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A reconsideration of contemporary Chinese society and politics since the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989. The book emphasizes the need to understand the vital role that a culture plays in shaping political action. ... Read more

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A bold analysis ofthe creation and dissolution of the American Jewishconsensus on Israel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Important book
This bok is important because it destroys the myth that all Jews agree on Israel--we don't!

Important Topic but Strong Bias & Mistakes
The relationship of American Jews to Israel is a very important one that has been sorely neglected by researchers and so it was nice seeing a study of the Diaspora Jew-Israeli Relationship but the book was less of a study and more anecdotal. Rosenthal's obvious leftist, anti-Orthodox bias showed greatly and he made many mistakes, particularly when talking about Israeli culture and society. He misspelled several Israeli & American Jewish leaders names and showed a complete ignorance of Judaism as a religion (from all stripes, incl. Reform & Conservative/Masorti).

Unless you can find a better book w/ this study, buy this book. but Rosenthal needs to learn more about Israel and Judaism before he can make an informed study.

Great Book!
Great timing too! Definitely being critical of Israel during a time of crisis is needed! Because the world has definitely dropped the ball with criticism of Isreal! What a hero you are picking up the slack here! Also we know the real difference between real publishers and fake publishers. What was the print run? 300? That would be much too many i'm sure for you to hand out to all your friends and relatives (signed too?) before the rest of them disappear on some remainder table at the far end of the galaxy. Way to go mr. rosenthal! a real contribution. Also give jews enough credit that we DO question israeli policies (especially now)- we just don't feel the need to bring additional heat on OUR ONE PLACE in the world by speaking publically against it. And keep your trap shut if you have no first hand experience. Thanks. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Not the even handed review it claims to be
The fly leaf, intro and publisher comments all claim this is a book with a fresh and even handed look at the issues facing Israel. Propaganda.

In the book's intro, on page 17, Shalit talks about "what has been provacatively dubbed by some as 'Eurabia'..." He shows he hasn't paid attention to that, as Bat Ye'or points out (Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis) that it was a joint EU/Arab working group that coined the phrase and used it to publicize their own interests. It's not an anti-Muslim invention, it's a Muslim invention.

On only page 30, the author says: "every Israeli knows that his or her country could never have come into being without making room for its citizens at the expense of the area's longtime residents. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying." That is a great Orwellian untruth.

Lets ignore that Jews were in the land continually from long before jihad captured it until the present day. Let's discuss The British Mandate for Palestine and UN Resolution 181. Both recognized the shared history in the area of Jews and Arabs. Both said that the area should be shared and that equal rights should exist for people of all faiths. The Jews accepted that, the Arabs didn't. It's very clear and well documented.

Those key bits of reality explain why Israel had an ~18% Arab minority in 1949, with a population of less than a million, and still has an 18% Arab minority with a population of over 7 million. Meanwhile, the Jews of the Arab world have almost disappeared and the Palestinians call for yet another ethnic cleansing before they can have "their state" while continuing to deny that Jews have a right to an open and democratic "Jewish State". There was room for both peoples, the Jews accepted that long ago and the Arabs still don't.

Shalit's neo-liberal attempts to twist reality continue. Along with many factual errors, he also have the one of hubris. He might have spent some of his youth in Israel but, as he points out, it's his parents who moved back to Israel in 1994. He visits, he doesn't live there.

I spent six years in Israel, from late 2002 until early last year. I can say that my direct experience shows that Israelis both have some serious problems he mentions, but also eyes more open than he thinks. The big hole in their mindsets is one caused by being in a defensive war for more than sixty years. It's caused a "get mine now!" ethic that's too short sited and often corrupt because people just don't know what's going to happen to them from day to day. However, even with that, there's clearly open media with advocates on all sides discussing the good and bad in Israel.

Shalit's problem is that he tries to present a balanced perspective while holding onto the assumptions of the new Left. That never works. He consistently uses the terminology and viewpoint of the left as a starting point, so even when he criticizes some words and actions of that side, the assumptions remain. Given that's not how the book is marketed, the book is not good.

Reasonably Interesting Theorizing About Israel
At one point in this easy read about Israel today, there is mention of Marx's critique of other German philosophers --- that they are so busy thinking that they do nothing about what they are thinking about, Marx's point being that the goal is to change things, not simply to think about them.This book is ultimately part of that long history of people who think, talk to each other endlessly about the problems of the world, but do little else except talk to each other.
It is a perfect example of the powerlessness and utter frustration of being part of what is sometimes called the "progressive" wing of the Jewish Diaspora, people who mean well, want to do good, but can only talk to each other and have no impact whatsoever on the ever darkening reality of Israel as it actually exists.
It's a good depiction of that darkening reality; I learned much from it and have no complaints about the real factual content.
But ultimately, its only prescription seems to be that if we just think hard enough, and talk to each other long enough about Israel's problems, this will somehow further a progressive agenda.
Instead, what we have is the reality of an Israeli author who also holds US citizenship, has lived in London, and now lives in Milan, but does not choose to live and fight for his beliefs in Israel, where it might matter. As someone who has lived his whole life in the US, but takes a deep interest in the degeneration of the Israeli Utopian Dream, I appreciate his thoughts and ideas, but I was left once again with that feeling that intellectuals who analyze and re-analyze as they flit about talking to one another ultimately do little except keep one another entertained...present company included.

