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My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

Ari Shavit

4.22 · Rating details · 8,138 ratings · 1,007 reviews

A groundbreaking, ambitious, and authoritative examination of Israel by one of the most influential columnists writing about the Middle East today

My Promised Land tells the story of Israel as it has never been told before. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Through revealing stories of significant events ...more

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Hardcover, 464 pages

Published November 19th 2013 by Spiegel & Grau (first published 2013)

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Sep 17, 2014 Lisa Lieberman rated it really liked it

Shelves: jewish-interest

Where you’re standing makes a big difference in how you feel about Ari Shavit’s book. I started My Promised Land five months ago, during the tenuous cease-fire following last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. What struck me most forcefully, then, was the willful blindness of Zionist pioneers such as Shavit’s great-grandfather, Herbert Bentwich, who came to Palestine from Britain in the 1890s full of hope, intent on creating a sanctuary for Europe’s Jews regardless of the conseq Where you’re standing makes a big difference in how you feel about Ari Shavit’s book. I started My Promised Land five months ago, during the tenuous cease-fire following last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. What struck me most forcefully, then, was the willful blindness of Zionist pioneers such as Shavit’s great-grandfather, Herbert Bentwich, who came to Palestine from Britain in the 1890s full of hope, intent on creating a sanctuary for Europe’s Jews regardless of the consequences for the land’s existing inhabitants.

Despite the idealism, hard work, and heroism that characterized the founding generation—the Kibbutz-builders, the orange-growers, the ardent young people dancing by firelight in the desert—it all came down to displacement. Shavit was telling the story of how the blindness of Israel’s founding generation played out through statehood and beyond, through the many wars and the rare peaceful lulls when the nation grew and prospered. The “erasure” (his word) of Palestinian villages such as Lydda, the forced emigration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, the settlers’ fanaticism, the racism and injustice at the core of the “revolution” (his word) that forged a sovereign state where only Jews (and predominantly Ashkenazim) enjoy full rights and myriad opportunities for education and economic advancement: this seemed to be the story he was telling.

I knew that story all too well. As a liberal-minded American Jew and as a modern French historian interested in the postwar era, I’ve thought long and hard about Israel’s place in the world, from the anti-Semitism that sparked the Zionist vision, the nationalism that shaped it, the social engineering characteristic of left-wing utopian ideologies that defined its spirit for decades, to the Holocaust trauma so often employed by its defenders (among them my teachers in religious school) as sufficient justification for anything Israel did.

In an essay I published during the second intifada (which happened to come out right after 9/11), I laid bare the contradictions I felt in commenting publicly, as a Jew, on Israel’s actions. I’ve subsequently written on the Tunisian Jewish writer Albert Memmi’s troubling about-face regarding French decolonization and on the moral cost of France’s Dirty War in Algeria. I’ve advocated for peace and justice for both sides of the Israel/Palestine conflict for most of my adult life, although I’ve despaired in recent years, I will admit.

My Promised Land wasn’t challenging my views, and that’s probably why I set it aside, halfway through. Sure, Shavit told the story nicely, but I’d rather use my serious reading time to prod myself, or to learn something new. If I had finished the book in September, I probably would have been disappointed by the ending, because Shavit winds up doing an about-face of his own. “We probably had to come,” he writes. “And when we came here, we performed wonders. For better or worse, we did the unimaginable.” It takes blindness and fanaticism to create a miracle and sustain it against the various crises Israel has confronted and continues to endure, he argues, the external threats to its very existence, the internal disunity, inequality, and corruption that undermine the state’s moral foundation. Not to mention the terrorist threat posed by Islamic radicals both within and outside of Israel’s borders.

Ah, I would have said to myself in September. I’ve heard that complaint before. French critics of the war their government was waging against Algerian terrorists in the 1950s worried more about their nation’s soul, it often seemed, than about the actual suffering of the Algerians. And how about that nostalgia for the boy and girl pioneers, the plucky orange growers, the self-abnegating kibbutzniks? Shavit exposes the denial that even “bleeding-heart Israeli liberals” (his words) resort to for what it is, the disingenuousness of expressing outrage at the injustices faced by present-day Palestinians while failing to address the consequences of the 1948 Palestinian exodus, (the catastrophe, or Nakba, as Palestinians call it). He himself will not deny the “brutal deed” (his term), but nor will he beat his breast in anguish to salve his conscience. Without the Nakba, after all, he would not exist.

