Told mainly through a series of vignettes and interviews, this fine book builds toward one overarching conclusion, namely that Israel, as it currently stands (politically, socially and demographically), is a country living on borrowed time.
It is, at once, the idealistic, romantic story of Israel's 19th century beginnings, which ever so quickly folds into the initial conflicts with Palestinian neighbors, followed by conflicts ever more intense with each succeeding decade, and leading ultimately to the situation today in which a prosperous and powerful country of 6 million people is surrounded by 3 or 4 hundred million Arabs who, for the most part, wish they weren't there.
The author, Ari Shavit, a proud Israeli citizen, sees his country as a land careening toward disaster unless and until it threads the needle out of the vortex in which it now finds itself. In a certain sense, this is a 'Waiting for Godot' story in which it appears that no solution is anywhere in sight. For there is, for certain, a poison cup in this land from which both sides drunk deeply.
So profoundly distressing and so dangerous is the current situation that, at least to me, the only possible present path forward would seem to be a long series of moderating mini-steps that might, over time, ever so gradually dissipate the fear and hostility that today governs the multiple 'players and parties' who inhabit this troubled land.
Buying Options
Print List Price: | $20.00 |
Kindle Price: |
$13.99
Save $6.01 (30%) |
Sold by: |
Random House LLC
Price set by seller. |

Add to book club
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.

![My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by [Ari Shavit]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qdC1B7F2L._SY346_.jpg)
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
OK
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel Kindle Edition
by
Ari Shavit
(Author)
Format: Kindle Edition
Ari Shavit
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author?
Learn about Author Central
|
See all formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
Price
|
New from | Used from |
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
Free with your Audible trial |
Paperback, Illustrated
"Please retry"
|
$10.00 | $1.99 |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$39.99 | $4.84 |
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Download to your computer
|
Kindle Cloud Reader
|
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- Israel: A Concise History of a Nation RebornKindle Edition
- Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a NationKindle Edition
- The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land (Updated in 2008)Kindle Edition
- Letters to My Palestinian NeighborKindle Edition
- Jerusalem: The BiographyKindle Edition
- Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle EastKindle Edition
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
- Israel: A Concise History of a Nation RebornKindle Edition
- Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a NationKindle Edition
- Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle EastKindle Edition
- Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle EastKindle Edition
- Israel and Palestine: The Complete History [2019 Edition]Kindle Edition
- Israel: A HistoryKindle Edition
Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This book will sweep you up in its narrative force and not let go of you until it is done. [Shavit’s] accomplishment is so unlikely, so total . . . that it makes you believe anything is possible, even, God help us, peace in the Middle East.”—Simon Schama, Financial Times
“[A] must-read book . . . Shavit celebrates the Zionist man-made miracle—from its start-ups to its gay bars—while remaining affectionate, critical, realistic and morally anchored. . . . His book is a real contribution to changing the conversation about Israel and building a healthier relationship with it. Before their next ninety-minute phone call, both Barack and Bibi should read it.”—Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times
“[An] important and powerful book . . . [Shavit] has an undoctrinaire mind. He comes not to praise or to blame, though along the way he does both, with erudition and with eloquence; he comes instead to observe and to reflect. This is the least tendentious book about Israel I have ever read. It is a Zionist book unblinkered by Zionism. It is about the entirety of the Israeli experience. Shavit is immersed in all of the history of his country. While some of it offends him, none of it is alien to him. . . . The author of My Promised Land is a dreamer with an addiction to reality. He holds out for affirmation without illusion. Shavit’s book is an extended test of his own capacity to maintain his principles in full view of the brutality that surrounds them.”—Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review
“Spellbinding . . . In this divided, fought-over shard of land splintered from the Middle East barely seventy years ago, Mr. Shavit’s prophetic voice carries lessons that all sides need to hear.”—The Economist
“One of the most nuanced and challenging books written on Israel in years . . . [The] book’s real power: On an issue so prone to polemic, Mr. Shavit offers candor.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A tour de force.”—Jewish Journal
“Reads like a love story and a thriller at once.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“[A] searingly honest, descriptively lush, painful and riveting story of the creation of Zionism in Israel and [Shavit’s] own personal voyage.”—The Washington Post
“Shavit is a master storyteller. [His] retelling of history jars us out of our familiar retrospections, reminds us (and we do need reminders) that there are historical reasons why Israel is a country on the edge. . . . Required reading for both the left and the right.”—The Jewish Week
“The most extraordinary book that I’ve read on [Israel] since Amos Elon’s book called The Israelis, and that was published in the late sixties.”—David Remnick, on Charlie Rose
“My Promised Land is an Israeli book like no other. Not since Amos Elon’s The Israelis, Amos Oz’s In the Land of Israel, and Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem has there been such a powerful and comprehensive book written about the Jewish State and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ari Shavit is one of Israel’s leading columnists and writers, and the story he tells describes with great empathy the Palestinian tragedy and the century-long struggle between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land. While Shavit is being brutally honest regarding the Zionist enterprise, he is also insightful, sensitive, and attentive to the dramatic life-stories of his fascinating heroes and heroines. The result is a unique nonfiction book that has the qualities of fine literature. It brings to life epic history without being a conventional history book. It deepens contemporary political understanding without being a one-sided political polemic. It is painful and provocative, yet colorful, emotional, life-loving, and inspiring. My Promised Land is the ultimate personal odyssey of a humanist exploring the startling biography of his tormented homeland, which is at the very center of global interest.”—Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel
“With deeply engaging personal narratives and morally nuanced portraits, Ari Shavit takes us way beneath the headlines to the very heart of Israel’s dilemmas in his brilliant new work. His expertise as a reporter comes through in the interviews, while his lyricism brings the writing—and the people—to life. Shavit also challenges Israelis and Diaspora Jewry to be bold in imagining the next chapter for Israel, a challenge that will no doubt be informed by this important book.”—Rick Jacobs, president, Union for Reform Judaism
“This is the epic history that Israel deserves—beautifully written, dramatically rendered, full of moral complexity. Ari Shavit has made a storied career of explaining Israel to Israelis; now he shares his mind-blowing, trustworthy insights with the rest of us. It is the best book on the subject to arrive in many years.”—Franklin Foer, editor, The New Republic
“A beautiful, mesmerizing, morally serious, and vexing book. I’ve been waiting most of my adult life for an Israeli to plumb the deepest mysteries of his country’s existence and share his discoveries, and Ari Shavit does so brilliantly, writing simultaneously like a poet and a prophet. My Promised Land is a remarkable achievement.”—Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent, The Atlantic
“Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land is without question one of the most important books about Israel and Zionism that I have ever read. Both movingly inspiring and at times heartbreakingly painful, My Promised Land tells the story of the Jewish state as it has never been told before, capturing both the triumph and the torment of Israel’s experience and soul. This is the book that has the capacity to reinvent and reshape the long-overdue conversation about how Israel’s complex past ought to shape its still-uncertain future.”—Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, Jerusalem
“This book is vital reading for Americans who care about the future, not only of the United States but of the world.”—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
