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November 24, 2000/Heshvan 26, 5761, Vol. 53, No.9
Jerusalem author yearns for peace, quiet
ALEZA GOLDSMITH
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California
"It sounds like there's a war down the street."
As David Horovitz hung up the phone at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, he considered driving back to his Jerusalem home. He'd just spent 20 minutes reassuring his eldest son, 8-year-old Josh, that the family was safe - the fighting was far from their home.
But in truth, he was concerned. When he'd called to say goodbye to his wife Lisa and children: Adam, 7, Kayla, 4, and Josh, Lisa said the noise of Israeli helicopters firing at Beit Jala sounded close enough to be "down the street."
So before boarding his U.S.-bound plane, Horovitz, editor of the Jerusalem Report, seriously toiled with canceling his trip.
"If I had been at home and heard it myself, I might not have come," said the journalist and author, who has been in the United States nearly a month promoting his book "A Little Too Close to God: The Thrills and Panic of a Life in Israel" (Knopf, $26 hardcover) and lecturing on Israel affairs.
In a recent phone interview from his room in the Hyatt Regency Chicago, Horovitz admitted the violence has caused him on several occasions to consider cutting his trip short.
"I feel like I should be at home," said Horovitz, who also edited and co-wrote "Shalom, Friend," a biography of Yitzhak Rabin. "That's the way it should be in times of crisis."
The reason for persevering, said Horovitz, was the need to paint an accurate picture of life in Israel. The U.S. media, he said, does not always portray the whole story.
"There are important things that American-Jewish audiences need to know about the Middle East conflict," he said. "Things that don't always come across in television reports."
Horovitz, who emigrated from London to Israel in 1983, explained that there is a "real Israel" behind the violence. "The conflict grabs the headlines, but it's not real life. Many people aren't aware of what Israel is really like."
In "A Little Too Close to God," Horovitz provides a personal perspective on Israeli life.
"I have this diverse and wonderful family, where we have people on every side of the issues," said Horovitz, who considers himself "left-wing."
He recounted a conversation with his brother Natan, whom he called "more right wing," about the possibility of achieving peaceful relations with Palestine and the rest of the Arab world.
"He thinks people like me are dangerous because we're ready to take certain risks to achieve reconciliation, build a relationship with Palestine and relinquish land. I think people like him are complicating the situation by living in the West Bank."
His book was published in May, but because violence erupted in late September, it has "taken on a whole new residence," Horovitz said.
He doesn't necessarily relish in the turn of events.
"Israel is always going to be in the news," he said. "I would be delighted for it to be much less in the news at the moment."
As for the conflict, Horovitz stressed that the bullets being fired "are most certainly flying both ways."
"Palestinian teenagers are throwing stones and petrol bombs, along with the occasional gunman in the midst," he said. "This is not an unarmed Palestine. If all that was being thrown were stones, the death toll would be seriously lower."
He added that the Palestinians are twisting facts while arguing that Israel is " part of some Machiavellian exit-strategy by Prime Minister Ehud Barak to get out of the peace process.
"This is, of course, absurd," said Horovitz, citing Barak's "extremely generous peace deal," which was turned down by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat this summer.
"Barak has nothing to gain from the peace process collapsing," he said.
Horovitz doubts that peace and reconciliation are feasible for the time being.
But for the sake of the approximately 6 million Israelis and 2- to 3 million Palestinians in the Middle East, he said, negotiations had better get underway.
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