Last Tuesday I was on my way to Puerto Rico for a vacation and there was My Promised Land, beckoning from the home screen of my Kindle. I resumed reading it on the plane, kept with it this time, even taking it along to the beach. When the Charlie Hebdo massacre occurred, I found myself reacting to Shavit’s story in an entirely different way. He is no apologist for Israel’s past, although he admires the miracle of his nation’s founding, “the élan vital of a young nation fighting adamantly while believing that its will to live would overcome the death surrounding it.” (I told you he writes well.) He is dismayed by present-day Israeli society, seeing the hedonism and materialism of the elite, and of the young in particular, as a betrayal of Zionist values. A failure of will. Almost despite himself, he admires the vitality and ingenuity of the modern capitalist state. After all, “Zionism was about regenerating Jewish vitality,” he grudgingly admits.

What gripped me, though, was Shavit’s pessimism about the future. The chickens are coming home to roost.

As I look out at the land Herbert Bentwich left behind in the end of April 1897, I wonder how long we can maintain our miraculous survival story. One more generation? Two? Three? Eventually the hand holding the sword itself must loosen its grip. Eventually the sword itself will rust. No nation can face the world surrounding it for over a hundred years with a jutting spear.

Sitting on the beach in Puerto Rico while French authorities hunted for the murderers, with the news full of reports about Muslim anger at the West, Shavit’s final question hit a nerve. “How long can we sustain this lunacy?” ...more

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May 13, 2014 Jan Rice rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sociology-ethnicity-culture, history, book-club-selection, ebook

To begin my review of My Promised Land, I decided to talk some cognitive psychology:

It is the consistency of the information that matters for a good story, not its completeness. Indeed, you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern. Thinking, Fast and Slow, p. 87

Narrative fallacies arise inevitably from our continuous attempt to make sense of the world. The explanatory stories that people find compelling are simple; are concrete rather

...more

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Sep 09, 2015 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of
existential crisis.
Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries,
and letters, as well as his own family story, illuminating the pivotal moments of the
Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sum of its parts: both
personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension.

It's clear Shavit, a secular leftist, loves his country, but is confli ...more

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Sep 20, 2013 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: holocaust, history, religion, non-fiction, 2013, ebook, netgalley

This is by far the best book of non-ficion I've read this year, and certainly the one that brought me closest to understanding Israel, and along with it the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What made this book different from all of the other books I've read about this subject so far is that unlike most other authors Shavit focuses on the micro rather than the macro. It tells the story of Israel and the Zionist utopian project that was the beginning of what we now know as Israel, by providing very li ...more

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Sep 16, 2015 Iris P rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Iris P by: Elyse

Shelves: non-fiction, israel, jewish-theme, politics

Excellent and comprehensive narrative that helps you understand the history of the establishment of the modern state of Israel and the background behind the conflict with the Palestinian people.
I am far from being an expert but after reading this fantastic non-fiction book, I am much more well-informed. Highly recommended if you're interested in the topic. ...more

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Sep 26, 2014 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Old review Missing in Action ...
but there are many excellent reviews.

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Dec 29, 2014 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it it was ok

Shelves: history, israel, middle-east, 2-stars-and-a-half, political, nonfiction, jewish

This is not an ideological review. I chose this book not due to any special interest in Israel, but for my world books challenge. For those keeping score at home, my book from Palestine got 2 stars as well. I suspect this is not a coincidence, and that both books’ inflated averages result from ideological/emotional ratings interfering with honest evaluations of their merits.

My Promised Land is a long opinion piece, including a partial history of Israel and a smattering of memoir. Shavit makes n This is not an ideological review. I chose this book not due to any special interest in Israel, but for my world books challenge. For those keeping score at home, my book from Palestine got 2 stars as well. I suspect this is not a coincidence, and that both books’ inflated averages result from ideological/emotional ratings interfering with honest evaluations of their merits.

My Promised Land is a long opinion piece, including a partial history of Israel and a smattering of memoir. Shavit makes no bones about his political views – he’s a liberal Israeli journalist and one-time peace activist – and much of the book consists of his wrestling with the fact that Israel has done and continues to do some awful things, and yet it is his homeland, a country with impressive accomplishments and which he loves very much. His ultimate conclusion is that he’s willing to accept the wrongs Israel committed in order to come into existence (i.e. the expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948), though he condemns the occupation beginning in 1967. It is balanced enough that he’s drawn criticism from both directions – some reviewers blasting him as an Israeli apologist, others as anti-Israel – and while I don’t necessarily agree with him, I do appreciate his wrestling with these issues, when most people would rather not think about the wrongs our own countries have committed. Toward the end Shavit also expresses a great deal of concern about Israel’s future, faced with both internal and external challenges.