“[A] must-read book . . . Shavit celebrates the Zionist man-made miracle—from its start-ups to its gay bars—while remaining affectionate, critical, realistic and morally anchored. . . . His book is a real contribution to changing the conversation about Israel and building a healthier relationship with it. Before their next ninety-minute phone call, both Barack and Bibi should read it.”—Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times
“[An] important and powerful book . . . [Shavit] has an undoctrinaire mind. He comes not to praise or to blame, though along the way he does both, with erudition and with eloquence; he comes instead to observe and to reflect. This is the least tendentious book about Israel I have ever read. It is a Zionist book unblinkered by Zionism. It is about the entirety of the Israeli experience. Shavit is immersed in all of the history of his country. While some of it offends him, none of it is alien to him. . . . The author of My Promised Land is a dreamer with an addiction to reality. He holds out for affirmation without illusion. Shavit’s book is an extended test of his own capacity to maintain his principles in full view of the brutality that surrounds them.”—Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review
“Spellbinding . . . In this divided, fought-over shard of land splintered from the Middle East barely seventy years ago, Mr. Shavit’s prophetic voice carries lessons that all sides need to hear.”—The Economist
“One of the most nuanced and challenging books written on Israel in years . . . [The] book’s real power: On an issue so prone to polemic, Mr. Shavit offers candor.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A tour de force.”—Jewish Journal
“Reads like a love story and a thriller at once.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“[A] searingly honest, descriptively lush, painful and riveting story of the creation of Zionism in Israel and [Shavit’s] own personal voyage.”—The Washington Post
“Shavit is a master storyteller. [His] retelling of history jars us out of our familiar retrospections, reminds us (and we do need reminders) that there are historical reasons why Israel is a country on the edge. . . . Required reading for both the left and the right.”—The Jewish Week
“The most extraordinary book that I’ve read on [Israel] since Amos Elon’s book called The Israelis, and that was published in the late sixties.”—David Remnick, on Charlie Rose
“My Promised Land is an Israeli book like no other. Not since Amos Elon’s The Israelis, Amos Oz’s In the Land of Israel, and Thomas Friedman’s From Beirut to Jerusalem has there been such a powerful and comprehensive book written about the Jewish State and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ari Shavit is one of Israel’s leading columnists and writers, and the story he tells describes with great empathy the Palestinian tragedy and the century-long struggle between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land. While Shavit is being brutally honest regarding the Zionist enterprise, he is also insightful, sensitive, and attentive to the dramatic life-stories of his fascinating heroes and heroines. The result is a unique nonfiction book that has the qualities of fine literature. It brings to life epic history without being a conventional history book. It deepens contemporary political understanding without being a one-sided political polemic. It is painful and provocative, yet colorful, emotional, life-loving, and inspiring. My Promised Land is the ultimate personal odyssey of a humanist exploring the startling biography of his tormented homeland, which is at the very center of global interest.”—Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel
“With deeply engaging personal narratives and morally nuanced portraits, Ari Shavit takes us way beneath the headlines to the very heart of Israel’s dilemmas in his brilliant new work. His expertise as a reporter comes through in the interviews, while his lyricism brings the writing—and the people—to life. Shavit also challenges Israelis and Diaspora Jewry to be bold in imagining the next chapter for Israel, a challenge that will no doubt be informed by this important book.”—Rick Jacobs, president, Union for Reform Judaism
“This is the epic history that Israel deserves—beautifully written, dramatically rendered, full of moral complexity. Ari Shavit has made a storied career of explaining Israel to Israelis; now he shares his mind-blowing, trustworthy insights with the rest of us. It is the best book on the subject to arrive in many years.”—Franklin Foer, editor, The New Republic
“A beautiful, mesmerizing, morally serious, and vexing book. I’ve been waiting most of my adult life for an Israeli to plumb the deepest mysteries of his country’s existence and share his discoveries, and Ari Shavit does so brilliantly, writing simultaneously like a poet and a prophet. My Promised Land is a remarkable achievement.”—Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent, The Atlantic
“Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land is without question one of the most important books about Israel and Zionism that I have ever read. Both movingly inspiring and at times heartbreakingly painful, My Promised Land tells the story of the Jewish state as it has never been told before, capturing both the triumph and the torment of Israel’s experience and soul. This is the book that has the capacity to reinvent and reshape the long-overdue conversation about how Israel’s complex past ought to shape its still-uncertain future.”—Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, Jerusalem
“This book is vital reading for Americans who care about the future, not only of the United States but of the world.”—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
From Booklist
Shavit is a columnist for the center-left Israeli daily Haaretz. Unlike some on the Israeli Left, he isn’t an anti-Zionist provocateur. Rather, he is a fervently patriotic Israeli with an abiding love for his nation’s history and the best of its traditions and institutions. So his honest and sometimes brutally frank portrait of his homeland’s past and its present dilemmas is especially poignant. Shavit’s narrative is strongest when he utilizes the stories of individual Israelis to paint a rich tableau based on personal experiences. What emerges isn’t necessarily optimistic. He regards the current peace process as a dead end, since no Palestinian leader or government can guarantee an agreement that offers the necessary security for Israel. Yet his own military experience on the West Bank has convinced him that control over Palestinians is poisonous and cannot be sustained. Finally, he makes clear that Iran truly is an existential threat that must, somehow, be neutralized. This is a masterful portrait of contemporary Israel. --Jay Freeman
--This text refers to the audioCD edition.
About the Author
Ari Shavit is a leading Israeli journalist, a columnist for Haaretz, and a commentator on Israeli public television.
From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.
From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ONE
At First Sight, 1897
On the night of April 15, 1897, a small, elegant steamer is en route from Egypt’s Port Said to Jaffa. Thirty passengers are on board, twenty-one of them Zionist pilgrims who have come from London via Paris, Marseille, and Alexandria. Leading the pilgrims is the Rt. Honorable Herbert Bentwich, my great-grandfather.
Bentwich is an unusual Zionist. At the end of the nineteenth century, most Zionists are Eastern European; Bentwich is a British subject. Most Zionists are poor; he is a gentleman of independent means. Most Zionists are secular, whereas he is a believer. For most Zionists of this time, Zionism is the only choice, but my great-grandfather chooses Zionism of his own free will. In the early 1890s, Herbert Bentwich makes up his mind that the Jews must settle again in their ancient homeland, Judea.
This pilgrimage is unusual, too. It is the first such journey of upper-middle-class British Jews to the Land of Israel. This is why the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, attributes such importance to these twenty-one travelers. He expects Bentwich and his colleagues to write a comprehensive report about the Land. Herzl is especially interested in the inhabitants of Palestine and the prospects for colonizing it. He expects the report to be presented at the end of the summer to the first Zionist Congress that is to be held in Basel. But my great-grandfather is somewhat less ambitious. His Zionism, which preceded Herzl’s, is essentially romantic. Yet he, too, was carried away by the English translation of Herzl’s prophetic manifesto Der Judenstaat, or The State of the Jews. He personally invited Herzl to appear at his prestigious London club, and he was bowled over by the charisma of the visionary leader. Like Herzl, he believes that Jews must return to Palestine. But as the flat-bottomed steamer Oxus carves the black water of the Mediterranean, Bentwich is still an innocent. My great-grandfather does not wish to take a country and to establish a state; he wishes to face God.
I remain on deck for a moment. I want to understand why the Oxus is making its way across the sea. Who exactly is this ancestor of mine, and why has he come here?
