Customer Reviews

Israel is Real: An Obssessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

...and the best book I've read about that country: smart, funny, brilliant, incredibly alive. I picked this book up on a Saturday and finished it on Tuesday, after racing across 2000 years of history, desert, and some of the most unbelievable characters and settings I've ever encountered in a book. The even weirder thing is that they're all real. The false messiahs of the 1600s. The New Orleans Fruit Salesman who topples South American governments and helps the UN vote in the state of Israel. The turncoat Josephus who survives the destructioin of Israel (Israel gets destroyed like five times in the book; if it was a movie, it'd have a mongo special effects budget) and so lives to give the rest of us the story. The tank commander who helps single-handedly win a war. It's not just that I understand a topic I couldn't quite see my way through before, because any decent book will do that. This book is a thrilling story, a wake-you-up story, a modern story. It's a story I felt I was listening to, in a crowded room, with a breathless teller. I've read other Cohen books, so I came to this one as a fan. This book is the reason you become one. It's like opening a door and having a whole world blast out at you. I've never read a book, a true book (in both senses) like it.

If you want a sound, balanced,history of Zionism and the state of Israel, look elsewhere. In this book Rich Cohen writes as an essayist, not a historian. He takes the reader on a highly selective whirlwind tour through three thousand years of Jewish history, a tour that emphasizes individuals and events that help him make his point. His point is that the Jewish people would be better off without a state because a state has brought them out of the realm of moral universalism into the realm of immoral power politics. This kind of personal judgment belongs in an op-ed piece, not a serious history.
The book is colorfully written, with lively sketches of false messiahs and other obscure (to most readers) figures from the Jewish past. But considering the importance of the topic, colorful writing is not enough. For example, the author tells us that Sharon "reeked of sadness" when ordering the evacuation of Gaza. "It was the sadness of the father who watches the sky turn purple and shivers as the wind falls still." Eloquent--but what does it mean? Footnotes cite few sources and are often so incomplete as to be useless. The bibliography includes "The Merchant of Venice," but not Howard Sachar's authoritative "A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Times"
As a professor who has taught history of Zionism and Israel at the university level, I found many inaccurate and misleading statements. For example, the author contrasts the Hellenized Jews of the first century BCE with "those who followed the ascetic faith of the desert." But by that time the "religion of the desert" (ascetic or otherwise) was already being replaced by Rabbinic, or synagogue, Judaism. The author argues that after being exiled from their land by Rome, "the Jews left history." Is he unaware of the literary and philosophical achievements of medieval Jews, their role in transmitting kmowledge from the more advanced Arabic world to the less advanced Christian world, and, later, their role in European nation building?
Cohen's account of the creation of Israel is equally flawed. He passes over in silence the hard political, economic, and educational work done by Jews in Palestine between the two wars, work that created the institutional structure of the state long before the Holocaust and the UN resolution of 1947. As a result, his book reinforces the widespread but mistaken idea that European countries "gave" the Jews a state to compensate for the Holocaust. Cohen emphasizes violence perpetrated by Israelis, but downplays violence directed at Israel. While he does not exactly say that Israel will disappear, his apocalyptic tone implies as much. He says, for example, that the story of Jerusalem is not complete unless Jerusalem gets destroyed. He compares the state of Israel to the third Temple. The title of the final chapter, where he speculates about Israel's future, is "the Ninth of Av," the Jewish day of mourning for the destruction of the first two temples.
In sum, "Israel is Real" is colorful and glib, but untrustworthy. If you are seriously interested in Jewish and Israeli history, look elsewhere.

