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Michael Lerner

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Embracing Israel/Palestine: A Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle East Paperback – November 22, 2011

by Michael Lerner (Author)

4.8 36 ratings

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A major modern conundrum is how the Arab/Israel conflict remains unresolved and, seemingly, unresolvable. In this inspirational book, Rabbi Michael Lerner suggests that a change in consciousness is crucial. With clarity and honesty, he examines how the mutual demonization and discounting of each sides’ legitimate needs drive the debate, and he points to new ways of thinking that can lead to a solution.

Lerner emphasizes that this new approach to the issue requires giving primacy to love, kindness, and generosity. It calls for challenging the master narratives in both Israel and Palestine as well as the false idea that “homeland security” can be achieved through military, political, economic, or media domination. Lerner makes the case that a lasting peace must prioritize helping people on all sides (including Europe and the U.S.) and that real security is best achieved through an ethos of caring and generosity toward “the other.” As many spiritual leaders have taught, problems like these cannot be solved at the same level at which they originated—one must seek higher ground, and that becomes a central task for anyone who wants a sustainable peace. Embracing Israel/Palestine is written for those looking for positive, practical solutions to this ongoing dilemma.

Length

448
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

North Atlantic Books
Publication date

2011
November 22
Dimensions

6.0 x 1.1 x 9.0
inches
ISBN-10

1583943072
ISBN-13

978-1583943076
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rabbi Michael Lerner provides us with a brilliant and hopeful vision of how to transform the Middle East from a cauldron of violence to a vanguard of peace. For several decades Lerner has been a remarkably courageous rabbi, defying the orthodoxies of some in his own community to insist that Biblical teachings require recognizing the equal value to God of both Israelis and Palestinians, and the practical necessity to embrace both Israel and Palestine with compassion and love, thereby challenging the extremists on all sides. In Embracing Israel/Palestine, Lerner presents us with a path to peace that will require our replacing the strategy of domination and war with what Lerner appropriately describes as the far more effective path to homeland security: the strategy of generosity and genuine caring for the well-being of everyone involved. This is practical and effective advice for the world. I hope every American will read this book and apply its lessons for changing how we deal with the Middle East.”
—Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States of America and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize

“Here is a terrific book by a pioneer of global transformation. Out of love for people—both Israelis and Palestinians as equal creations of God—Rabbi Michael Lerner offers us the deepest way out of the bloody conflict. Not just a political agreement, not a simple “real estate” and power sharing transaction, but an approach that draws from a deep psychological and political understanding of the dynamics of the Middle East and integrates into this a profound way of replacing the current profane and shallow political discourse with a deeper spiritual wisdom that would, if adopted, lead to precisely the consciousness expansion so badly needed. Lerner’s book, like all of his past prophesies, is coming out of a loving heart and a powerful analytic mind. He offers us a strategy of trust that could heal and repair the mentalities of fear and traumas that limit the current perspectives that dominate our politics. This book is a must-read for world and regional leaders as well as every one of us. It is the concept most needed in our time, the voice expressing our universal need, the sound of so many hearts.”
—Avrum Burg, Israeli author, former Chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization, Speaker of the Knesset, and interim President of the State of Israel

“Rabbi Michael Lerner is one of the very few Jewish leaders in the Diaspora who has consistently challenged slavish Jewish pandering to right-wing Israeli chauvinism and messianism, opposed the occupation of the West Bank and the crimes of many Israeli settlers, supported Palestinian rights and justice for the Palestinian people, called for an end to religious coercion and separation of state and synagogue in Israel, but has simultaneously retained a strong commitment to the safety and well-being of Israel and the Jewish people. He has been a fierce critic of those who move from legitimate criticism of Israeli policies to an illegitimate anti-Semitism or attempts to destroy Israel. His voice needs to be heard by Israelis, Palestinians, and all those who seek peace for the Middle East.”
—Uri Avnery, chair of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom

“Michael Lerner has been a national leader of the social change movements in the U.S. for the past forty-five years, and the practical wisdom derived from that experience plus his analytic skills honed as a psychotherapist, philosopher, and theologian combine in this book to give Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians a brilliant path to heal the Middle East. This book is at once a major intellectual achievement, a practical guide for peacemakers, and a perspective on politics and social change that everyone needs to read. Share it with your most partisan friends on every side of this issue, and on every side of America’s political divisions, and watch how they begin to broaden and mellow their understanding of the world.”
—Michael Nagler, founder of Peace Studies at UC Berkeley and chair of the Metta Center for Nonviolence

