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April 23, 2004/Iyar 2 5764, Vol. 56, No. 31
Fete Israel - read!
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
What's one thing you can do to mark Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel Independence Day? Resolve to increase your knowledge and understanding of present-day Israel.
And there's no better place to begin than with David Horovitz's excellent "Still Life with Bombers, Israel in the Age of Terrorism" (Alfred Knopf, $25 hard-cover).
Horovitz, editor of the Jerusalem Report, who writes and speaks widely on Israel and appears frequently on BBC television, CNN and NPR, has taken the complexity of Middle Eastern affairs, and the concomitant welter of emotions it inspires, and crafted a far-reaching exposé on Israel today. He weaves together history, politics and social reality with the ease of a conversationalist, drawing the reader in with real-life anecdotes and shoring up understanding with concise reporting in a comprehensible style. His well-honed professional skills, and heartfelt compassion, are evident as he adroitly strives to tell both sides of the story, while remaining both ardently Israeli and Jewish.
Horovitz, born in London, emigrated to Israel in 1983 and lives in Jerusalem with his American-born wife, Lisa, and their three children. Lisa and his family provide an illuminating backdrop as Horovitz reports on the current situation. The book opens with a family outing in May 2000 to Bethlehem and Jericho to visit the ancient sites and the observation that today the trip would be impossible. Such is the situation now, writes Horovitz, where threat of terrorist attack influences such everyday decisions as where to shop, where to eat, where to go to a movie and how to get there.
There is a "universal vulnerability," he writes, that creates the "red lines" of life, the rules never to take the kids to visit relatives in the West Bank or never to ride the Egged or Dan buses. And there are the stories of the close calls, the sense that life is a "grisly lottery," as he describes it, and the heartbreaking losses suffered by neighbors and friends.
Horovitz uses Yoni Jesser, a 19-year-old yeshiva student killed in a bus bombing in 2002, and Yasmin Abu Ramila, the 7-year-old Palestinian recipient of Yoni's kidneys, to frame his story. In between, readers are introduced to Yussuf, a Palestinian plumber struggling to feed his family in the Al-Arub refugee camp and Eli, the Israeli who employs him. The specter of terror suffuses the book, even as Horovitz writes frankly of the stresses on the "Palestinian Everyman," whose "parents lost their home, (whose) brother can't find work; (who suffers) the grinding poverty; (the) daily need to play cat and mouse with the border police to get to his current job."
He has no patience with talk of moral equivalency, but worries about the toll the ongoing response to terror has taken on Israel's spirit. He notes that the cafe where he met Yussuf and Eli was bulldozed by Israeli forces a week after their meeting.
"There is a wafer-thin line between, on the one hand, the kinds of measures necessary to enable troops to thwart Palestinian attacks and, on the other, ordering measures that might boost the Palestinian motivation to carry out the attacks," he writes.
Horovitz provides insightful context for the current situation, taking the reader from the administrations of former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Bibi Netanyahu and Ehud Barak on to current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He dissects the Oslo Accords and the Camp David agreement, explaining how we got from there to here. His analysis is prescient, foreshadowing the current Sharon plan for unilateral withdrawal, which has been gaining support along with Israel's preemptive building of the security fence.
His assessment of Palestinian leadership is equally incisive, characterizing Yasser Arafat as no more than a master of terror and bemoaning the ability of moderate Palestinian leadership to gain a significant toehold. He also holds fast to his belief that the "Palestinian masses can be won over."
Horovitz does not shy away from taking on the media, as well, calling it the "second battlefield" in the continuing conflict. He is unflinching in his criticism of reporting that was either skewed or just plain wrong, but also takes Israel to task for not assuring its story was being told by credible, articulate spokespeople. He ticks off its missteps from choosing the wrong people, to inadequately preparing them to assuring that their English was easily understandable. Early on, Israel was far outclassed by its Palestinian counterparts in the area of public relations, he writes.
Horovitz, though, as a well-respected journalist is helping to fill the gap. His book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the intricacies of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and seeking to become a persuasive advocate for Israel. What better gift to give to Israel on its 57th birthday?
For additional context, as well as impeccable reporting, not to mention incredible writing, pick up a copy of Amos Oz' classic "In the Land of Israel" (Harcourt Brace and Company, $14 paperback). Originally written in 1983, reissued most recently in 1993, the book still resonates with the depth of connection to the land of Israel, both from the Israeli and the Palestinian perspectives. Oz, a prodigious novelist, traveled around Israel in the fall of 1982, engaging in conversations with residents of a host of towns, cities and villages and capturing their stories in a series of articles originally written for the weekend supplement of an Israeli newspaper. His eye and ear were unerring; it is uncanny how much of what he saw and heard more than 20 years ago still rings so profoundly true today. From his old neighborhood in Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, to the port city of Ashdod, Oz describes the tenor of life in Israel with its inherent differences and desires, its deep hold on the past and its shining promise of the future. And amidst it all, Oz pulls no punches while exposing his own political views and those of his sources, allowing the reader entrée into the conversation.
On another note, Sherri Mandell's "The Blessing of a Broken Heart" (The Toby Press, $19.95 hardcover) is a heart-rending account of one mother's suffering. Difficult to read because of the depth of emotion Mandell shares with her readers, yet compelling because of its searing honesty, the book captures what random acts of terror mean for Israeli families. Mandell's son, Koby, was stoned to death along with a friend when the two were hiking in the nearby hills of the Judean desert. The two boys had cut school for the day as a lark, never to return home.
How does anyone deal with such a tragedy? Mandell, who holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell and a master's degree in creative writing from Colorado State, has gradually found a way to cope with her loss. Determined to choose hope over despair, she has written a moving account of her healing journey.
Contact the writer at vicki_cabot@jewishaz.com.
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