This is not a book for Jews. Or rather, this is not a book only for Jews. It is simply a wonderful book. Cohen tells the history of Judaism not as a scholarly chronology but as a simple story, with a beginning (the destruction of the Second Temple), a middle (the two millennia during which Judaism existed only as an idea, without a land), and an end (the Zionist movement and the creation of Israel). He gives dimension to the characters you know--your Theodore Herzls, your Moshe Dayans--and focuses on ones you may not, like Sam the Banana Man, who each carry the whole story within them. A huge part of the appeal is Cohen's prose, propelled by biblical rhythms (Ariel Sharon "sinned as David sinned. He sinned as Abraham sinned") and playful associations (comparing the West Bank settlers, for example, to Travis Bickle, Mickey Mouse, and Malcom X in the same paragraph). Wow.

Some of these reviewers seem to be confusing Rich Cohen, the author of this book, with Richard Cohen, a columnist for the Washington Post, who did indeed speak of the creation of Israel as a mistake. Two different guys, two different world views, and an indication that the above title is being reviewed by people who have never read the book. I feel compelled to write because I have read the book, and it changed the way I read the news and think of the trickiest region on the globe. The fact is Rich (RICH) Cohen's book, while asking probing questions and looking squarely and honestly at the dangers face by Israel, is a love song to the Jewish state, the Jewish people and the men and women who built that state. You come away from the book with a deep understanding and appreciation of the leaders of the Zionist movement and the great distance the people have crossed. The fact that this book has been sniped at by both those who hate Israel and those whole love Israel without critical faculty is a sure sign the author is honest and thus treading on territory even more dangerous than the Gaza Strip--the truth.

I've read and enjoyed Rich Cohen's previously published 'Tough Jews', 'The Avengers', and 'Sweet and Low', so I was eager to read his latest. I found 'Israel Is Real' to be an entertaining, at times troubling, thought provoking, anecdote and fact filled (tons of footnotes!) story of the history of the Jews from Biblical times to current times. Like a suspense novel, I wasn't completely sure as I was reading it what conclusions regarding the fate of the Jewish state he would ultimately draw. Although his unequivocal affection and support of Israel's existence comes through, his criticisms of recent policy, especially in the last 30 years or so, comes through as well. If nothing the author is fair and balanced. Cohen deals with the whole question and problem of Israel's existence. He states his theory that the Jews left their homeland ( Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temples and war) for the Diaspora, and by doing so reinvented the religion through books and prayer composed by scholarly rabbis, which kept Judaism alive through the centuries. But then somehow this was spoiled by returning to the land, and a place, rather than relying solely on holy books, and by doing so displacing the Palestineans, resulting in the neverending crisis there. He comes perilously close to joining the new breed of author who question Israel's right to exist or apply different criteria to its right to defend itself. To be fair, Cohen doesn't gloss over the Holacaust as a reason for Israel's being, and Arab intransigence through the ages. He makes it clear there's enough blame to go around for the lack of peace in the region. Of course there are no easy answers and his ambivalence to Israel's fate I found disconcerting. Nevertheless, I can't say I was surprised by his conclusions.

I picked this up after reading the rave in the New York Times Book Review and hearing Mr. Cohen speak on Larry King. This rich and interesting topic is made accessible by great writing and a thoughtful approach. Whatever side of the fence you're on, you should read Israel is Real.

Rich Cohen does not try to present a comprehensive history of the Jews.
He picks his spots and delivers an easy to read, quirky history lesson
of the Jews and their quest for a homeland. He put a lot of research
and travel into the effort. The experience was very enjoyable.
His outlook for Israel and Zionism is a wary, realistic one.

The author has a distinctive style we've seen in his other books and magazine articles--spare, witty, and with the telling detail that illuminates the point he's making. With this book he shows himself as a historian and Talmudic scholar in a subject obviously very close to his heart. "Mazeltov" from this non-Jewish reader.