Unfortunately, overall I found this book to be repetitive, long-winded and sentimental. One of Shavit’s favorite subjects is the contrast between the tough, suntanned Israeli farmers and warriors and their ancestors, the passive, servile European Jews – yes, these are his descriptions, and he brings them up frequently. Several chapters go into detail about the cultivation projects that apparently transformed the Jewish psyche, and just when you think that’s finished, he’s back with another immigrant story along the same line.

So the history sections were hit or miss for me, but mostly miss. My favorite chapter was “Housing Estate, 1957,” which details the life stories of several newcomers during that decade and the impressive measures Israel took to house and absorb a massive wave of immigrants. Yet that was probably the only chapter I enjoyed. Several chapters go into detail on rather eccentric topics: for example, a youth leaders’ camping trip to Masada in 1942, or the hardcore nightlife of the early 2000s. Other chapters would make sense in a history book, but this is a personal work that doesn’t claim to be comprehensive history, and having chosen this rather than a textbook, I wasn’t looking for every detail about who signed what agreement with whom regarding the Israeli nuclear program, for instance.

Meanwhile, some major topics are mentioned only in passing, such as the wave of Russian immigration in the 1990s, or the lack of assimilation of the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom don’t work but rather receive subsidies for religious study. There’s an odd chapter about a Sephardic leader, in which Shavit asserts repeatedly that the Israelis of Middle Eastern and North African origin are “oppressed” and “downtrodden” without ever explaining in what way – he does tell us they comprise half the population and that they aren’t discriminated against in housing or employment, but by some unclear means their culture is being destroyed? I could have done with more explanation of that, and fewer passages about lemon and orange groves, or sex in nightclub bathrooms.

At any rate, Shavit makes some odd choices about what material to cover, perhaps determined by whom he was able to interview. He does include interviews with many prominent Israelis, some of them protagonists in important chapters in the country’s history. The book does not show quite the breadth he claims in the acknowledgments (“Jews and Arabs, men and women”) – Shavit includes interviews with many Israeli men, a handful of Israeli women, and three Palestinian men. It’s telling that even this author, a prominent liberal journalist, barely knows any Palestinians; how many Palestinians must a typical Israeli know, and vice versa? But Shavit does a good job of including (Jewish) voices with which he disagrees, giving them space to talk and not vilifying opposing viewpoints.

(As a side note, Shavit is a bizarre interviewer, at times lecturing his subjects and including his lectures verbatim in the book, other times asking questions like, “So what is the crux of your story? And what is the crux of the Oriental Israeli story? Do the two really converge?”)

But in the end, this book simply failed to hold my interest over its 400+ pages, and seemed far too long for the amount of material presented. Perhaps worthwhile for those with a strong interest in Israel, but I would advise casual readers to steer clear. ...more

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Mar 21, 2014 K rated it liked it

Shelves: readablenonfiction, thought-provoking, bookclub, israel

Updated review: Just took off two stars after reading this article. Shame on you, Ari Shavit.

I still think it's a great book, but there's no way I'm giving five stars to a work that includes intellectually dishonest reporting. And if the seminal chapter on Lydda, often excerpted as proof of Israel's wrongdoings, was misleading, what might that mean about some of the other book's claims?

Earlier, more glowing review:

If you're searching for one word to capture the essence of Israel, that word migh ...more

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May 13, 2013 Gabby rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013, read-for-review, fave-books, arc, non-fiction, history

I received an ARC of My Promised Land by Ari Shavit from Random House Publishing Group in return for which I agreed to write a review. The opinions expressed in my review are my own.

It was obvious to me from the very beginning of this fascinating and informative book that for Ari Shavit writing this history of those who developed and continue to nourish the state of Israel was a labor of love. The whole atmosphere of this reading experience was one of devotion to telling Israel's story from the I received an ARC of My Promised Land by Ari Shavit from Random House Publishing Group in return for which I agreed to write a review. The opinions expressed in my review are my own.

