership. In between he shows quite a bit of compassion and understanding to the people of both nations. He brings people, events and reports which are well-known (even iconic) to Israelis and Palestinians, but rarely make it past the American filters.

As an Israeli I can testify that most of Cramer's analysis of Israel is right-on. He clearly has an insider's knowledge of the culture. Regarding Palestinians, I don't know enough to judge and seems like he too (as he admits) has less knowledge of them. Yet, the overall picture of "current status" in the land is by far the most reliable and accurate I've seen from an American, and his analysis places the ball squarely in... American and international hands.

Which is another reason why you should go and read it. And if you like it, tell your friends. If enough people read this book, it might yet make a difference.


ps: there are some inaccuracies in the book are regarding the wall/fence/barrier, but these seem to be mostly because at the time of the book's closing (late 2003), there was still a lot of uncertainty about what's going on. In fact, by now the fence/wall story has gone way worse than Cramer describes. The reasons for mild optimism he quotes at the end of the book have all but evaporated, while IDF Air commander, General Dan Halutz (who 'stars' in part 1) has been promoted to deputy chief of staff.

Though Richard Ben Cramer's analysis would hardly raise eyebrows in Israel, where many people agree that the solution to the conflict -- if not the political will to achieve it -- is very simple, it is very difficult to discuss it in this country, where there is a very narrow definition, in public discourse, of what it means to be pro-Israel. Cramer believes, along with many Israeli intellectuals, that Israeli aggression against the Palestinians whose territory it has occupied since 1967, is hurting Israel, both militarily and morally. His beautiful stories about the victims on both sides of this tragedy are compassionate and compelling. The book has had rave reviews in the Denver Post, Washingtonian magazine, the Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, New York Review of Books (by the great Israeli intellectual Amos Elon), and other publications. But it's best to read it for yourself....you can't trust anyone to read a book on this subject and discuss it fairly and honestly. The argument is too polarized.

The book is a breath of fresh air. It doesn't beat around the bush, and really gets to the point. Victories are not always material conquests, for I can say that our nation has truly lost its soul.
Richard Ben-Cramer, a pulitzer prize winning journalist, would know best, for he has visited Israel in different stages in its development, and can compare and contrast the nation's ever changing (if not decaying) moral persona.
To all his critics I say this, you can abuse him all you want, and throw at him phrases such as ever-worn out slurs of "Self-hating Jew". But atleast he fulfils a moral duty to make a case for positive change. For the many things he has proposed is much better then the suicidal status quo. Many people try to complicate matters that really have simple solutions. How many more deaths on both sides will it take to realize that maybe a COMPLETE end to the occupation is the starting point. But no, as the occupation has become an ego boost for many of our countrymen.
I highly recommend this book, as it really is an eye-opener in many cases. May G-D pardon those who commit the henious crimes in the occupied territories, for our soldiers have become the standard international image of the ugly Israeli.

Americans need to read this book. It is about how occupying another people's country can hurt the occupier as much as the occupied. The author, who clearly loves Israel, shows us just what has been lost there because of the occupation....and how valuable that something is. Hopefully, he will be able to redefine what it means for Americans to be FOR Israel. It cannot mean unconditional support for self-destructive policies, and it's too bad that so many American Zionists are too defensive to engage in an honest, intelligent discussion of this subject without resorting to name-calling. I guess they're just afraid. But they are not doing Israel -- or the US -- any favors.

This book wanders a bit but renders a valuable service in speaking truth to power and considering, from a prize-winning investigative journalism perspective, "the story" of how Israel moved so far from its roots as a home for Jews, to a fanatical almost fascist and certainly zealot state concerned with its own survival. I recommend that the review by Mohamed F. El-Hewie, the New Jersey man with the Islam point of view be read in conjunction with this review.

The author opens with an examination of how the "story of Israel" has gone from core reality (a place so barren it makes the Congo look good, Palestinians kicked off their land after Israeli terrorists expelled the British occupying power) to a "land of milk and honey" with deserts made prosperous by Israeli industry--he neglects to mention that Israeli agriculture contributes 3% of the GDP while using 50% of the water, and that most of the water is being stolen by Israeli from underneath land outside Israeli territory.

From an "information operations" perspective, this is a really fascinating and well-told story of how Israel created several myths that sold not only in the USA but all over the world. I write in the margin, "Israel is the ultimate Potemkin village." The author is also good at exploring the early signs that these myths are being exploded, the world is catching on, and US support for Israel may be on the verge (within five to seven years) of being withdrawn.

As he is both an American Jew and a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, I give this author special marks for combining a loyalty to his faith with a loyalty to the truth. The Islamic-oriented review from New Jersey adds a frame of reference I am not qualified to comment on, but I recognize it as valuable. Among the most important observations the author makes early on are these: 1) when Israel became an occupying power and got into the business of assassination as a routine method, censorship of Jews by Jews became commonplace--this was the "new aspect" of the Israeli regime. 2) At the same time, in America, self-censorship and popular protest of Jewish readers against Jewish writers critical of Israel, became more marked. The Jews of America--at least the vocal ones cited by the author--simply do not want to hear the truth--they are blindly bonded to the myths.

Sharon is slammed in this book many times over. The author credits Sharon with being the original Israeli army sponsor for assignations, and the several pages on Israeli assassination history and policy are alone worth the price of the book (pages 39-51). Sharon is recalled in the book by General Pundak as "a disgraceful officer--a liar, cheater, a swindler and suck-up, a killer and a coward." I believe this--sounds like Chalabi and Arafat--the three were made for each other and disgrace us all.