“This is Rabbi Michael Lerner’s magnum opus, but also beyond a doubt a chef d’oeuvre among myriads of studies dedicated to the alas so numerous human catastrophes of our times. It seems to be our un-asked-for Jewish destiny to suffer inanities and absurdities of all historical eras in their most radicalized and brutalized form. The particular inanity behind the Israeli-Palestinian dance macabre is the trademark product of modernity: the unholy trinity and explosive mixture of state-power, nation, and territory. No matter how many books you’ve read on this subject, Embracing Israel/Palestine will give you a new and powerfully insightful perspective that could empower you to play a significant and hopefully effective role in healing this conflict—and in doing so begin to heal the world.”
—Zygmunt Bauman, author of Modernity and the Holocaust, Modernity and Ambivalence, and Postmodernity and its Discontents

About the Author

Best-selling author Michael Lerner, PhD, is the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun synagogue in San Francisco and the editor of Tikkun magazine, one of the most respected intellectual/cultural magazines in the Jewish world. Lerner, together with his then wife, founded Tikkun in 1986 as “the voice of Jewish liberals and progressives” and as “the alternative to Commentary magazine and the voices of Jewish conservatism.” From the start, the magazine was dedicated to Jewish ethics and to healing and repair of the world. A frequent lecturer and scholar in residence at universities and synagogues around the United States, Canada, and England, Rabbi Lerner was, in 2001, awarded a special PEN Award for his stance in breaking the censorship that effectively exists around Israel-Palestinian matters in the U.S. media. In January of 2002 he founded The Tikkun Community, an international interfaith organization dedicated to peace, justice, non-violence, generosity, caring, love, and compassion, which he chairs with Cornel West. Each year, The Tikkun Community brings hundreds of people to Washington, DC, for a Teach-In to Congress on Middle East Peace. Over the years Lerner has been a guest on numerous national and international television shows, including Larry King Live, CNN News, Meet the Press, and Bill Moyers Journal. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Atlantic Books; Illustrated edition (November 22, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1583943072
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1583943076
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.54 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.99 x 1.07 x 8.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #968,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #296 in War & Peace (Books)
- #1,151 in Middle Eastern Politics
- #1,323 in Israel & Palestine History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.8 36 ratings

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4.8 out of 5

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M. Kennedy

Heartfelt History produces Change

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2012

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EMBRACING ISRAEL/PALESTINE: A Strategy to Heal and Transform the Middle East, by Rabbi Michael Lerner
Review by Mimi Kennedy:

Early in "Embracing Israel/Palestine" author Rabbi Michael Lerner gives the reader permission to skip the first two-thirds of the book and go to Chapter Seven.
I was sorely tempted. The first two-thirds is history, whereas Chapter Seven begins the psychology and sociology: "Healing the Traumas of Both Peoples." I find history dry. I don't trust it. The facts of conquest and conflict too often seem one-sided. Did I really have to read again about all that suffering and injustice, massacre, robbery, hatred and oppression?
I did. Lerner's history, maps, and documents give not merely a blow-by-blow of mutual injustice and failed legal solutions, they accumulate, almost like a diagnosis of a fatal disease. His reporting had huge emotional weight, and by the end of those seven chapters, it was vividly clear that no legal solution could successfully withstand the flow of bitter memory from all sides. Like the flawed levees that crumbled in Katrina, any legal solution that didn't more fully understand the force of all this bitterness would surely fail.
Rabbi Lerner, who has a doctorate in psychology, theorizes that no stable solution can be built in conditions of post-traumatic stress. He asserts that PTSD is the condition of the entire region, its people, and supporters on all sides today. I didn't doubt it, because his history induced, in me, temporarily, that very condition. Revisiting the horrors suffered by Jews in Europe through history, most particularly in Nazi Germany, then reading about the violence in Palestine created by Zionists seeking a safer place, was heartwrenching. It reminded me, too, that the religion my Irish-American people hold dear also in what they call "the Holy Land" - and under conditions of violent, cruel occupation
I highlighted, underlined, boxed, and made comments beside text that was salient and thrilling. But any single quote might undermine Lerner's tremendous achievement: he presented history that resonated with the ring of truth - "Yes! There's the crux of it! That's at the root of the thing and just how I feel about it!" on all sides. When I read back, I had affirmed every side of the multi-faceted argument. Lerner spares no-one his complete empathy. He justifies us all.
But here's one: "We get mired in our righteousness and avoid the more difficult question: how are we going to change things?"
Lerner offers autobiography so we can consider the source. As an anti-war activist, he was also a Zionist whose support for the 67 War horrified his friends. He is pointed on the difficulties of social movement organizing, noting that activists who work selflessly to diminish suffering often derive their empathy from their own traumas of being misunderstood, mistrusted, or considered wrong by a group,or losing too much. He offers solutions - based on his treatment of PTSD - that I know are effective in groups. When he extrapolates this approach to global peace-making, he's convincing. As he is when he reminds us that domination is often the short-term solution preferred when fear strikes. There has been little institutional or political support for the culture of caring and generosity, which he says alone can heal trauma.
Little cultural support either. Elvis Costello asked "What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?" But the Bush years brought bullying and mockery of those values to the fore.
Lerner's book is brave. It's history for those who don't like history. Even if we're tired of trying to think about this, we must. American thought deeply affects the future of Israel/Palestine and - as Lerner points out - the integrity of the world's great religions. Read his book and try again.