cogent polemics on intractable situations
The argument over Israel's place in the world has calcified into a more or less dessicated, inflexible discourse, and in large part non-Israeli perspectives on Israel have become projections of people's preëxisting geopolitical predilections (seen most clearly in the bizarre alliance between millenarian Evangelical Christians and hard-nosed Israeli practitioners of realpolitik that Schalit analyzed so cogently in his first book, Jerusalem Calling). The first, and one of the most salutary, virtues of this short, bracing book is that Schalit breaks this discourse down and moves beyond ideology in discussions of Israel, American policy in the Middle East, and the disposition of the West Bank and Gaza. While Schalit's perspective is undeniably (and unapologetically) leftist, his central argument is that deciding how to approach the problems Israel faces right now can only be done if people set aside ideology and grievance (and endless, futile arguments about whether grievances are merited, and how much) and look at what's actually happened and is going on.

The book is a curious amalgam of polemic, ideological analysis, and political explanation of recent events in Israel, Europe and the United States, and the only faults I find with it are that one already needs to be conversant with Diaspora politics to make sense of much of the argument, and despite Schalit's clear knowledge of the region and his authoritative tone, the absence of references or a bibliography makes it hard to accept at face value some of his more provocative assertions. That said, the target audience is clearly the Diaspora, who it is safe to assume will already have formed their own judgments on much of the material covered.

It takes as its focus several events: George Bush's speech before the Knesset / Barack Obama's speech before the Egyptian parliament and their parallels to Sadat's speech before the Knesset 30 years ago, the Israeli-Lebanese war (and how members of the previously reformist and dovish Israeli left found themselves vehemently prosecuting it), Schalit's participation in a San Francisco food co-op's internal debate about whether to boycott Israeli goods, the ongoing crisis of the Hamas captivity of Gilad Shalit (no relation), and Schalit's own encounters with the Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese diasporas in San Francisco and Europe. As an Israeli who grew up in the UK and America, Schalit is hardly a disinterested observer, but this works tremendously in his favor, as he uses discussions with his (elite Israeli) family and putatively hostile Palestinians and Lebanese outside the Middle East to move the discourse beyond the increasingly stale anti-imperialist / neocon frame and into something that recognizes the real, if faint, hopes for conciliation that are mostly buried under the tide of pessimism and nihilism that seems to characterize so much coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian impasse.

Joel is particularly good at illuminating the way in which left and right ideologues outside Israel use the crisis there as a proxy for their stymied political hopes and dreams, and in explicating the ways in which calling the treatment of Palestinians a "genocide" or "apartheid" is to do nobody - especially the Palestinians - any favors. He also never loses sight of the human cost of the occupation, and continuously highlights the irony that the Levantine culture shared by Palestinians and Israelis alike - particularly food - allows him to interact with Palestinians in the West with a directness and intimacy that would be nearly impossible to match within Israel itself. There is also a good discussion of the way that viewing the relationship between American neocons and Israeli's government as the definitive axis of Israeli-Western relations can blind one to the fact that Israel has many other allies, and that Israel is less dependent upon the American aegis (and more congenial towards "Eurabic" Europe) than might be popularly supposed - a particularly salient point to keep in mind when thinking about what might happen as Iran pursues its own nuclear shield.

The book is partisan but, ultimately, refreshingly nonjudgmental. It takes as a given that Israel's current government is tremendously dysfunctional (not to mention America's gift for transforming large swathes of the Middle East into twisted wreckage), that Palestine is an occupied failed state (at best), and that "compromise" is a fatally loaded word when it comes to mediating between the Israeli state and the various Palestinian factions. I would not describe it as hopeful, but there is a clear sense of optimism that pervades the text that left me feeling all hope is not yet lost. It also makes abundantly clear that the Israeli project is far from complete, and it is perhaps this sense of becoming and remaking that has characterized the original Zionists' debates over a secular-Jewish state since long before its inception that offers the most possibility for the future.