As the twentieth century is about to begin there are more than 11 million Jews in the world, of whom nearly 7 million live in Eastern Europe, 2 million live in Central and Western Europe, and 1.5 million live in North America. Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern Jewry total less than one million.
Only in North America and Western Europe are Jews emancipated. In Russia they are persecuted. In Poland they are discriminated against. In Islamic countries they are a “protected people” living as second-class citizens. Even in the United States, France, and Britain, emancipation is merely a legality. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. In 1897, Christendom is not yet at peace with its ultimate other. Many find it difficult to address Jews as free, proud, and equal.
In the eastern parts of Europe, Jewish distress is acute. A new breed of ethnic-based anti-Semitism is superseding the old religious-based anti-Semitism. Waves of pogroms befall Jewish towns and townships in Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, and Poland. Most shtetl Jews realize that there is no future for the shtetl. Hundreds of thousands sail to Ellis Island. The Jewish Diaspora experiences once again the cataclysmic phenomenon of mass migration.
Worse than the past is what the future holds. In the next half century, a third of all Jews will be murdered. Two-thirds of European Jewry will be wiped out. The worst catastrophe in the history of the Jewish people is about to occur. So as the Oxus approaches the shores of the Holy Land, the need to give Palestine to the Jews feels almost palpable. If the Jews won’t disembark here, they will have no future. This emerging coastline may be their only salvation.
There is another need. In the millennium preceding 1897, Jewish survival was guaranteed by the two great g’s: God and ghetto. What enabled Jews to maintain their identity and their civilization was their closeness to God and their detachment from the surrounding non-Jewish world. Jews had no territory and no kingdom. They had no liberty and no sovereignty. What held them together as a people were religious belief, religious practice, and a powerful religious narrative, as well as the high walls of isolation built around them by gentiles. But in the hundred years prior to 1897, God drifted away and the ghetto walls collapsed. Secularization and emancipation—limited as they were—eroded the old formula of Jewish survival. There was nothing to maintain the Jewish people as a people living among others. Even if Jews were not to be slaughtered by Russian Cossacks or to be persecuted by French anti-Semites, they were faced with collective mortal danger. Their ability to maintain a non-Orthodox Jewish civilization in the Diaspora was now in question.
There was a need for revolution. If it was to survive, the Jewish people had to be transformed from a people of the Diaspora to a people of sovereignty. In this sense the Zionism that emerges in 1897 is a stroke of genius. Its founders, led by Dr. Herzl, are both prophetic and heroic. All in all, the nineteenth century was the golden age of Western Europe’s Jewry. Yet the Herzl Zionists see what is coming. True, they do not know that the twentieth century will conjure up such places as Auschwitz and Treblinka. But in their own way they act in the 1890s in order to preempt the 1940s. They realize they are faced with a radical problem: the coming extinction of the Jews. And they realize that a radical problem calls for a radical solution: the transformation of the Jews, a transformation that can take place only in Palestine, the Jews’ ancient homeland.
Herbert Bentwich does not see things as lucidly as Theodor Herzl does. He doesn’t know that the century about to begin will be the most dramatic in Jewish history. But his intuition tells him that it’s time for radical action. He knows that the distress in Eastern Europe is intolerable and that in the West, assimilation is unavoidable; in the East, Jews are in danger, while in the West, Judaism is in trouble. My great-grandfather understands that the Jewish people desperately need a new place, a new beginning, a new mode of existence. If they are to survive, the Jewish people need the Holy Land.
Bentwich was born in 1856 in the Whitechapel district of London. His father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who made his living as a traveling salesman, peddling jewelry in Birmingham and Cambridge. But the salesman wanted more for his beloved son. He sent Herbert to fine grammar schools where the boy did well. Knowing that all his parents’ hopes were invested in him, the disciplined youngster worked hard to prove himself. In his thirties he was already a successful solicitor living in St. John’s Wood.
Before traveling to Palestine, my great-grandfather was a leading figure in the Anglo-Jewish community. His professional expertise was copyright law. In his social life he was one of the founders of the prominent dining and debating Maccabean Club. In his private life he was married to a beautiful, artistic wife who was raising nine children in their magisterial Avenue Road home. Another two would be born in the coming years.
A self-made man, Herbert Bentwich is rigid and pedantic. His dominant traits are arrogance, determination, self-assurance, self-reliance, and nonconformity. Yet he is very much a romantic, with a soft spot for mysticism. Bentwich is a Victorian. He feels deeply indebted to the British Empire for opening its gates to the immigrant’s son he once was. When Bentwich was two years old, the first Jew was elected to British Parliament. When he was fifteen, the first Jew was admitted to Oxford. When he turned twenty-nine, the first Jew entered the House of Lords. For Bentwich these milestones are wonders. He does not look upon emancipation as a belated fulfillment of a natural right but as an act of grace carried out by Queen Victoria’s Great Britain.
In his physical appearance Bentwich resembles the Prince of Wales. He has steely blue eyes, a full, well-trimmed beard, a strong jaw. His manner is also that of a nobleman. Although poor at birth, Herbert Bentwich vigorously embraced the values and customs of the empire that ruled the seas. Like a true gentleman he loves travel, poetry, and theater. He knows his Shakespeare and he is at home in the Lake District. Yet he does not compromise his Judaism. With his wife, Susan, he nurtures a family home that is all Anglo-Jewish harmony: morning prayers and chamber music, Tennyson and Maimonides, Shabbat rituals and an Oxbridge education. Bentwich believes that just as imperial Britain has a mission in this world, so do the Jewish people. He feels it is the duty of the emancipated Jews of the West to look after the persecuted Jews of the East. My great-grandfather is absolutely certain that just as the British Empire saved him, it will save his brethren. His loyalty to the Crown and his loyalty to the Jewish vocation are intertwined. They push him toward Palestine. They lead him to head this unique Anglo-Jewish delegation traveling to the shores of the Holy Land.
Had I met Herbert Bentwich, I probably wouldn’t have liked him. If I were his son, I am sure I would have rebelled against him. His world—royalist, religious, patriarchal, and imperial—is eras away from my world. But as I study him from a distance—more than a century of distance—I cannot deny the similarities between us. I am surprised to find how much I identify with my eccentric great-grandfather.
So I ask again: Why is he here? Why does he find himself on this steamer? He is in no personal danger. His life in London is prosperous, fulfilling. Why sail all the way to Jaffa?
One answer is romanticism. In 1897, Palestine is not yet British, but it is on the British horizon. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the yearning for Zion is as English as it is Jewish. George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda has paved the way; Laurence Oliphant has taken it further. The fascination with Zion is now at the heart of the English Romanticism of the colonial era. For my great-grandfather, a romantic, a Jew, and a Victorian gentleman, the temptation is irresistible. The yearning for Zion has become an integral part of his constitution. It defines his identity.
The second answer is more important and more relevant. Herbert Bentwich is way ahead of his time. The journey he took from Whitechapel to St. John’s Wood in the late nineteenth century is analogous to the journey taken by many Jews from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side in the twentieth century. As 1900 approaches, my great-grandfather is faced with the challenge that will face American Jewry in the twenty-first century: how to maintain a Jewish identity in an open world, how to preserve a Judaism not shielded by the walls of a ghetto, how to prevent the dispersion of the Jews into the liberty and prosperity of the modern West.