3 people found this helpful

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jamesm1291

Achieving peace in Israel/Palesine

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2012

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This book by Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor and publisher of Tikkun, is a knowledgeable and compassionate look at the current Israel/Palestine conflict, which provides both an historical and contemporary basis for understanding the needs and aspirations of both Israeli Jews and their Palestinian neighbors, both within Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza. Neither Jews, nor Muslims within Israel-Palestine are exempt from criticism in this account. Rabbi Lerner asserts the rights of both Muslims and Jews to live freely and independently within this land. While providing support for a meaningful two State solution, he also offers some alternatives for consideration. For most Americans, who are impacted on a day to day basis by the right wing pro-Likud polemics of the America Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI), this easy to read, easy to understand and quite convincing narrative is a welcome addition to our understanding of a complex and heart rending conflict. One emerges from the reading with a realization that the existential threats for both Jews and Muslims in Israel/Palestine are not external, either in Iran or surrounding Arab States, but internal within their own seemingly intractable belief systems. Rabbi Lerner's compassionate account illustrates the wisdom of two great Jewish sages, Rabbi Shim'on Ben Gamli'el, "On these three things, the whole world stands: Justice, truth and peace", and Rabbi Muna, "When justice is done, truth is done, and peace is made". Rabbi Lerner's historical narrative goes a long way to allow us to understand the truths on which currently lacking justice can be achieved and, hopefully, peace made.

16 people found this helpful

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D. Waterman

Too many alternatives

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2013

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One gets the feeling that the author is attempting to appeal to too wide an audience. While I agree that this is necessary in the context of discussing the seemingly intractable problems of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I feel that his emphasis on comparing the suffering of the Palestinians with the historical suffering of Jews during the Holocaust come out as a justification. I know this is not intended, but as a Jew and a long time opponent of Israel's policy of occupation, I sincerely believe that a discussion of the historical conditions that led to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine will not result in any agreement. There is simply too much opportunity there for those who are ignorant of the facts to go into outright denial. I also think that Micheal Lerner's discussion of the 'two-state solution' and the 'one-state solution' misses the point entirely. In my opinion the state is the problem. Or to be more specific, the current expansionist policies are a direct consequence of the predatory economic policies prevalent in other parts of the world. Although I like this book and respect Lerner's efforts to create a dialogue, I strongly feel that it will appeal mostly to the converted, that it fails to distance itself enough from particular parties (excusing Israeli racists for being "afraid") and I also get the feeling that at least part of the problem stems from Lerner's refusal to see Jewish identity as redundant. In the new world, our identities need to be based on something altogether deeper and more relevant than ethnicity or religion. In a letter to Lerner, I suggested that young Israelis and Palestinians have more in common with each other than with their parents generation. I doubt whether many people would agree with me, but the point is that we must find ways to transcend the conditions, ideological and technical, that keep us thinking of ourselves as belonging to distinct groups, because that way we will continue to view those not belonging to our group as having different interests. Altogether then, I feel that this book fails to address the most serious problems of the region, including important one's such as Jewish racism, and the economic policies that promote conflict, which would turn the book into a much more political statement. Lerner is appealing to the heart and conscience of those involved in the conflict, but this is simply not enough: we have to recognise how capitalism contributed to the destruction of european Jewry, and how it is not threatening to destroy the Middle-east. Ultimately, the economic policies of Israel are undermining the state from within, and not dialogue on peace can stand a chance without addressing this issue.

7 people found this helpful

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Iron Press Consignment

READ THIS BOOK!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2013

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Brilliant book - a breath of fresh air on the whole Middle-East scenario and an inspiration for me with my theatre work in Shatila
Palestinian Refugee Camp in Beirut.I now intend to invite a Jewish audience to one of the Palestinian theatre performances
on Tyneside. Everyone with any concern for the region's future must read it!

3 people found this helpful

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