DISCLAIMER: Joel is a friend, and I had many discussions with him about his progress (and difficulties) in writing this book, and he and I share similar views on many things. That said, the thing that impressed me most about this book was the way in which it distilled a lot of diffuse and open-ended discussions Joel's had with me over the years into something concise and cogent. ... Read more

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Le present ouvrage est le resultat des travaux du colloque international que le Centre Chaim Herzog d'etudes sur le Moyen-Orient et de diplomatie (Universite Ben-Gurion du Neguev, Beer-Sheva, Israel) a organise en fevrier 1997 avec la collaboration du Centre culturel francais de Beer-Sheva.

Lors de cette rencontre, universitaires et chercheurs du monde arabe, d'Europe et d'Israel ont pu - a un moment ou beaucoup d'espoir en faveur de la reconciliation entre Israeliens et Arabes semblait pour la premiere fois etre permis - discuter autour d'un theme visionnaire. Les contributions de ce volume repondent a une double finalite: exprimer les preoccupations thematiques de leurs auteurs et temoigner du climat extraordinaire d'echange et d'amitie qui a prevalu lors de ce colloque.

These papers are the contributions to an international conference which had been organized in February 1997 by the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel). Around a visionary topic academics and scholars from the Arab World, Europe, and Israel met together, during a period of ongoing conflictual events when, for the first time, high expectations in favour of true reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis were nevertheless on the agenda. The contributions do reveal a double function: each co-author, of course, expresses something specific. The collection on the other hand is witnessing to an outstanding moment of exchange and friendship that had prevailed among all participants. ... Read more

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In how far do the traditions in historical writing reflect history in the Hebrew Bible? This is the central issue in this volume, in which the author takes a firm stand against the sceptical approach to the unity and historicity of biblical tradition. ... Read more

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This fascinating interdisciplinary collection of essays brings gender issues to the foreground in order to redress a profound imbalance in the historiography of the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine, and in the early years of the State of Israel. Although male discourse still dominates this field, some initial studies have begun to create an authentic and multifaceted Hebrew-Israeli voice by examining the activities and contributions of women.

This research has led to a number of basic questions: What was the reality of life for women in Jewish society in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine (Eretz Israel), and in the early years of the State? What was the contribution of women to the renewal of Israeli society and culture? What is the place of gender perceptions in the study of the new local identity? The original articles in this anthology forge an innovative response to one or more of these questions, and reflecting the state of research in the field. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by Thomson Gale on December 9, 2005. The length of the article is 758 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Murder in Israel underscores a culture of deceit: citizens' responses to killing reflect widespread racism, dissimulation and denial.(OPINION)
Author: Neve Gordon
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 9, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 42Issue: 7Page: 23(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Opposes human rights
Those of us who have seen the police in action know that when the police are attacked, they can react violently.That is true in every nation.

I think that anyone who strikes a policeman, or simply hinders a policeman during a dangerous fight, is putting themselves at risk.Even those who get near policemen during a genuine battle can get in trouble.

This article begins by saying that a young man was shot down by police after trying to run over one of the police officers.I can believe it.

Now, what do the authors have to say about the incident?Well, they say that the police lie.That's often true!Of course, police, even lying police, do not tend to murder civilians just for fun, so we're left wondering about what happened even in this particular incident.It would not surprise me if the dead man did indeed try to run over a police officer.

But we're also treated to being told that there is a "deep-seated racism that encourages violence."

Okay, I give up.Next we will no doubt hear that the German National Socialists were actually tame victims.And that it was the deep-seated racism of the Jews that pushed the innocent Germans over the edge and caused all the anti-Jewish violence there, back in the 1930s and 1940s!

Could it be that the reason for all this violence in the Levant has been (gasp!) Arab racism?Could it be Arab refusal to abide Jewish rights in the whole area?I think it very well could.But the authors do not seem to recognize this, implying that Arabs are by nature incapable of racist behavior.

Next we hear about a "culture of deceit."Now, that is something I can relate to: the openness of Israeli society, where one can get literally any viewpoint imaginable versus the adjacent Arab society in which it is simply unimaginable to admit the simplest truths about the history of the region.

The authors say that the message is "that Jews are eternal victims, and therefore cannot be found guilty regardless of the brutal means they employ."They have it backwards.The message I see from them is that Arabs must never be accused of wrongdoing, let alone be allowed to face any consequences for misdeeds.

There is indeed a pattern of deceit, oppression, and racism that has helped preclude peace in the Levant.But that pattern is found among the Arab aggressors.It could well be that Israeli Jews are just as capable of such attitudes.But they do not have the opportunity to indulge in gratuitous aggression: they need peace to survive.I think we all need to oppose the stuff the authors are saying and attempt to achieve peace, not prolong the war.And that means ending all these excuses for Arab racism and aggression.

I do not recommend this article. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from American Jewish History, published by American Jewish Historical Society on March 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1027 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America.(Book Review)
Author: Robert M. Seltzer
Publication: American Jewish History (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2003
Publisher: American Jewish Historical Society
Volume: 91Issue: 1Page: 174(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more