Yes, Herbert Bentwich takes the trip from Charing Cross to Jaffa because he is committed to ending Jewish misery in the East, but his main reason for taking this journey is his understanding of the futility of Jewish life in the West. Because he was blessed with a privileged life, he already sees the challenge that will follow the challenge of anti-Semitism. He sees the calamity that will follow the Holocaust. He realizes that his own world of Anglo-Jewish harmony is a world in eclipse. That’s why he crosses the Mediterranean.
He arrives on April 16 at the mouth of the ancient port of Jaffa. I watch him as he awakens at 5:00 a.m. in his first-class compartment. I watch him as he walks up the stairs to the Oxus’s wooden deck in a light suit and a cork hat. I watch him as he looks from the deck. The sun is about to rise over the archways and turrets of Jaffa. And the land my great-grandfather sees is just as he hoped it would appear: illuminated by the gentle dawn and shrouded by the frail light of promise.
Do I want him to disembark? I don’t yet know.
I have an obsession with all things British. Like Bentwich, I love Land’s End and Snowdown and the Lake District. I love the English cottage and the English pub and the English countryside. I love the breakfast ritual and the tea ritual and Devon’s clotted cream. I am mesmerized by the Hebrides and the Scottish Highlands and the soft green hills of Dorset. I admire the deep certainty of English identity. I am drawn to the quiet of an island that has not been conquered for eight hundred years, to the continuity of its way of life. To the civilized manner in which it conducts its affairs.
If Herbert Bentwich disembarks, he will bid farewell to all that. He will uproot himself and his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from the deep English green in order to settle us all—for generations—in the wild Middle East. Isn’t it foolish to do so? Isn’t it mad?
But it’s not that simple. The British Isles are not really ours. We are only passersby, for the road we travel is much longer and far more tormented. The English green provided us with only an elegant and temporary refuge, a respite along the way. The demography tells a clear story: In the second half of the twentieth century, which Herbert Bentwich will not live to see, the Anglo-Jewish community will shrink by a third. Between 1950 and 2000 the number of Jews in the British Isles will drop from over 400,000 to less than 300,000. Jewish schools and synagogues will close. The communities of such cities as Brighton and Bournemouth will dwindle. The rate of intermarriage will increase to well over 50 percent. Young non-Orthodox Jews will wonder why they should be Jewish. What’s the point?
A similar process will take place in other Western European countries. The non-Orthodox Jewish communities of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium will almost disappear. After playing a crucial role in the shaping of modern Europe for more than two hundred years—think of Mendelssohn, Marx, Freud, Mahler, Kafka, Einstein—Jews will gradually leave center stage. The golden era of European Jewry will be over. The very existence of a viable, vital, and creative European Jewry will be questioned. What was shall not be again.
Fifty years later, this same malaise will hit even the powerful and prosperous American Jewish community. The ratio of Jews to non-Jews in American society will shrink dramatically. Intermarriage will be rampant. The old Jewish establishment will fossilize, and fewer non-Orthodox Jews will be affiliated or active in Jewish life. American Jewry will still be far more vibrant than Europe’s. But looking across the ocean at their European and British cousins, American Jews will be able to see what the twenty-first century holds, and it is not a pretty sight.
So should my great-grandfather disembark? If he doesn’t, my personal life in England will be rich and rewarding. I won’t have to do military services. I’ll face no immediate danger and no gnawing moral dilemmas. Weekends will be spent at the family’s thatched-roof cottage in Dorset, summers in the Scottish Highlands.
Yet if my great-grandfather does not disembark, chances are that my children will be only half Jewish. Perhaps they will not be Jewish at all. Britain will muffle our Jewish identity. In the green meadows of Old England, and in the thick woods of New England, secular Jewish civilization might evaporate. On both coasts of the Atlantic, the non-Orthodox Jewish people might gradually disappear.
So smooth is the Mediterranean as the Bentwich delegation disembarks that it appears to be a lake. Arab stevedores ferry the Oxus passengers ashore in rough wooden boats. The Jaffa port proves to be less traumatic than expected. But in the city of Jaffa it is market day. Some of the European travelers are shocked by the hanging animal carcasses, the smelly fish, the rotting vegetables. They notice the infected eyes of the village women, the scrawny children. And the hustling, the noise, the filth. The sixteen gentlemen, four ladies, and one maid make their way to the downtown hotel, and the elegant Thomas Cook carriages arrive promptly. As soon as they are out of the chaos of Arab Jaffa, the Europeans are in good spirits once again. They smell the sweet scent of the April orange groves and are uplifted by the sight of the blazing red and timid purple fields of wildflowers.
The twenty-one travelers are greeted by my other great-grandfather, Dr. Hillel Yoffe, who makes a positive impression on them. In the six years since he, too, disembarked at the Jaffa port, carried ashore by the very same Arab stevedores, he has accomplished a great deal. His medical work—trying to eradicate malaria—is now well known. His public work—as chairman of the Zionist Committee in Palestine—is outstanding. Like the British pilgrims, he is committed to the idea that the privileged Jews of the West must assist the impoverished Jews of the East. It’s not only a matter of saving them from benighted Cossacks but a moral duty to introduce them to science and the Enlightenment. In the harsh conditions of this remote Ottoman province, Dr. Yoffe is the champion of progress. His mission is to heal both his patients and his people.
Led by Dr. Yoffe, the Bentwich convoy reaches the French agricultural school of Mikveh Yisrael. The students are away for the Passover holiday, but the teachers and staff are impressive. Mikveh Yisrael is an oasis of progress. Its fine staff trains the young Jews of Palestine to toil the land in modern ways; its mission is to produce the agronomists and vine growers of the next century. The French-style agriculture it teaches will eventually spread throughout Palestine and make its deserts bloom. The visitors are ecstatic. They feel they are watching the seeds of the future sprouting. And it is indeed the very future they want to see.
From the Mikveh Yisrael school they travel to the colony of Rishon LeZion. Baron Edmond de Rothschild is the colony’s sponsor and benefactor. The local governor, representing the baron, hosts the esteemed pilgrims in his colonial home. The Brits take to the Frenchman. They are relieved to find such architecture and such a household and such fine food in this backwater. Yet what delights the European travelers most is the formidable, advanced winery established by the baron at the center of the fifteen-year-old colony. They are amazed at the notion of turning Palestine into the Provence of the Orient. They can hardly believe the sight of the red-roofed colonial houses, the deep-green vineyards, or the heady smell of the first Hebrew wine in the Jewish homeland after eighteen hundred years. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.
At First Sight, 1897
On the night of April 15, 1897, a small, elegant steamer is en route from Egypt’s Port Said to Jaffa. Thirty passengers are on board, twenty-one of them Zionist pilgrims who have come from London via Paris, Marseille, and Alexandria. Leading the pilgrims is the Rt. Honorable Herbert Bentwich, my great-grandfather.
Bentwich is an unusual Zionist. At the end of the nineteenth century, most Zionists are Eastern European; Bentwich is a British subject. Most Zionists are poor; he is a gentleman of independent means. Most Zionists are secular, whereas he is a believer. For most Zionists of this time, Zionism is the only choice, but my great-grandfather chooses Zionism of his own free will. In the early 1890s, Herbert Bentwich makes up his mind that the Jews must settle again in their ancient homeland, Judea.