Its hard not to like this book. It has a very interesting premise, colorful characters (that actually existed), a Biblical history even in our modern age. I literally had to force myself to put down this book because of its fast paced storytelling, its acerbic wit, and many interesting points (for example I did not know that Superman's 'real' name is Kal-El, Hebrew for 'Strength'). Despite all this, here are some main points I find deeply troubling with the book;

1. basic spelling mistakes. The author makes constant reference to Atilt, Israel, a town I never heard of but is similar to Atlit, so I'm assuming that its a simple mistake. But this mistake keeps happening with other places, translations, and names, to a point where it begins to erode the perception of subject matter knowledge of the author. He mentions the Palestinian movement Fatah means 'opening' in Arabic, when in fact it means 'conquest' or 'victory'. These are not minor things.

2. The lack of non-Jews in this story. Sure there are few famous non-Jews in this story, King Cyrus, the British colonel who trained Haganah (forgot his name), but these are few in between. The Arabs - the very people with whom modern Israel is in a mortal fight are almost entirely absent, except for brief mention of pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, Arafat and Nasser. It gives an impression that Israel's entire predicament rests solely on Jewish decisions, the lack of peace according to this author is entirely because of the settlements, there is absolutely no mention of the worldwide Islamic jihad movement, the Islamic concept of Dar al-Harb, the decades of indoctrination of Arab children for war by Hamas and Hezbollah, the utter rejection of any compromise by the Palestinian side, or the murderous regime of Iran who wields so much power there. These things are not even mentioned, even though they are monumental. This crucial part is simply missing.

3. The last 10 pages undermine the entire book. The author simply concludes that Jews do not need a state, simply because its akin to a '3rd temple', a religious Zealot relic not worth keeping. But the book does not mention the 85% of Israelis who are not religious or do not subscribe to religious-politics, who formed a blossoming democracy in the region, a tiny country that is an absolute goliath in science and research, that cures cancer, has an open press, fair judicial system and world class inexpensive healthcare (something US can use more of). This simply is unimportant to the author, since a tiny minority of Israel's jews yearn for a return of the Messiah. The author's idea of Judaism as a 'mobile faith' fails utterly when faced with his own telling of the sad story, pogroms, killings, another holocaust, repeated again and again like a bad dream. This is what the author is advocating instead of an actual country with an actual army (warts and all) that can protect its own people. This is an absurd conclusion.

I would recommend people read this book simply for the historical odyssey, but be careful plucking any moral lessons.

I just finished reading "Israel Is Real" and have come away from it with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Cohen does an admirable job of connecting the modern state of Israel to the long history of the people and land of Israel, showing that this history did not merely begin in 1948, thus giving the well-deserved lie to all the antisemitic canards about Israel coming into existence solely as a result of the Holocaust. On the other hand, he gets no small number of facts wrong, e.g.: "Jonathan," not Yohanan, Ben Zakkai (it's not merely a mistranslation, it's the wrong name); he has Israeli commanders reviewing satellite photos of the Sinai in the 1948 war, when the first satellite would not be launched till 1957; he had the 1973 war begin on October 3, not 6, on the "first day of Yom Kippur" (there's more than one day?) when most Jews were in shul "wrapped in tfillin" (Jews do not wear tfillin on Sabbaths and holidays); he claims that among the military equipment provided by the US were F-14 Tomcats, a plane that Israel never had (but the Iranians did), which at any rate did not enter service in the US until 1974; at the end of the book, he gives the designation of the Tomcat as F-16. He goes on to trash the entire religious-Zionist movement, implying that they are all kooks because of the "perfectly named" founder of the movement, while ignoring the fact that these are among the greatest lovers of Israel and most dedicated members of the IDF. And then he arrives at the conclusion that the best hope for Israel is the two-state solution and a government with "Enlightenment" ideals, without really presenting any greater reasoning than his own sentiments. Then again, his support for an enlightened two-state solution only makes sense given his embarrassingly weak knowledge of Judaism ... but it only reinforces my own sentiments that if you can't get your facts straight, your opinions don't matter. And more than that--if he is presenting his faulty knowledge as fact, then the unknowing reader will take it as fact, doing a disservice to Israel and the truth.