I just spent the weekend holding my Kindle Paperwhite and reading this entire 400-plus page book. What could possibly make a book about the history of Zionism, its entanglements in U.S. politics, and the agonized emergence of the State of Israel a page turner? Well, it is an experience almost like that of a person raised in a dogmatically religious household, hearing for years nothing but repetitions of the Bible, knowing no one except bible-school classmates, who suddenly picks up a careful scientific, reasoned,fact-based discussion of religion and reality. And sits muttering to himself: No one ever told me this! Why didn't anyone tell me this? How could I swallow all of that? Even knowing that when he begins to try to discuss his new ideas, his new insights, his mother will start crying--or cursing--and his dad may punch him in the mouth and kick him out of the house.
I am not and never was even FAINTLY as naive as the young man of my parable. I studied history, philosophy, and literature at Brown University. Was a newspaper reporter. Discovered the great novelist and philosopher, Ayn Rand, when I was 17, and dedicated myself to reason, independent thinking, and openness to the facts. But...very early I "bought" what I call the "Israel narrative" of a new nation built, founded, and won against all odds by a mercilessly persecuted people (true), a nation settled and built by men and women with a great vision of a new land where they could be free, secure, and reignite the fire of their religion (true), and who worked toward a society and a nation based on fairness and equality (alas, not true), and were open to peaceful, shared settlement of land occupied by another people (alas, not true), but had to fight off utterly unprovoked attacks (not true), held out offers of peace and justice that were spurned (not true), and were forced by the very struggle for survival to sweep away the occupants of the land (not true), forced to keep them out (not true), and, at last, to pen them indefinitely in walled, wired, military occupied enclaves (a big lie).
And this switch from true, to distressingly less than true, to blatantly untrue, to outrageously false is John Judis's account of how a movement that began infused with idealism, goodwill, and hope deteriorated into a colonialist movement that used and manipulated British imperialism, that came to believe the end of creating a Jewish state justified all means, and that succeeded brilliantly, beyond all expectations, and so put behind it, seemingly forever, considerations of justice and staked its future on a "narrative"--not a record.
And perhaps this book, to me, was a page turner because of the surprising revelation--inescapable as the dispassionate, documented, incisive presentation of the many-side drama unfolds--that my own country became the greatest obstacle to justice and peace between Israel and its Palestinian victims. And that, today, a purely American Zionism so dominates our politics that the prospects are dim that Israel ever may turn its attention from political and economy success, and its mesmerizing narrative of Biblical and historical rationalizations, to what is happening to its soul. It is disturbing, to say the least, to watch unfolding the story of how so many American Jewish citizens, including so many of the most successful, became accustomed, then comfortable, then almost addicted to viewing the good of Israel as their dominating concern. And, as an afterthought, added the coda that, of course, the good of Israel--that is, the will of its present government--is identical with the good of America.
And if American governments--indeed, every Representative, Senator, President, and other voice in government--cannot see that complete equality of interests, then there is no alternative but to drive them from public life.
And yet, if my account makes Mr. Judis's book sound harsh, condemnatory, and extreme that is only because I summarize my own conclusions and reactions--the resentment of one who feels he has been duped by the Israel narrative. The account itself is a resolutely factual, historical account-- vivid, evocative, and dramatic only when the story is so--that builds over many pages as the reader is invited to question the evidence--but mostly the lack of evidence--for his devotion to the Israel narrative.
I will add only that if, having read this book, you become excited about new ideas, new insights, in what really is occurring in Israel and the Middle East, you will do well to discuss them only in the most guarded, circumspect way. And if you do, expect virtually instant alarm--let's say, shock--and then a defensiveness that quickly becomes self-righteous refusal even to entertain such a discussion. It will not take many exchanges before the charge of antisemitism is raised. It is not your ideas, but your motives, that will be attacked. It is not your logic, but your honestly that will be called into doubt. And if you persist you may find yourself literally punished in ways beyond even discourse.
And you may find yourself in good company, with U.S Presidents from Harry Truman through Barrack Obama, when you begin to "take it all back," either directly or in so many words, and either suppress your views on Israel and turn to matters more promising, or pay lip service to Israel narrative because the cost of questioning is simply too high.
To see the world more clearly, for me, at least, is an end itself.
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Top reviews from other countries
- alan jonesReviewed in Canada on July 30, 2014
It is not often you get an honest assessment of the conflict and the terrible plight of the Palestinians