This pilgrimage is unusual, too. It is the first such journey of upper-middle-class British Jews to the Land of Israel. This is why the founder of political Zionism, Theodor Herzl, attributes such importance to these twenty-one travelers. He expects Bentwich and his colleagues to write a comprehensive report about the Land. Herzl is especially interested in the inhabitants of Palestine and the prospects for colonizing it. He expects the report to be presented at the end of the summer to the first Zionist Congress that is to be held in Basel. But my great-grandfather is somewhat less ambitious. His Zionism, which preceded Herzl’s, is essentially romantic. Yet he, too, was carried away by the English translation of Herzl’s prophetic manifesto Der Judenstaat, or The State of the Jews. He personally invited Herzl to appear at his prestigious London club, and he was bowled over by the charisma of the visionary leader. Like Herzl, he believes that Jews must return to Palestine. But as the flat-bottomed steamer Oxus carves the black water of the Mediterranean, Bentwich is still an innocent. My great-grandfather does not wish to take a country and to establish a state; he wishes to face God.
I remain on deck for a moment. I want to understand why the Oxus is making its way across the sea. Who exactly is this ancestor of mine, and why has he come here?
As the twentieth century is about to begin there are more than 11 million Jews in the world, of whom nearly 7 million live in Eastern Europe, 2 million live in Central and Western Europe, and 1.5 million live in North America. Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern Jewry total less than one million.
Only in North America and Western Europe are Jews emancipated. In Russia they are persecuted. In Poland they are discriminated against. In Islamic countries they are a “protected people” living as second-class citizens. Even in the United States, France, and Britain, emancipation is merely a legality. Anti-Semitism is on the rise. In 1897, Christendom is not yet at peace with its ultimate other. Many find it difficult to address Jews as free, proud, and equal.
In the eastern parts of Europe, Jewish distress is acute. A new breed of ethnic-based anti-Semitism is superseding the old religious-based anti-Semitism. Waves of pogroms befall Jewish towns and townships in Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, and Poland. Most shtetl Jews realize that there is no future for the shtetl. Hundreds of thousands sail to Ellis Island. The Jewish Diaspora experiences once again the cataclysmic phenomenon of mass migration.
Worse than the past is what the future holds. In the next half century, a third of all Jews will be murdered. Two-thirds of European Jewry will be wiped out. The worst catastrophe in the history of the Jewish people is about to occur. So as the Oxus approaches the shores of the Holy Land, the need to give Palestine to the Jews feels almost palpable. If the Jews won’t disembark here, they will have no future. This emerging coastline may be their only salvation.
There is another need. In the millennium preceding 1897, Jewish survival was guaranteed by the two great g’s: God and ghetto. What enabled Jews to maintain their identity and their civilization was their closeness to God and their detachment from the surrounding non-Jewish world. Jews had no territory and no kingdom. They had no liberty and no sovereignty. What held them together as a people were religious belief, religious practice, and a powerful religious narrative, as well as the high walls of isolation built around them by gentiles. But in the hundred years prior to 1897, God drifted away and the ghetto walls collapsed. Secularization and emancipation—limited as they were—eroded the old formula of Jewish survival. There was nothing to maintain the Jewish people as a people living among others. Even if Jews were not to be slaughtered by Russian Cossacks or to be persecuted by French anti-Semites, they were faced with collective mortal danger. Their ability to maintain a non-Orthodox Jewish civilization in the Diaspora was now in question.
There was a need for revolution. If it was to survive, the Jewish people had to be transformed from a people of the Diaspora to a people of sovereignty. In this sense the Zionism that emerges in 1897 is a stroke of genius. Its founders, led by Dr. Herzl, are both prophetic and heroic. All in all, the nineteenth century was the golden age of Western Europe’s Jewry. Yet the Herzl Zionists see what is coming. True, they do not know that the twentieth century will conjure up such places as Auschwitz and Treblinka. But in their own way they act in the 1890s in order to preempt the 1940s. They realize they are faced with a radical problem: the coming extinction of the Jews. And they realize that a radical problem calls for a radical solution: the transformation of the Jews, a transformation that can take place only in Palestine, the Jews’ ancient homeland.
Herbert Bentwich does not see things as lucidly as Theodor Herzl does. He doesn’t know that the century about to begin will be the most dramatic in Jewish history. But his intuition tells him that it’s time for radical action. He knows that the distress in Eastern Europe is intolerable and that in the West, assimilation is unavoidable; in the East, Jews are in danger, while in the West, Judaism is in trouble. My great-grandfather understands that the Jewish people desperately need a new place, a new beginning, a new mode of existence. If they are to survive, the Jewish people need the Holy Land.
Bentwich was born in 1856 in the Whitechapel district of London. His father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who made his living as a traveling salesman, peddling jewelry in Birmingham and Cambridge. But the salesman wanted more for his beloved son. He sent Herbert to fine grammar schools where the boy did well. Knowing that all his parents’ hopes were invested in him, the disciplined youngster worked hard to prove himself. In his thirties he was already a successful solicitor living in St. John’s Wood.
Before traveling to Palestine, my great-grandfather was a leading figure in the Anglo-Jewish community. His professional expertise was copyright law. In his social life he was one of the founders of the prominent dining and debating Maccabean Club. In his private life he was married to a beautiful, artistic wife who was raising nine children in their magisterial Avenue Road home. Another two would be born in the coming years.
A self-made man, Herbert Bentwich is rigid and pedantic. His dominant traits are arrogance, determination, self-assurance, self-reliance, and nonconformity. Yet he is very much a romantic, with a soft spot for mysticism. Bentwich is a Victorian. He feels deeply indebted to the British Empire for opening its gates to the immigrant’s son he once was. When Bentwich was two years old, the first Jew was elected to British Parliament. When he was fifteen, the first Jew was admitted to Oxford. When he turned twenty-nine, the first Jew entered the House of Lords. For Bentwich these milestones are wonders. He does not look upon emancipation as a belated fulfillment of a natural right but as an act of grace carried out by Queen Victoria’s Great Britain.
In his physical appearance Bentwich resembles the Prince of Wales. He has steely blue eyes, a full, well-trimmed beard, a strong jaw. His manner is also that of a nobleman. Although poor at birth, Herbert Bentwich vigorously embraced the values and customs of the empire that ruled the seas. Like a true gentleman he loves travel, poetry, and theater. He knows his Shakespeare and he is at home in the Lake District. Yet he does not compromise his Judaism. With his wife, Susan, he nurtures a family home that is all Anglo-Jewish harmony: morning prayers and chamber music, Tennyson and Maimonides, Shabbat rituals and an Oxbridge education. Bentwich believes that just as imperial Britain has a mission in this world, so do the Jewish people. He feels it is the duty of the emancipated Jews of the West to look after the persecuted Jews of the East. My great-grandfather is absolutely certain that just as the British Empire saved him, it will save his brethren. His loyalty to the Crown and his loyalty to the Jewish vocation are intertwined. They push him toward Palestine. They lead him to head this unique Anglo-Jewish delegation traveling to the shores of the Holy Land.
