Customer Reviews

Still Life with Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism

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Horovitzes book accurately portrays the struggle of trying to lead a normal life in Israel. We choose restaraunts or cafes by deciding which are less likely to be blown up. We avoid sending our kids on buses at all costs. We get nervous when a car driven by a Palestinian pulls up next to us.

Horovitz goes to great lengths to describe how on the one hand we deal with terror, yet on the other we worry about our careers and doing right by the kids. He describes our frustration at often being painted the bad guys, or oppressors by a seemingly biased (and often ignorant or anti-semitic) world opinion. On the other hand, he really tries to show the Palestinian point of view, and describes the misery of their lives.

The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is tragic. The author explains why it turned out like this and how possibly it could be resolved.

The book gives a fascinating insight and is brilliantly written. A must read for anyone interested in Middle East affairs.

As an Israeli resident whose heart is on the left but whose head is somewhere else, I found David Horovitz's book a superb narrative of what happened to those of us who thought we had found a formula for peace. The disillusionment I and others like me feel has led us to a new place on the Israeli political spectrum, one that never really existed before -- the Center.

David Horovitz explains why and gives a voice to the sensible, rational, middle-of-the-road Israel that is rarely depicted on television. He explains how it is possible to distrust Arafat and the rest of the Arab leadership without sounding like a rabid, drooling, racist "settler." While he describes what it is like to live close to the scene of repeated terrorist attacks, he does not rely on the reader's sympathy to persuade; rather, he uses sound, fundamental and highly articulate factual argument to substantiate his views.

Anyone who considers himself well-versed on the situation in Israel MUST read this book.

This book is absolutely incredible! Thank you so much David Horovitz! I want to read your day-to-day accounts of life in Israel beyond the end of this book.

I have been a religious right-wing supporter of Eretz Israel, anxiously awaiting the time that I am in a financial position to make aliyah. I have strongly supported the anti-disengagement fighters.

Your book has made me think. It has opened my eyes to the Arab side of the story, as well as details of politics on both sides that I was not previously aware of.

This book has filled me with hope of someday living in the holy land and at the same time has made me cry, and evoked terror. Reading the chapter on Yussuf makes me wonder if there is ever any hope for peace - on the political side there is, but on the religious side it seems hopeless, as religious Jews can never voluntarily relinquish the Temple Mount or any of Jerusalem.

There have been times that I have had to put it down and walk away for a while to digest what I have just read (and cry) - and I'm only on page 166!

For a long time I have thought the solution to this problem was for millions of North American religious Jews to make aliyah and change the government in Israel, now I'm not so sure... More to come...

Thank you David Horovitz. Thank you for telling it like it is.
Your honest and accurate account of the past 3 1/2 years attempts to make sense of the mayhem and insanity that we have been living since this Second Intifada erupted. A madness where the most simple things in life such as riding a bus or going for a coffee can no longer be taken for granted. This book has 253 pages of unembellished facts that cannot be refuted. Horovitz simply tells it as is. He is brutally fair in his efforts to let every side to this conflict have their say. While he makes no effort to sugar-coat the mistakes made by
Israelis, he reminds the dishonest critics of Israel who feel they are even-handed in their coverage of this century-old conflict that Jewish People have right to exist in their homeland. And perhaps most importantly, he tells the Palestinans that there are many Israelis like himself who recognize their rights to a viable Palestinan state living peacefully side by side, once the culture of death and fanaticsm perpetrated by the suicide bombers and those who sent them disappear from the face of the earth. I look forward to
David Horovitz's next book telling the world how and what made this happen.

As Israelis and Palestinians battle to persuade the world that right is on their side in their terrible conflict, David Horovitz cuts through the propaganda and tells it like it is: Ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are suffering because Yaser Arafat does not want to make peace. As Horovitz writes, Arafat does not want to be remembered as the Muslim leader who accepted the Jewish right to sovereignty in the Middle East.

The strength of this book, though, is that it is not merely a well-argued political analysis. It is life from the civilian battle zone -- harrowing daily life, as described by a father, who like all Israeli parents, worries that every day he is sending his family out into the "grim lottery," where suicide bombers, indoctrinated by vicious Islamic extremists, lurk and have struck in almost every city -- not just in the West Bank and Gaza, but all over sovereign Israel as well. As both a journalist and an ordinary father, Horovitz is able to write as an analyst and an everyday citizen -- providing the personal anecdotes that give his text such power and credibility.

