Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel [Paperback]

Yaron Ezrahi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520214161 | ISBN-13: 978-0520214163 | Publication Date: March 24, 1998 | Edition: 1

Among commentators on Israeli affairs, Yaron Ezrahi is distinguished by his analytical brilliance, his twin passions for Jewish traditions and the tradition of liberal democracy, and his ability to see behind current events to their causes, some of them three generations in the making, some three millennia. Here he offers an uncommonly insightful analysis of the ways that history, politics, and the national character of Israel come to bear on current affairs there. Ezrahi regards surprising and divisive events--such as the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Benjamin Netanyahu's defeat of Shimon Peres in the subsequent ministerial election--as signs of an ongoing, fundamental conflict in Israeli society. He explores ways in which the conflict is felt in diverse aspects of Israeli life and culture, from the social dimensions of military service and the development of the modern Hebrew language to Israelis' attitudes toward nature and the status of women. In chapters that blend probing analysis with stirring memoir, Ezrahi tells the story of Israel's transformation from a defensive, embattled society held together by a myth of national liberation to a prosperous liberal society that must make room for the many different stories of individual Israelis.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Noted Israeli author Yaron Ezrahi has created a hybrid of memoir, history, and social commentary in Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel. He examines the complex and halting shift from a collectivist Zionist mindset to a contemporary individualism and delivers a critical and passionate account of the Jewish state. Here the rubber bullets Israeli soldiers cruelly and ineffectually fired at rock-throwing Palestinians serve as a metaphor for Israel's conflicted sense of self. Ezrahi analyzes the effects of mandatory military service, the threat of terrorism, and the absence of personal choice on Israeli youth. In a nation where solidarity is viewed as strength, even a necessity, he sees the dangers of sharp generational differences regarding the role of the individual and the original aims of Zionism. He writes of watching footage of violent clashes during the apex of the Intifada: "The pictures on the screen . . . suddenly settled . . . on a single Israeli soldier . . . pointing his gun at a group of shouting, stone-throwing Palestinian youth . . . and I was seized by an impulse to cover my father's eyes with my right hand while keeping my son's wide open with my left." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ezrahi, an Israeli-born and -reared political, science professor at the Hebrew University and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, examines the outlook for Israeli democracy, particularly as it conflicts with traditional Zionist ideology. With deep roots in a broadly based political philosophical tradition and bringing to bear modern liberal democratic thought, the author questions the direction the current Israeli government policy has taken. He notes that Israel developed a collectivist culture early in its history but is now faced with the demand for greater individualism, creating a domestic conflict of conscience in the country. How to maintain security while simultaneously respecting reasonable Palestinian demands in a democratic setting is a challenge to which Ezrahi has committed his efforts. This book requires a great deal of concentration and pondering but is well worth the effort. Recommended for a wide audience.?Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (March 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520214161
• ISBN-13: 978-0520214163
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,134,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yaron Ezrahi Exhibits His Own Power and Conscience, November 8, 2002

By 

Hugh Rosen "author of 'Silent Batttlefields:... (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel (Paperback)

I found this book to be a highly illuminating one about modern Israel from a sociocultural, Historical perspective. One need not agree with the analysis completely to appreciate the thoughtfulness and conviction that went into it or to learn from one man's compelling study of the dichotomy between individualism and communal values in contemporary Israel. Similarly it is a fine insider's view of the author's thinking about the pluralistic nature of Israli society today, contrary to the belief that Israel is a homogenous society, held by so many outsiders.

The moral dilemma for Jewish Israeli citizens posed by the distinction between a deliberate show of military force in defense of survival versus the extention of unnecessary militarism beyond that to an illigetimate use of power, is one of the central themes of the book. The title, "Rubber Bullets" is intended as a symbol of Israel's moral compromise between the alternatives of shooting real bullets at stone throwing Plesinian youths or doing nothing in the face of such hostility and ensuing danger. Ezrahi does not argue that the compromise was particularly effective on a practical level, hence the characterization of it as symbolic.

In my view, the author is a loyal Israeli who wishes to minimize military force to that which is necessary and to maximize the search for new ways of establishing peace amongst the parties involved. Because he does not subscribe totally to the communal values of collectivism and solidarity at the expense of the type of indiviualism and a subjective voice that is necessary for a liberal democracy to thrive, he will undoubtedly incur the wrath of those who will not tolerate any critical commentary about Israel.

One quarrel I do have with Ezrahi is based more on omission than commission. Perhaps it can be remedied through an updated and expanded version of the book yet to come. That is, I would like to read the author's recent analysis and proposed solutions to the ethical dilemmas that the Israelis are facing because of the repeated lethal barrage of suicide bombers in their state by terrorists.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless and out of context, November 30, 2004

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel (Paperback)

Israel is not perfect. But few other nations can legitimately claim to be more perfect. That an Israeli penned this book only proves that Israelis are often their own worst enemies.

The book lacks perspective, least of all Israel's continued isolation in a sea of largely hostile Arab nations armed to the teeth. It therefore exploits a Jewish propensity to feel guilt even when none is required.

What perspective? By comparison to the United Nations, Israel is moral, kind--and far less brutal. In 1993, for example, the UN killed more than 750 demonstrating Somalis with AC-130 helicopter gunships and tanks within five months--including more than 60 in June, 20 shot by Pakistani troops, 73 in July, 100 in September and 500 in a 14-hour battle on October 3. Thousands were wounded. UN troops were far more violent than Israel in similar circumstances, yet blamed insurgents for the lethal results-just like British UN troops who fired plastic bullets and used tanks in Mitrovica to quell riots of stone- and bomb-throwing ethnic Albanians.

One would expect Ezrahi to compare Israel's actions to those of the UN and Western troops. But one finds no such comparison here; readers must turn to others like Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down) for accounts of the Somali and other episodes.

Ezrahi doesn't even put the Israeli response to Arab violence into the context of other surrounding nations, which are also far more brutal. In the Sudan, a Muslim government enslaves some 15,000 Christians and animists and murders 1,000 weekly in a jihad genocide that has already taken more than 2 million lives. Why does Ezrahi single out Israel, without noting the actions of other far-more-egregious governments in the same region?

Ezrahi could also have juxtaposed Israel's actions with those of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. In 1987 Saudi officials marred the annual hajj by killing more than 275 unarmed Iranian pilgrims who had hoped to take over Mecca's Grand Mosque and force clerics to declare Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini the leader of all Muslims. (Iran claimed the death toll was 600.) And in 1970, Jordan's King Husein ordered an assault on the Palestine Liberation Organization that razed the al-Wahdat and Husayni refugee camps near Amman nearly to the ground. In 10 days, at least 3,400 were slaughtered, a number Arafat put at 20,000.

Had Ezrahi compared Israel's "brutishness" to that of other nations, he could have reached legitimate conclusions. But this book considers Israeli responses to violent demonstrations in a vacuum. Therefore, the book tells us nothing of import at all.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Intolerant in the extreme, December 7, 2004

By 

Hi there (normalcy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rubber Bullets: Power and Conscience in Modern Israel (Paperback)

This book was very hard to take, since the author can't even stand Israelis who love nature if their politics are not his own. He couldn't take a walking tour with someone he observed to be "right wing." Good Lord, what is the world coming to? Nature is a universal language, it is not political. I find this to be intolerant in the extreme.