The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict [Paperback]

Rosemary Radford Ruether (Author), Herman J. Ruether (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0800634799 | ISBN-13: 978-0800634797 | Edition: 2

The wrenching situation in the Middle East, recent events have shown, is as complex as it is volatile. In this immensely learned and clarifying volume-here updated and issued in paper for the first time-the Ruethers trace the tortured and contested history of Israel/Palestine from biblical times through the Diaspora, the development of Zionism, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the subsequent conflict with Arab and Palestinian nationalism. Magisterial in its grasp of the historical, political, economic, and religious roots of the conflict, The Wrath of Jonah also offers convincing analysis of the moral and political dilemmas facing Israelis and Palestinians today. Though they see possibilities for peace, the Ruethers are forthright about what they and others see as Israel's betrayal of its own original mandate. Their purpose, state the Ruethers, "continues to be to make a modest contribution to truthful historical accountability that must underlie the quest for justice, without which there can be no 'peace.'"

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this well-written, powerful sequel to Faith and Fratricide , the Ruethers (she is author of Women-Church ; he is acting director of the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign) argue that Israel and the U.S.not the Palestiniansare the chief obstacles to peace in the Middle East. The authors believe that the PLO's implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist "needs to be accepted and tested in good faith." Their philosophically grounded discourse traces elements of exclusivism and fanaticism in the three major monotheistic faithsJudaism, Christianity and Islam. Surveying Christian attitudes toward Judaism and Zionism from Jerry Falwell at one end of the spectrum to Arab Christians at the other, the Ruethers propose an ethic of solidarity between Jews, Christians and Muslims with the goal of a just peace, which in their scenario could mean either a separate Palestinian state or "one binational or cantonal state."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The authors describe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as "a story of two tragedies": the Palestinian uprooting and suffering as refugees, and the moral debacle of the Jewish state itself. They make a careful, sober analysis of the religious origins of the two nationalisms, the Christian support for Zionism, and the creation of the Jewish state. While they acknowledge the presence of anti-Semitism over the centuries, culminating in the brutality of the Holocaust, they insist that both nationalisms have a valid claim to exist in Palestine and that, at present, Israel is obliged to make some political and territorial compromises. Their argument is both strong and fair, and deserves to be widely read.
- Elizabeth R. Hayford, Assoc. Colls. of the Midwest, Chicago
Copyright 1989 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: 324 pages
• Publisher: Fortress Press; 2 edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800634799
• ISBN-13: 978-0800634797
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,271,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the truth, August 9, 2002

By 

Roger L. Schultz "Seeker" (Loveland, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Paperback)

The most misleading piece of misinformation about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is that it cannot be understood: (1) Too complicated and (2) too ancient. This book dispells both myths and succeeds in covering the entire waterfront of the Middle East conflict in just 296 pages.

#1: Rosemary Radford Ruether writes the obvious: To understand the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, one must begin by telling the truth. Surprisingly, the truth is information any informed Israeli, Palestinian, or American would agree upon. But it is information tha takes enormous effort to dig out and put together, because it is covered by layer upon layer of disinformation, clever semantics, guilt, fear, the self-interest of a few, and predjudice. But even given these formidable screens, the facts can be registered by the ordinary mind. The good news is, as of the publishing of THE WRATH OF JONAH, one does not have to dig it all out and put it together oneself. The Ruethers have done so in easily comprehended prose, concisely and comprehensively. The fact that they have been able to do so in so few pages testifies to the simplicity of the subject relative to its reputation.

#2: A very large proportion of Americans believe Arabs and Jews have been in conflict thousands of years. But history of the conflict goes back only a century, and most important incidents only within the last fifty years! ...Another reason THE WRATH OF JONAH can survey its history in a short volume.

Between them the authors bring expertise in both secular and religious causes and effects. Previously, even determined readers could not find both in the same place.

The fun part of the book was how much I learned about twentieth century world history in general and about the last century's Jewish and American, Christian religious movements--taking place underneath my nose unnoticed.

Surprising to most readers will be that one does not have to understand Islam to understand the Middle Eastern crisis.

THE WRATH OF JOHAH is not partisan, yet it pulls no punches. It is compassionate to everyone caught in the tragedy, but it does not confuse justice with "even-handedness."

The Ruethers even provide some common sense suggestions for real solutions. They, too, are not complicated, but you probably haven't seen them in print before.

Unfortunately, matters in the region are worsening, and the authors provide little hope that common sense will prevail. Still, it is worth the read if only to resolve cognitive dissonance.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terribly one-sided, December 18, 2005

By 

J. Young (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Paperback)

Usually, when one does research on a conflict such as the one in the Middle East between the Palestinians and Israelis, you would think that the person who conducts the research would have the integrity to fairly investigate both sides of the conflict. Not just one.

In the case of the Ruethers, they chose to look at just one side of the coin. This is evident as the authors state "In this book we wish to express our concerns for the injustice that has been done to the Palestinian people by both Israel and Western Christian peoples..."

As for the injustices that have been done to the Israelis by the Palestinians, such as repeated terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as promotion of anti-Semitism, forget it! The authors shamelessly blame all of the above on the Zionists, and even suggest that they are the root cause of all of this.

For example, in reference to the War of Independence in 1948, in which Israel was invaded by the armies of six Arab nations: Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, along with local Arab Palestinian forces, the Ruethers claim that, in a way, the Zionists wished for such event to happen - for the purpose of winning the war and therefore conquer Arab land after each victory. This theory is an insult to the Jews - considering that after the Holocaust, the last thing on a Jew's mind was to engage in a war.