The author explores a second crime against humanity characteristic of the Israeli bureaucracy: collective punishment. He builds a bridge from this--a policy that is explicitly forbidden by the Geneva Convention--to Israel's collective loss of shame and loss of emotional commitment to the "all for one and one for all" attitude that marked the early years. Now it is everyone for themselves, never mind what the authorities do "in our name."

The chapter on why Palestinians do not have a state is full of interesting observations, including the author's view that the US audience simply does not know the Palestinian side of the story; that the occupation is costing 18% of Israel's GDP (just 1% over the 17% of the Israeli government budget that we provide them out of the US taxpayer's pocket--two different stacks of money, but the comparison needs to be made); and that the isolation of Gaza, and the honeycomb nature of the walls and barriers, are so grotesque as to be both Kafkaesque and Warsaw ghettoish--the victim has indeed become the perpetrator, and Israel cannot be seen, in its treatment of the Palestinians, as anything other than fascist and abusive.

Having torn apart the Israeli side, the author then moves to the Palestinian side, and two major ideas stay with me: first, the concept of honor so deeply rooted in Arab culture, an honor that the Israeli's are attacking with every humility they can impose; and second, the utter contemptible corruption of Arafat and the Palestinian security authorities.

The book moves to a conclusion with a retrospective look at the bargain with the devil made by the Israeli security authorities very early on, when they accepted a dictatorship of the government from the zealot orthodox rabbis. He also explores the various "tribes" now within Israel, concluding that two thirds of the "new Jews" are not Jews at all, but simply Russian and other opportunists who have succumbed to the global covert and overt action operations of the Jewish state seeking to bring in more bodies as part of a demographic campaign plan.

The author can be shocking. He makes a case that is the Jews of Israel who bear the bulk of the responsibility for starting "the hate" and that it is the Israeli government that originally funded Hamas as an alternative to Arafat--an unfortunate reminder of US government funding for Islamic fighters in Afghanistan who have now turned on us.

The author's note and acknowledgements at the end of the book are worth reading carefully, and includes a list of other books on this topic.

I expect a lot of negative votes on this review--that is the price we pay for offering honest opinions in a forum where a deliberate Jewish bloc attacks those like the author--and this reviewer--for seeking to move a balanced dialog forward. Amazon has new algorithms for detecting "hate votes" and "organized negative votes," we shall see if those work here.

For everyone who is tired of the polarised
nature of the Middle East question this book
(written by a Jewish American) is a superb antidote.

--a) Its very easy to read - nice style and "un-put-downable".
--b) It takes the discussion up to the level of human beings
- their issues, their lives, their wants. He humanises
the whole debate like no other text on the issue.
--c) Outlining his thesis via the narrative of individual
lives is an innovative and highly successful technique.
He does a great job of weaving those stories together
to come up with a coherent work.
--d) You end up liking people on both sides - wow!
--e) He is very realistic and straight talking - something
that is missing from the debate. Makes his work have a
real razor sharp cut. No BS.
--f) He introduces new insight and ideas not seen
else where (the Secular Russification of the Israeli
Population).
--g) The quality of the paper and the interesting ribbed
effect created by the paper edges gives it quite an unusual
touch. A good one for you book anoraks.

An outstanding human artefact that will take you through the
depths of human depravity and its most honourable moments.

Ultimately it will leave you with a wider perspective on the
subject and fill you with hope.

Ben Cramer - we honour you for this service to humanity.

A brilliant book. I see one common theme amongst all detractors - the closed mindedness of unwavering conviction - a common encounter when dealing with any criticism of the state of Israel . Having been to the West Bank (and I'm absolutely certain every single critic of the book has not), I find the true value of Cramer's book to be it's honesty and accuracy in capturing the true desparation, moral degradation, senseless violence and suffering that both Israelis and Palestinians live with daily. His second most important observation is that the power to change the situation lies almost solely in Israel's hands (and does all other types of power in the region). If you hate this book, it can ONLY be because you've already made up your mind that one side possesses absolute moral superiority over the other, and therefore you've missed the entire point and really shouldn't have bothered spending your money on this books in the first place or any other book for that matter. A must read for anyone who possesses any opinions on the subject or anyone who desires to get beyond headlines and sound bites and learn more about the root of the historical and ongoing conflict.

Richard Ben Cramer is one of many honest Jews who has written the truth about the history of Israel and Palestine. In this book he documents the sad stories of Israelis and Palestinians who have suffered as a result of this conflict. He dispels long-held myths about the conflict and shows us that peace really is possible, but it cannot be achieved without the will of the US government. He criticizes Israel, the PLO, and the US for not doing more to achieve peace. He illustrates the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and how Yassir Arafat has failed the Palestinian people. I have read many books on this subject, and yet I have learned a great deal after reading "How Israel Lost." It's a must read for anybody who is interesting in learning the history and nature of this conflict.

This book is entertaining even on such a somber subject. In light of the recent PBS Frontline special on the recent election in Israel and on the stunning reversal of the newly elected leader with even Sharon (before his coma)on returning occupied territories the book is right on for understanding today. This book explains it all from an insider of sorts. Cramer gives us examples from his own reporter type interviews. He is Jewish yet seems to empathize with both the Palestinian and Jewish sides. It is not meant to be a scholarly history(although he does document who he is talking to) it is like a conversation with a friendly knowledgeable insider and has answered "what were they thinking and why?" on the sometimes, to me, unexplainable positions and actions of today. It was a fast and interesting very interesting read.