It was obvious to me from the very beginning of this fascinating and informative book that for Ari Shavit writing this history of those who developed and continue to nourish the state of Israel was a labor of love. The whole atmosphere of this reading experience was one of devotion to telling Israel's story from the beginning of the state to the present time as well as hopes for the future. It was done as factually as possible by telling the story directly from as many people who were able to share what they experienced in the context of the time frame in which these events occurred. For each of the participants, in sharing their personal experience, the passion, courage, and attitude to never give up on the formation of the Israeli state is a constant. The dedication to forming a state as well as providing it with the continued devotion to having it remain relevant and viable as an entity to be reckoned with globally is an inspiration and testament to the strength of the human spirit.

As Shavit puts it, "Israel is a nation-state founded in the heart of the Arab world... A wide circle of 350 million Arabs surrounds the Zionist state and threatens its very existence." An inner circle of 10 million Palestinians also poses a threat to Israel's ability to survive. Given those numbers, Israel doesn't appear to have much going for it. Unless, of course, the sheer will power to exist as a free society is taken into account. Israel is continued proof that people with one specific goal in mind, the right and necessity to have and keep a homeland, is motivation enough to succeed no matter what the cost.

The subtitle to My Promised Land is 'The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel'. Shavit begins his story with the arrival in Jaffa of 30 passengers from London, England, among whom is is his great-grandfather, Herbert Bentwich. It is Bentwich who believes that Jews must settle in their ancient homeland. Shavit follows the route his great-grandfather took upon arrival in Jaffa, and he continues throughout the book to visit all the areas in which early settlers were faced with challenge after challenge in learning how to live productively in places that were essentially undeveloped. He tells how these settlers learned to work the land. If technology did not exist to support their activity, they invented it themselves. The dedication of those people was awe inspiring. They had to be creative, practical, and find sources of income to support these new ideas in agriculture which led to more development in other areas of setting up a life style. Those early years were full of back breaking labor, but no matter what the challenge someone always came through with answers. The result was the development of the orange industry in Jaffa which distributed the fruit throughout Europe.

There are many success stories throughout Israel's history many of which I was unaware. What stands out most about the story of the Jews who came to settle the Israeli state is those who survived the Holocaust. Before Shavit details that, he writes about Masada. For me, that is one of the most heart breaking, and yet inspiring, events in history. I was familiar with the Masada story, but I did not know about the events in the 20th century that led to the revisiting of Masada as a historical shrine. I found Shavit's retelling of the Masada story to be riveting.

There are times when Shavit makes very clear his opinions on certain events in Israel's history, particularly those decisions with which he does not agree. He holds strong opinions about Israel's development of nuclear weapons as well as the continuing struggle over Israel's Occupation of disputed Palestinian territory. I do not agree with some of the conclusions Shavit draws on those two subjects in particular. The Israeli people have been persecuted for thousands of years, and there was a well thought out plan to annihilate the entire Jewish population from the face of the earth. In view of that history, I believe Israel has every right to do what it needs to do to protect itself. There was no voice of reason dominant enough to stop the murder of over 6 million people. There were no effective "peaceniks" speaking out nor taking the measures necessary to stop the murder of so many innocent people. For me, that's a lesson learned. If Israel doesn't stick up for its own, no one else is going to do it for them. I think it's easy to sit back and take a moralistic attitude; it's much more difficult to live each day knowing the Arab world does not follow that same lofty position.

With that said, I still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Israel along with the dedication of the men and women who brought a dream of statehood to fruition. Shavit does an excellent job of presenting all sides of the issues Israel faced in the past and what they will have to face in the future if they want to remain a viable global entity. I wish I could give this book a rating higher than 5 Stars. It's worth at least a 10. ...more

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Aug 13, 2013 jordan rated it it was amazing

What are readers to make of Ari Shavit’s beautifully rendered and often profound (and often profoundly depressing) new book? It isn’t exactly a history, though it considers a number of key moments in the history of Israel. Nor is it memoir, though Shavit folds his and his family’s experience seamlessly into the broader narrative. Creative non-fiction? That feels like a copout. Labels might not matter to some, but I settled in the end on a creative analytical meditation on the miraculous rise, st What are readers to make of Ari Shavit’s beautifully rendered and often profound (and often profoundly depressing) new book? It isn’t exactly a history, though it considers a number of key moments in the history of Israel. Nor is it memoir, though Shavit folds his and his family’s experience seamlessly into the broader narrative. Creative non-fiction? That feels like a copout. Labels might not matter to some, but I settled in the end on a creative analytical meditation on the miraculous rise, strengths, and challenges of modern Israel. One thing is certain: hate it or love it, no reader will likely finish Shavit’s discussion without substantial food for thought.