Had I met Herbert Bentwich, I probably wouldn’t have liked him. If I were his son, I am sure I would have rebelled against him. His world—royalist, religious, patriarchal, and imperial—is eras away from my world. But as I study him from a distance—more than a century of distance—I cannot deny the similarities between us. I am surprised to find how much I identify with my eccentric great-grandfather.
So I ask again: Why is he here? Why does he find himself on this steamer? He is in no personal danger. His life in London is prosperous, fulfilling. Why sail all the way to Jaffa?
One answer is romanticism. In 1897, Palestine is not yet British, but it is on the British horizon. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the yearning for Zion is as English as it is Jewish. George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda has paved the way; Laurence Oliphant has taken it further. The fascination with Zion is now at the heart of the English Romanticism of the colonial era. For my great-grandfather, a romantic, a Jew, and a Victorian gentleman, the temptation is irresistible. The yearning for Zion has become an integral part of his constitution. It defines his identity.
The second answer is more important and more relevant. Herbert Bentwich is way ahead of his time. The journey he took from Whitechapel to St. John’s Wood in the late nineteenth century is analogous to the journey taken by many Jews from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side in the twentieth century. As 1900 approaches, my great-grandfather is faced with the challenge that will face American Jewry in the twenty-first century: how to maintain a Jewish identity in an open world, how to preserve a Judaism not shielded by the walls of a ghetto, how to prevent the dispersion of the Jews into the liberty and prosperity of the modern West.
Yes, Herbert Bentwich takes the trip from Charing Cross to Jaffa because he is committed to ending Jewish misery in the East, but his main reason for taking this journey is his understanding of the futility of Jewish life in the West. Because he was blessed with a privileged life, he already sees the challenge that will follow the challenge of anti-Semitism. He sees the calamity that will follow the Holocaust. He realizes that his own world of Anglo-Jewish harmony is a world in eclipse. That’s why he crosses the Mediterranean.
He arrives on April 16 at the mouth of the ancient port of Jaffa. I watch him as he awakens at 5:00 a.m. in his first-class compartment. I watch him as he walks up the stairs to the Oxus’s wooden deck in a light suit and a cork hat. I watch him as he looks from the deck. The sun is about to rise over the archways and turrets of Jaffa. And the land my great-grandfather sees is just as he hoped it would appear: illuminated by the gentle dawn and shrouded by the frail light of promise.
Do I want him to disembark? I don’t yet know.
I have an obsession with all things British. Like Bentwich, I love Land’s End and Snowdown and the Lake District. I love the English cottage and the English pub and the English countryside. I love the breakfast ritual and the tea ritual and Devon’s clotted cream. I am mesmerized by the Hebrides and the Scottish Highlands and the soft green hills of Dorset. I admire the deep certainty of English identity. I am drawn to the quiet of an island that has not been conquered for eight hundred years, to the continuity of its way of life. To the civilized manner in which it conducts its affairs.
If Herbert Bentwich disembarks, he will bid farewell to all that. He will uproot himself and his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren from the deep English green in order to settle us all—for generations—in the wild Middle East. Isn’t it foolish to do so? Isn’t it mad?
But it’s not that simple. The British Isles are not really ours. We are only passersby, for the road we travel is much longer and far more tormented. The English green provided us with only an elegant and temporary refuge, a respite along the way. The demography tells a clear story: In the second half of the twentieth century, which Herbert Bentwich will not live to see, the Anglo-Jewish community will shrink by a third. Between 1950 and 2000 the number of Jews in the British Isles will drop from over 400,000 to less than 300,000. Jewish schools and synagogues will close. The communities of such cities as Brighton and Bournemouth will dwindle. The rate of intermarriage will increase to well over 50 percent. Young non-Orthodox Jews will wonder why they should be Jewish. What’s the point?
A similar process will take place in other Western European countries. The non-Orthodox Jewish communities of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium will almost disappear. After playing a crucial role in the shaping of modern Europe for more than two hundred years—think of Mendelssohn, Marx, Freud, Mahler, Kafka, Einstein—Jews will gradually leave center stage. The golden era of European Jewry will be over. The very existence of a viable, vital, and creative European Jewry will be questioned. What was shall not be again.
Fifty years later, this same malaise will hit even the powerful and prosperous American Jewish community. The ratio of Jews to non-Jews in American society will shrink dramatically. Intermarriage will be rampant. The old Jewish establishment will fossilize, and fewer non-Orthodox Jews will be affiliated or active in Jewish life. American Jewry will still be far more vibrant than Europe’s. But looking across the ocean at their European and British cousins, American Jews will be able to see what the twenty-first century holds, and it is not a pretty sight.
So should my great-grandfather disembark? If he doesn’t, my personal life in England will be rich and rewarding. I won’t have to do military services. I’ll face no immediate danger and no gnawing moral dilemmas. Weekends will be spent at the family’s thatched-roof cottage in Dorset, summers in the Scottish Highlands.
Yet if my great-grandfather does not disembark, chances are that my children will be only half Jewish. Perhaps they will not be Jewish at all. Britain will muffle our Jewish identity. In the green meadows of Old England, and in the thick woods of New England, secular Jewish civilization might evaporate. On both coasts of the Atlantic, the non-Orthodox Jewish people might gradually disappear.
So smooth is the Mediterranean as the Bentwich delegation disembarks that it appears to be a lake. Arab stevedores ferry the Oxus passengers ashore in rough wooden boats. The Jaffa port proves to be less traumatic than expected. But in the city of Jaffa it is market day. Some of the European travelers are shocked by the hanging animal carcasses, the smelly fish, the rotting vegetables. They notice the infected eyes of the village women, the scrawny children. And the hustling, the noise, the filth. The sixteen gentlemen, four ladies, and one maid make their way to the downtown hotel, and the elegant Thomas Cook carriages arrive promptly. As soon as they are out of the chaos of Arab Jaffa, the Europeans are in good spirits once again. They smell the sweet scent of the April orange groves and are uplifted by the sight of the blazing red and timid purple fields of wildflowers.
The twenty-one travelers are greeted by my other great-grandfather, Dr. Hillel Yoffe, who makes a positive impression on them. In the six years since he, too, disembarked at the Jaffa port, carried ashore by the very same Arab stevedores, he has accomplished a great deal. His medical work—trying to eradicate malaria—is now well known. His public work—as chairman of the Zionist Committee in Palestine—is outstanding. Like the British pilgrims, he is committed to the idea that the privileged Jews of the West must assist the impoverished Jews of the East. It’s not only a matter of saving them from benighted Cossacks but a moral duty to introduce them to science and the Enlightenment. In the harsh conditions of this remote Ottoman province, Dr. Yoffe is the champion of progress. His mission is to heal both his patients and his people.
Led by Dr. Yoffe, the Bentwich convoy reaches the French agricultural school of Mikveh Yisrael. The students are away for the Passover holiday, but the teachers and staff are impressive. Mikveh Yisrael is an oasis of progress. Its fine staff trains the young Jews of Palestine to toil the land in modern ways; its mission is to produce the agronomists and vine growers of the next century. The French-style agriculture it teaches will eventually spread throughout Palestine and make its deserts bloom. The visitors are ecstatic. They feel they are watching the seeds of the future sprouting. And it is indeed the very future they want to see.
