How Israel Lost: The Four Questions (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Why do we care about Israel?..." (more)
Key Phrases: suicide bomb, West Bank, Tel Aviv, Arik Sharon (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It may seem surprising that a lengthy exploration of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians could be entertaining. But Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Ben Cramer manages to pull off just such a feat while sacrificing neither the gravity of the situation nor the intricacies of a political and religious war that seems to grow perpetually more bloody and intractable. He argues that Israel is being slowly destroyed by their continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which is in turn destroying the Palestinians' hopes for a homeland of their own. Cramer's book is divided into four questions about the conflict ("Why do we care about Israel?", "Why don't the Palestinians have a state?", "What is a Jewish state?", and "Why is there no peace?") modeled after the questions asked at a Passover seder. It's tricky to bring fresh insight to the situation in the Middle East since the cycle of attacks and subsequent retaliations is so depressingly perpetual. But Cramer ! strikes just the right tone to spark reader interest: irreverent without being inappropriate, blunt and direct without oversimplifying, and passionate without being biased. He's at his best in the book's final chapter, offering advice for hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ("Give back the land - the West Bank and Gaza") and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat ("bring one actual lawyer and someone to talk English on TV"). And while the history lessons provided in How Israel Lost are worthwhile, particularly to those whose knowledge of the conflict doesn't reach past the morning papers, it's Cramer's personal anecdotes of the human beings in the middle of the crisis and his own experiences covering it, combined with his lively writing, that make this such a compelling read. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly

If ever a book on Israel and the Palestinians was a good read, it's this introduction to the half-century-long conflict. Cramer, who won a Pulitzer in 1979 for Middle East reporting, divides his book into four parts, dealing with four questions on the model of the four questions asked by children at the Passover seder. He blends up-to-the-minute events of the Palestinian uprising with memories of his time as a Middle East correspondent in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cramer is great at telling an anecdote, whether about his visit as a correspondent to an Arab village where he learns about both hospitality and honor, or about a recent visit to an Israeli family that he finds instructive regarding Palestinians' inability to reconcile themselves to a Jewish presence. When it comes to prognosis, Cramer shoots straight from the hip in giving advice to both sides. He's of the "plague on both of their houses" school ("I should have told [the mother of a dead Palestinian militant] the same thing I would have told Sharon: ...you can't make a nation... based on whom you hate, or how many of them you kill"), and he's equally dismissive of Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon, although he seems to come down harder on the Israelis for failing to recognize the Arab world's need for honor. Many will find this a welcome personal introduction to the conflict, but those looking for a more measured tone would be better served with David Horovitz's Still Life With Bombers
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743250281
• ISBN-13: 978-0743250283
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #955,214 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wise And Courageous Book - A Must-Read! , September 12, 2004

By	Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for Americans who want to know Israeli reality, October 12, 2004

By	Assaf Oron (Seattle) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

32 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read and judge for yourself, June 30, 2004

By A Customer

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.