The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege (Hardcover)

by Kenneth Levin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
While the subject of this study is specific—"the delusional thinking that underlay Israel's attempt to achieve peace with its neighbors through the so-called Oslo process"—the author's interests and conclusions are wide-ranging. Levin, a clinical instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a commentator on Israeli politics, attempts to analyze why many Israeli Jews chose to believe in the peace negotiations of the early 1990s, even when Yasser Arafat was refusing calls to publicly renounce terrorism. Levin analyzes this through both historical and psychoanalytic lenses, mapping out how people who have lived under siege are likely to internalize the hatred they encounter and become "delusional" about their own self-interest. Levin also discusses European and American anti-Semitism and its effect on Jewish identity, from the mid-19th century to 1948, with some background material on the emergence of Zionism and the British Mandate. While the word "delusional" may be too strong, Levin's psychoanalytic arguments about the "corrosive impact of... besiegement" are fascinating and generally persuasive. But once stated, their truth becomes self-evident and their explanatory application over 600 pages of Jewish and Israeli history begins to feel thin. Levin's documentation of the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the past three decades is exhaustive, but while there is mention of the U.S. response to the 9/11 attacks, Levin might have spent more time exploring how his ideas affect other countries or political situations. (June)
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Review
"....Levin is concerned with a pathology that has prompted the Jews....to embrace the false promise of peace...." -- WASHINGTON TIMES, June 1, 2005

"Israel’s Deadly Illusions" "....tells the appalling story of what has been called the greatest self-inflicted wound of political history...." -- NEW YORK POST, June 13, 2005

"Ken Levin explains why so many Jews and Isrealis delude themselves about the malevolent intentions of their enemies..." -- Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University

"Kenneth Levin....has written a definitive, magisterial book about what went wrong during the Oslo era." -- JERUSALEM POST, June 1, 2005

"That Arafat would honor what he undertook to do in the Oslo accords is but one false belief referenced ..." -- Fred Frankel, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.

"The Oslo Syndrome is an indispensable contribution to understanding the roots of the Oslo process…" -- Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, the Shalem Center, and Israel correspondent for The New Republic.

"This book is a major endeavor of using both psychoanalytic and historical methods to explain the Oslo phenomenon." -- JERUSALEM CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS, April 15, 2005

"this hugely interesting, highly informed and very timely work is a must read ..." -- Professor Efraim Karsh, Head, Mediterranean Studies
Programme
King's College, University of London.

Levin's book analyzes why so many Israeli Jews saw promise..despite Yassar Arafat's public refusals to renouce terrorism. -- The Dartmouth, October 11, 2005

This is the title of an important new book by Dr. Kenneth Levin, a psychiatrist and historian. -- Center for Security Policy, Decision Brief, May 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 621 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575254174
• ISBN-13: 978-1575254173
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #794,014 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important, powerful and sometimes disturbing., July 2, 2005

By	M. D Roberts (Gwent, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

With particular reference to the basis of the Oslo Accords, and quite disturbing at times, this book delves into the "mind-set" of Israelis which has resulted in their pursuit of "peace" with the Palestinian/Arab world.

The book outlines how in 1993, the Israeli leadership made the decision to embrace Yasser Arafat as it's "peace partner", installing him and what is cited as a "nascent Palestinian government" in Gaza and the "West Bank" (Biblical Judea & Samaria).

Israeli leaders are shown to have allowed Yasser Arafat to bring some 7,000 Palestinian gunmen along with him and provide them with the weaponry which was intended for use by his security services. Weapons which are depicted to have been subsequently used for attacks upon Israelis.

The Israeli pursuit of "peace" under what is called an "unprecedented wave of anti-Israeli terror", the subsequent effects upon Israeli society and the "peace process" itself, are all investigated in some detail.

Many pertinent questions are asked as to "why" such a path was trodden,whilst Yasser Arafat and his PLO are described as addressing Arab audiences to the effect that, any/all territory acquired from Israel is only part of the PLO's own "phased plan" to eradicate the Jewish state. Due reference being provided throughout.

Living in a country which the book describes as being "under perpetual siege", the reader is provided with an extraordinary insight into how "psychological and historical forces" have spawned such Israeli policies.

This is provided specifically in the context of how such a political process is still being allowed to proceed when the cited agendas of Arafat and the PLO are still being met with further, territorial, financial and related concessions without any reciprocity from the Arab side.