From the Mikveh Yisrael school they travel to the colony of Rishon LeZion. Baron Edmond de Rothschild is the colony’s sponsor and benefactor. The local governor, representing the baron, hosts the esteemed pilgrims in his colonial home. The Brits take to the Frenchman. They are relieved to find such architecture and such a household and such fine food in this backwater. Yet what delights the European travelers most is the formidable, advanced winery established by the baron at the center of the fifteen-year-old colony. They are amazed at the notion of turning Palestine into the Provence of the Orient. They can hardly believe the sight of the red-roofed colonial houses, the deep-green vineyards, or the heady smell of the first Hebrew wine in the Jewish homeland after eighteen hundred years. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B009QJMXI8
- Publisher : Random House; Reissue edition (November 19, 2013)
- Publication date : November 19, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 19828 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 466 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#118,122 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #41 in History of Israel & Palestine
- #137 in History of Judaism
- #138 in Israel & Palestine History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
2,079 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016
Report abuse
Verified Purchase
21 people found this helpful
Helpful
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book is not (and doesn’t claim to be) an accurate history. It contains glaring errors.
For instance, an entire chapter is devoted to (Laborite) Shmaryahu Gutman, whose key achievement, for the author, is erecting - in the lead up to the 1948 War of Independence - ancient Masada (the mountaintop fortress where Jews made their suicidal last stand against Herod’s Romans 2,000 years ago) as a stirring symbol for Israeli youth.
However, the (Labor) opposition Revisionist movement lionised Masada decades before Gutman.
In fact, Shavit even refers in his book to the hanging of Shlomo Ben Yosef (“the first Jewish terrorist”) in 1938.
21-year old Ben Yosef (in)famously declared before being executed (for attempting to murder Arab civilians in a retaliatory attack): “To die or to conquer the hill (Yodefet, Masada, Betar)” - these Masada-inspired lines drawn from the Revisionist youth movement anthem he had grown up with.
Ben Yosef’ declaration is a very well known Zionist historical incident. It seems almost inconceivable to me that Shavit would not be aware of this (pre-Gutman) Masada link.
But no matter, for the author pretty clearly stresses that “My Promised Land” is his own “personal journey” and NOT a history. The finished product is certainly personal, and - on balance - an excellent, quietly passionate and instructive polemic.
There are parts of it that bored me witless, but there are huge - shocking - factoids as well:
- the Ofra leader who openly shares with Shavit his dispassionate plans for blowing up the Dome of the Rock;
- Defence Minister Dayan empathetically defending a Gaza Palestinian at the funeral of an Israeli soldier he murdered (the Palestinian, not Dayan);
- the former top engineer at the Dimona nuclear plant essentially telling Shavit that Israel ought to nuke Iran before Iran nukes Israel;
- technicolor details of deliberate (and deliberately low key), systematic, mass-scale disenfranchisement of Palestinians by Jewish leaders.
The author is a bit of a hand-wringing Nellie, for mine - and a bit slippery too, not only vis-a-vis the tailored information, but also in the way he seems to drool at several points in the book over “slim ... good looking” young people (cf, you can’t help it, the sordid accusations against him in recent years) ...
... But My Promised Land is a really good, thought provoking book, a quality piece of work.
For instance, an entire chapter is devoted to (Laborite) Shmaryahu Gutman, whose key achievement, for the author, is erecting - in the lead up to the 1948 War of Independence - ancient Masada (the mountaintop fortress where Jews made their suicidal last stand against Herod’s Romans 2,000 years ago) as a stirring symbol for Israeli youth.
However, the (Labor) opposition Revisionist movement lionised Masada decades before Gutman.
In fact, Shavit even refers in his book to the hanging of Shlomo Ben Yosef (“the first Jewish terrorist”) in 1938.
21-year old Ben Yosef (in)famously declared before being executed (for attempting to murder Arab civilians in a retaliatory attack): “To die or to conquer the hill (Yodefet, Masada, Betar)” - these Masada-inspired lines drawn from the Revisionist youth movement anthem he had grown up with.
Ben Yosef’ declaration is a very well known Zionist historical incident. It seems almost inconceivable to me that Shavit would not be aware of this (pre-Gutman) Masada link.
But no matter, for the author pretty clearly stresses that “My Promised Land” is his own “personal journey” and NOT a history. The finished product is certainly personal, and - on balance - an excellent, quietly passionate and instructive polemic.
There are parts of it that bored me witless, but there are huge - shocking - factoids as well:
- the Ofra leader who openly shares with Shavit his dispassionate plans for blowing up the Dome of the Rock;
- Defence Minister Dayan empathetically defending a Gaza Palestinian at the funeral of an Israeli soldier he murdered (the Palestinian, not Dayan);
- the former top engineer at the Dimona nuclear plant essentially telling Shavit that Israel ought to nuke Iran before Iran nukes Israel;
- technicolor details of deliberate (and deliberately low key), systematic, mass-scale disenfranchisement of Palestinians by Jewish leaders.
The author is a bit of a hand-wringing Nellie, for mine - and a bit slippery too, not only vis-a-vis the tailored information, but also in the way he seems to drool at several points in the book over “slim ... good looking” young people (cf, you can’t help it, the sordid accusations against him in recent years) ...
... But My Promised Land is a really good, thought provoking book, a quality piece of work.
8 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
For anyone interested in Israel and the Mideast, this is a fascinating book. Particularly interesting are the chapters on Zionism in the '30's, the War of Independence in 1948, and the Israeli nuclear program. It is unprecendented in my opinion to hear the Palestinian point of view fairly presented in a book that is overall pro-Israel. Reading it one comes to a better understanding of the depths of the grievances of the Palestinians and why peace is so hard to achieve. The bottom line is, unlike other "settled" countries which had huge expanses of land and small indigenous populations like the U.S., Canada, and Australia, Palestine was small and had a significant Arab population. Constructing the Jewish state led to significant displacement of these peoples but without this displacement there would be no Jewish state. Can't we all just get along? Reading this book one must conclude unfortunately that isn't going to happen anytime soon. The only criticism is that at times the author, who is overall a very good writer, is at times simply too wordy and repetitive.
17 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Top reviews from other countries

Craig Campbell
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth reading, for all of us
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2014Verified Purchase
A VERY well-written, in-depth look inside Israel, and at all that surrounds it.
Whatever you think of how the nation was born, and how it has handled itself since, it's a fascinating, mostly dark story.
I hope the future - for Israel and its neighbours - is brighter, and there are some things here to give you hope, along with more things to make you worry.
How could a people who suffered so much then inflict suffering on others, and kick them off their land? Why in 70 years haven't all sides been able to sit down and talk, and why when it was attempted did one side or other refuse to listen?
What has the outside world done to help, and why has it helped one side at times, and the other side at times? There are a million questions, that a lot of very intelligent people over the years have been unable to answer.
Interesting, how secularism could alter everything, and how the Arab Spring has kept people otherwise engaged, or things could have reached a head already. Interesting, some critics' take on this book, how it is an exercise in liberal hand-wringing, concealing another agenda, an apologist's agenda. And interesting how passionately he can write on behalf of his non-Jewish friends, and see it from their perspective and agree, over and over, that the way Israel took land was wrong and still needs to be addressed.