Moving on with this topic, the Ruethers go on to say that although the Israelis faced armies from six countries, Israeli soldiers still outnumbered Arab soldiers, which is why Israel won the war (and therefore should feel guilty for successfully defending itself). Although sources do in fact reveal that the Israelis out-numbered the Arabs in manpower, they also reveal that Arabs outnumbered the Israelis in weapons; tanks, warplanes, machine guns, armoured vehicles, etc., which the authors fail to mention. This demonstrates a biased observation on the part of the Ruethers.

Throughout the book, the Ruethers depict the Zionists and Israelis as intolerant, selfish, dishonest, racist, brutal, hypocritical, corrupted, and greedy, just to name a few. In particular, the Zionists are painted as purely evil. The Palestinians on the other hand, are described as innocent, tolerant people who welcomed the Jews with open arms just to be betrayed and robbed of their land. Obviously, this idea is grossly inconsistent with actual events.

The Ruethers pretty much blame almost everything on the Zionists and Israelis: i.e.: poverty, struggling economy, lack of education and job opportunities, racism, etc, and ignore much of the corruption within the Palestinian leadership (PLO).

Another example of biasness is their analysis of the infamous six-day war. In 1967, Egypt, Jordan and Syria, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria joined forces together to wage war on Israel for the simple purpose of destroying the Jews and the state of Israel once and for all. However, the Ruethers did not mention this alliance in such context; Instead, they chose to focus on the suffering of the Arabs as a result of Israel's victory.

But what was Israel suppose to do, let itself be defeated so that there would be no casualties on the Arab side? Not to confiscate certain territories such as the Golan Heights so that the Arabs continue to use these high mountains for launching missiles at Israeli civilians? Also, the Ruethers fail to clarify that Israel used these confiscated territories as a bargaining tool for peace negotiations, i.e. returning land in exchange for guaranteed peace. Instead, the Ruethers portrayed the Israelis as thieves and land grabbers

To sum it up, every atrocity that the Palestinians have committed against the Israelis is justified. Whenever the Israelis retaliate, they are condemned with strong language. For instance, the Ruethers write how the Israelis "terrorised" Palestinian communities sometimes without mentioning how, where and when, with no sources either. When the Palestinians attack Israelis, the Ruethers justify it as "uprisings" and also refer to terrorists as "commandos."

Take this example: in the 1972 Olympic games, Palestinian terrorists kidnapped eleven Israeli athletes in Germany and ended up killing all of them. First, the Ruethers do not refer to them as "terrorists" but rather as "Septembrists" since they belonged to the "Black September" movement. Then, the Ruethers claim that the German police force killed most the Israeli hostages. And to add a final insult to injury, the authors criticize Israel's "unjust" retaliation in response to this event.

It is a shame that an expert on anti-Semitism (Rosemary Ruether) would write such garbage. After all, Rosemary Ruether has pointed out in her book, Faith and Fratricide, that many of the early Church fathers' writings about the Jews were anti-Semitic. Ironically enough, Rosemary's own writings in this book are very similar to the anti-Semitic writings of those that she once criticized.

Therefore, by her own definition, this book is anti-Semitic. Again, this is by her own definition, not mine. But then again, her pro-Palestine / anti-Israel husband, Herman Ruether, former acting director for the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign, undoubtedly influenced his wife to use her talents to write this ill one-sided book.

Although this book may be a little out-dated, it is still relevant for anti-Semites.

It is true that Palestinians have been suffering greatly for decades. Both Palestinian and Israelis authorities have crossed the line at many occasions, but to focus on only one group of people and exaggerate the actual events is simply not right.

This book will surely satisfy an anti-Semite. Otherwise, it is not worth reading.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This!!!, April 28, 2007

By 

Bridget Illian (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Paperback)

I have been studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since my recent visit to Israel/Palestine, and I find myself returning again and again to the Ruethers' book as a sane touchstone and source of good facts in the malestrom of propaganda and high emotion that characterizes most publications on this subject. The book is thoroughly researched and sources are cited. While I cannot comment on the appropriateness of the Ruethers' theology to a Jewish reader, as some reviewers have done, I can applaud their even-handedness with both Israelis and Palestinians, criticizing where criticism is due and expressing hope where appropriate. Their criticism of Zionism qua Zionism is somewhat problematic, but then, as they amply demonstrate, Zionism's inherent implications are themselves highly problematic. I wouldn't ever want to see Israel disappear, and I deplore the violence that continues there sporadically, but I don't want the Palestinian people to disappear, either. We so rarely hear their story.

Part of why I recommend this book so highly is that I was able to travel in both Israel and the Occupied Territories recently, and to talk with many groups of people - Israeli settlers, kibbutz-dwellers, Palestinians in Bethlehem, people of all three Abrahamic faiths. And what I saw with my own eyes was deeply disturbing to me, and begged for answers. There is a severe crisis of human rights in the Occupied Territories; many times I looked to the others traveling with me, and though neither of us could bring ourselves to say it, we were thinking the same awful thing: that Israel as a nation seems determined to minimize, humiliate, isolate, abuse, and ultimately "remove" the Palestinians. It was such a disturbing echo of the Jewish people's own worst history, that none of us could understand how Israel, of all the nations of the earth, could be doing all this. It takes a book like Rosemary & Henry's to uncover roots of this deeply intractable and alarming situation, and to correct the endemic American impression that the balance of power favors the Palestinians. I hate to say it, because growing up in a largely Jewish suburb of Chicago I was always inclined to favor Israel's version of events, but this is an honest book; it is a book badly needed, and should be read by practically everybody who cares about the Middle East.