References revealing that Israel's "peace partner" was allegedly becoming accustomed to receiving Israeli concessions without giving anything in return and that unilateral withdrawals were only accelerating that phenomenon.

Further significant reference is also made to how Israelis have purportedly been confronted with what is termed "revisionist history".

Many pivotal and foundational issues cited to have been distorted to such a degree that innocent "peace-famished" Israeli civilians are described as being colluded into falsely believing that "anti-Jewish sentiment was grounded in a fair and truthful assessment of the Jews".

This giving rise to the perception that, through "submission", the Jewish community could pave the way to it's eventual "acceptance" and that it was subsequently possible to achieve peace through territorial and other concessions, irrespective of the ongoing terrorism. The delusional nature of this impression is examined in some depth.

The cover of this work carries two photographs;-

One photograph is of the late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, shaking each other's hands under the auspices of former US President Clinton on the White House lawn during 1993.

The other photograph is that of an Israeli bus, blown apart by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The carnage is horrifying.

The reader is left to his own interpretation of these presentations but their relevance & significance are as difficult to ignore as the implications of this study upon the ongoing "mind-set" behind the current "peace process" at this time.

Whether or not the individual reader agrees with the assertions of this work, this is a book that desperately needs reading by anyone who seeks to understand the feelings of those on the ground. It's importance cannot be under-estimated.

Highly recommended.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique History of the Delusions of an Oppressed People, November 26, 2006

By	Henry Oliner "[e-mail]" (Macon, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Why would the Israelis and the Jews sacrifice everything for a shallow peace accord with a "peace partner" who increases terror attacks, indoctrinates intensely virulent anti-Semitism at all levels of education and the media, and continues to vow annihilation of the state they feign to be negotiating peace with?

Kenneth Levin's answer approaches a perspective that is different from much of the current histories of the region. Levin illuminates a delusion that is the result of the stress of five decades of being under siege, and the result of centuries of demonization in Europe. He explores the history of the responses of the Jews in Europe to the hatred that spanned centuries and the futility of the Jews who vainly sought to appease their state sponsored tormentors by trying ever harder to assimilate. Ultimately the more they tried to assimilate the more the host nations persecuted them. Thus in spite of serving heroically in the German army in WWI they were ultimately rewarded with the holocaust.

The delusion that was Oslo was just a continuation of a desire of the Jewish community to either fit in or be left in peace. But it was also a delusion that the Jews could control the will of another party by giving more and more concessions, even when nothing is given in return. It is a unique form of arrogance and is ultimately self destructive.

The siege is not likely to end soon and Levin's prescription for Israel's survival is to educate its people on the history and moral purpose underlying the existence of the nation. Under Oslo many in the Israeli educational establishment pushed a curriculum that diminished the Jewish history and culture in favor of a more universalist approach. Revisionist historians embellished this approach with an anti Zionist slant to the story of Israel's history. Levin retorts the revisionists, but draws parallels to much of the self criticism from the Jews in Europe hoping to appease their state sponsors. Meanwhile the Palestinian educational structure, in clear defiance of Oslo, taught that the Jews had no right to the land or any historical connection to it and that it was their divine moral purpose to drive the Jews from their homeland.

The results of Oslo have taught what the Jews should have learned from centuries of oppression: that while it takes two people to make peace; it only takes one to make a war.

This book is a wonderful addition to the writings and analysis of the situation in Israel and is uniquely illuminating. I highly recommend it.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most powerful books on jewish history ever written, June 24, 2005

By	A. Apter "caro fan" (springfield n.j.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I was visiting Germany some years ago I happened to stop in a bookshop in Munich, where I saw an English copy of Hitler's Willing Executioners, by Goldhagen. Bringing this, along with a Sunday NYT to the counter, I was met with ghoulish silence from the tellers. Inhabitants of the shop glanced at me, and my purcahses, with looks that had ice water in them. Reading Goldhagen's book on my trip through Germany was an unforgottable experience - I could not have asked for a better travel guide.
The soul and theme of Levin's book can be summed up in the remark made 48 hours ago by Abbas to Sharon: "You hurt me by not giving me what I need. You use terror as an excuse not to give me what I need. You only make matters worse."
A great difficult and worthy read.