It's a subject that splits us, and confuses outsiders from every side, but I think this book has great value for those of us too far away to properly grasp every single detail. I went to Tel Aviv once, found it fascinating but with an unmistakeable paranoia and a bit intimidating, too. I have seen parallels much closer to my home, with a lot of what happened in Northern Ireland and all of Ireland.
At least this book made me think about it all, and view it from new perspectives, and witness an Israeli who admits openly there have been plenty mistakes on both sides.
Clearly, a country that will be in the news for years to come. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get along, settle historical differences and find a liveable solution for everyone? Sadly, it's unlikely. Meantime, Israel does have to protect itself, and Palestine does have to keep asking when they will get their land back. I wouldn't want to be the politician who is left to sort it all out.
Thank you, sir, a very interesting book.
Whatever you think of how the nation was born, and how it has handled itself since, it's a fascinating, mostly dark story.
I hope the future - for Israel and its neighbours - is brighter, and there are some things here to give you hope, along with more things to make you worry.
How could a people who suffered so much then inflict suffering on others, and kick them off their land? Why in 70 years haven't all sides been able to sit down and talk, and why when it was attempted did one side or other refuse to listen?
What has the outside world done to help, and why has it helped one side at times, and the other side at times? There are a million questions, that a lot of very intelligent people over the years have been unable to answer.
Interesting, how secularism could alter everything, and how the Arab Spring has kept people otherwise engaged, or things could have reached a head already. Interesting, some critics' take on this book, how it is an exercise in liberal hand-wringing, concealing another agenda, an apologist's agenda. And interesting how passionately he can write on behalf of his non-Jewish friends, and see it from their perspective and agree, over and over, that the way Israel took land was wrong and still needs to be addressed.
It's a subject that splits us, and confuses outsiders from every side, but I think this book has great value for those of us too far away to properly grasp every single detail. I went to Tel Aviv once, found it fascinating but with an unmistakeable paranoia and a bit intimidating, too. I have seen parallels much closer to my home, with a lot of what happened in Northern Ireland and all of Ireland.
At least this book made me think about it all, and view it from new perspectives, and witness an Israeli who admits openly there have been plenty mistakes on both sides.
Clearly, a country that will be in the news for years to come. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get along, settle historical differences and find a liveable solution for everyone? Sadly, it's unlikely. Meantime, Israel does have to protect itself, and Palestine does have to keep asking when they will get their land back. I wouldn't want to be the politician who is left to sort it all out.
Thank you, sir, a very interesting book.
6 people found this helpful
Report abuse

judywele
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cutting analysis but blind on Palestinian agency and responsibility
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2016Verified Purchase
It is an important book to read but it has its blind spots. Overall his love of Israel and pride in its achievements shines through and it is a thoughtful and cutting analysis. Key personalities with their strengths and weaknesses loom large on the page. Like so many Israeli's of conscience it is not reticent in pointing out where in his judgement mistakes and wrongdoings have been committed. But while he highlights the 'blindness' of the early Zionists in recognising the significance of the Arabs who also regarded the land as their home, he continues to be blind to the Palestinians as dynamic counterparts to the story of Israel and as key players in the current dilemma's. They are not given agency or responsibility.
5 people found this helpful
Report abuse

Beanbag2
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2014Verified Purchase
I grew up after the war when information about the holocaust was being made known. I remember the shock and horror that overwhelmed me as a child and has stayed with me all my life. In the 60's I had many Jewish friends some born in Israel some who had fought for Israel. We were all enthusiastic about changing the world and the vision and energy of The State of Israel was inspiring. I admit that my reactions to the events happening in Israel since then have been simplistic and fuelled by my gut reaction that we cannot allow Israel to be wiped off the map.
Reading this beautifully written ruthlessly honest book has opened my mind to the complex multi-faceted society Israel has become.
Ari's book has me exultant about the triumphs, weeping about the tragedies and horrified by the actions some Israelis have and are taking to defend themselves.
My heart aches for all the Jews and Arabs caught up in this painful painful situation.
Reading this beautifully written ruthlessly honest book has opened my mind to the complex multi-faceted society Israel has become.
Ari's book has me exultant about the triumphs, weeping about the tragedies and horrified by the actions some Israelis have and are taking to defend themselves.
My heart aches for all the Jews and Arabs caught up in this painful painful situation.
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse

Ron
5.0 out of 5 stars
Have finished the excellent My Promised Land
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2016Verified Purchase
Have finished the excellent My Promised Land. I learnt lots either that I did not know at all or colouring in of stuff I sort of knew, by explaining and linking the history in a human and unbiased fashion. I'm no expert about books on this topic, but it certainly seems to be a book of its time for its time: a balanced 'must read'.
As I read the first half of the book I wished the story telling and clear balance was augmented with Palestinian voices. And then in the second half, there they were. Perhaps all the more powerful for having held off these testimonies until then.
In a few places the style was arrogant. More often it was repetitive in the reflective passages. And, especially towards the end, it was too eulogistic about Israel and Israelis. I'm not referring to the right or wrong of the merits of Israel or Israelis, but to the eulogising itself. It serves only to undermine the otherwise balanced narrative by hinting at bias.
I felt the last third of the book lost the focus of what had come before and, as more reflective sections came in made me think, as I was reading, that one of his interviewees might have been right in accusing Shavit of 'thinking too much'. That said, once I finished and reflected on what I'd learnt, I admit I found it helpful to follow Shavit's introspective thoughts.
However, these are relatively petty asides, the book was unputdownable. It's just a shame that (in my humble opinion) these petty asides give the critics of this liberal left opinion their entry points for attack.
As I read the first half of the book I wished the story telling and clear balance was augmented with Palestinian voices. And then in the second half, there they were. Perhaps all the more powerful for having held off these testimonies until then.
In a few places the style was arrogant. More often it was repetitive in the reflective passages. And, especially towards the end, it was too eulogistic about Israel and Israelis. I'm not referring to the right or wrong of the merits of Israel or Israelis, but to the eulogising itself. It serves only to undermine the otherwise balanced narrative by hinting at bias.
I felt the last third of the book lost the focus of what had come before and, as more reflective sections came in made me think, as I was reading, that one of his interviewees might have been right in accusing Shavit of 'thinking too much'. That said, once I finished and reflected on what I'd learnt, I admit I found it helpful to follow Shavit's introspective thoughts.
However, these are relatively petty asides, the book was unputdownable. It's just a shame that (in my humble opinion) these petty asides give the critics of this liberal left opinion their entry points for attack.
2 people found this helpful
Report abuse

ianp
5.0 out of 5 stars
I promise that your opinion about Israel will be worth hearing after reading his fantastic book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2014Verified Purchase
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own facts." according to US Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. One might indeed be entitled to an opinion, but actually, unless it is informed by facts, it's worthless. So much of what gets said and written about what is happening in Israel is vacuous and uninformed - that's a fact, not my opinion
If you want a brilliant perspective on Israel, I strongly recommend that you read My Promised Land by Ari Shavit. I promise that your opinion will be worth hearing after reading his fantastic book.
If you want a brilliant perspective on Israel, I strongly recommend that you read My Promised Land by Ari Shavit. I promise that your opinion will be worth hearing after reading his fantastic book.
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse
More items to explore
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
There's a problem loading this menu right now.
Get free delivery with Amazon Prime
Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books.