I imagine there will be those on the Israeli right who will dislike this book for its commonsense insistence, now belatedly recognized by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, that Israel must separate from the Palestinians if it is to remain Jewish and democratic. I am sure that the Palestinian propagandists will loathe it, for so effectively puncturing their assertion that Israel has not been serious about wanting to partner them in co-existence. But this is a persuasive narrative from the middle ground, passionately argued, ringing true. And its critics will not be able to shrug it off lightly.

There are virtually no other writers on the Middle East that possess the unique Horovitz mix of political independence mixed with an ability to reduce issues to words that really bring home realities. We are so used to reading of or seeing suicide bombs in Israel (indeed, now in a wider range of coutries) that we barely comprehend their horror and legacy on all of those involved. This book gives the first insight into life in Israel since the latest intafada began that really takes in to the daily impact on family life.

Whilst in no way one sided, Horovitz expresses great scepticism on the liklihood of the situation improving whilst Arafat continues to be the key Palestinian powerhouse.

I could not put it down, it is every bit as good as his previous books. I could not decide whether I was more or less depressed abpout the situation after I had read it, but I sure understood it a whole lot better.

I strongly recommend this book.

After the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, Arabs launched a wave of terrorist attacks on Israel. And while some people in faraway nations may have failed to see just who the aggressors were, those who lived in Israel could not avoid noticing.

Horovitz does a superb job of describing living with the threat of terrorist attacks. We see how both Jews and Arabs react to all the fighting. And he also explains the extent to which the conflict is misdescribed by many in the media. I was shocked to discover that several star reporters were under the misimpression that the West Bank and Gaza had been some sort of independent sovereign territory prior to 1967. Other disturbing signs were the reluctance of reporters to believe Israelis who disagreed with Arab lies, the eagerness of reporters to believe that Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was some sort of wicked war criminal, and the "conventional wisdom" that Israel was to blame for the conflict since it was holding territory that it did not stake a sovereign claim to. In addition, I was puzzled by the fact that a reporter insisted that Israel had to be held to a "higher standard."

The author explains how the Big Lie technique was used to accuse Israel of war crimes at, of all places, Jenin (where Israel went in with ground troops, dramatically sacrificing the lives of many soldiers to reduce Arab civilian casualties). And he quotes Kofi Annan, who maliciously asked "Can the whole world be wrong (in condemning Israel)?" Horovitz has a one-word answer. Yes. Any reasonable person would, if shown the facts that European Union officials were demanding to punish Israel for trying to thwart terrorist bombings and simultaneously shown that the EU was supporting the bombers financially, letting them buy explosives with its money, would see that the EU is wrong. His point is that a misinformed world will indeed be wrong.

For me, the mangling of truth by the media stood out in this book as the most serious aspect of the fighting. It is sad that Arabs are attacking Israeli civilians. It is good that the media are positioned to report on this. I think even vaguely honest reporting would bring enough political pressure to bear so that the attacks would stop. That is why it is such a pity that we are seeing nothing of the sort.

There are many other regions in the world where there is plenty of violence. They don't have anything like the media coverage we see in the Levant. If the media are failing so utterly in covering the Arab-Israeli conflict, one has to doubt their ability to get anything right.

I highly recommend this book.

David Horovitz continues to bring the readers' hearts and minds directly to Israel with his newest book. He describes the situation with clarity as a journalist and with emotion as the father of young children being raised in this life with bombers. For anyone who has an interest or connection to Israel this book is a must read!

Mr. Horovitz has written an excellent account of both the personal side to living in a time of constant terrorist attacks as well as a factual account of the detail that have been overlooked or misreported by most of the world's press outlets. Included in this book are some brief analyses of the political climate in Israel before, during and after some of the more violent bombings as well as Israel's responses. At times the author disagrees with the government's decisions, and is not ashamed to say it. In general, an excellent read and a good look into the facts of the situations as seen by a reporter who has to raise his family while enduring these terrible bombings.

When it comes to the crisis in the Middle East, a reader often feels mired in a confusing quagmire. Especially for those of us who care about Israel but live elsewhere, confronting the reality of day to day in Israel is often hard to swallow.

Reading David Horovitz's new book presents the reader with a clear cut and comprehensive description and understanding of the conflict. Understanding that he is not only a journalist, but also a concerned father, brings the reader even closer to a situation that most of us would find unbearable, should we be living under such circumstances.

David Horovitz has the unique capacity to not only provide us with a skilled journalistic analysis of the political situation in Israel, but to also draw us into a better understanding of the lay citizen's daily struggle for a normal life in Israel.