Writing on a topic that often breeds over simplification and over-confident statements made with excessive surety, Shavit stands out for a refreshing willingness to admit to complexity. He begins by honestly stating his own positions as an "anti-occupation peacenik" and a “left wing journalist.” At the same time he eschews, indeed castigates, the current fashion of imagining Israel as the source of all the Middle East’s (and even all the world’s!) ills. Instead he writes with honest admiration about the miracle of Israel’s birth, survival, and success. And as he points out, miracle is very much the right word. Against overwhelming odds, a people dispersed for 2000 years did reunite in their ancient homeland and create a vibrant democracy. Yet no state is perfect. Shavit remains cognoscente of Israel’s weaknesses and what it took for the state to survive.

For Shavit, Israel’s birth in warfare required hard choices, not the least of which was the uprooting of hostile Arab populations. Nation building is never a clean business. Nation building in wartime is still more so. The 20th Century can be written as a history of “population exchanges” as nation states cemented their authority. Nor does he mince words:

“One thing is clear to me: the brigade commander and military governor were right to get angry at the bleeding-heart Israeli liberals of later years who condemn what they did in Lydda [an Arab town that sat on the crucial Tel Aviv- Jerusalem highway and the source of attacks on that arterial road, and the population of which was expelled] but condemn the fruit of their deeds. I condemn Bulldozer. I reject the sniper [sadistic individuals who behaved unethically]. On the contrary, if need be, I’ll stand by the damned. Because I know that if it weren’t for them the State of Israel would never have been born. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been born. They did the dirty work that enables my people, myself, my daughter and my sons to live.”

The same story might likewise be told across the world. It is the nation state’s dirty secret. Yet no one argues for turning back the clock, at least not anywhere else but Israel (and in Israel, only for one side). No one argues for the non-natives of North America to decamp. And, if that sounds too much like a story from the murky distant past, consider Europe. Tens and tens of millions of Greeks, Turks, Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Ukrainians and others dispelled across national boundaries over the last century as these states rose. Yes, these were tragic tales, but the world marched on.

In the case of the refugees created by 1948, Shavit actually pays insufficient attention to the hundreds of thousands of Arab Jews expelled from their home country who settled in Israel, save to point out that “the number of Jewish refugees Israel absorbs surpass the number of Palestinian refugees it expels.” A remarkable fact considering the vast size and wealth of the Arab world, which allowed (indeed, forced) Arab refugees to live for generations in refugee camps, even as Israel engaged in the difficult, expensive, and even dangerous process of absorption. Shavit does mention the Arab nations’ complicity in creating a smoldering ever expanding population of refugees. Still, he does not consider the guilt of the broader community of nations in their creation of the world’s only community specific international refugee agency, and perhaps history’s only organization whose mission was to maintain and grow the size of a refugee population.

Yet while Shavit recognizes many of the painful contradictions and choices that when into Israel’s founding, some he seems unable to accept even as he makes them plain to his reader. Like many, Shavit sees the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms of 1967. Despite discussing various ways to deal with the legacy of 1948, he returns time and again to 1967. Yet the story he tells forces more painful realizations. Anti-Jewish violence far predates the establishment of Israel, as he offers a too brief summation of the terror and violence committed against Jews under the British Mandate. In a trope that echoes across time, he describes how the Zionist leadership often condemns Jewish retaliatory violence even as Arab leaders lionize those who murder Jewish civilians, women, and even children.

The roots of the conflict thus go back even earlier than ’48. Consider for example Shavit’s interview with an Israeli-Arab lawyer, a man educated in Israeli universities, who he admires and believes could well have taken another path and been elected to the Knesset or appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court. For this educated Israeli-Arab, the idea of Jewish history in Israel is “pure fiction.” Thus the Jewish state is, for him, devoid of any legitimacy. When he looks to the future he looks forward to a world where: “We [the Arabs] will be masters, and you [Jews] will be our servants.” What border agreement will settle a dispute seen in this sort of cultural terms? Shavit worries over Israelis feeling “triumphant,” but one must wonder where are the Arabs writers who engage in this author’s deep honest introspection over the choices made by the Arab nations?

Shavit’s book is not without flaws. He can be arrogant, even self-righteous. Some of his interviews seem more of an opportunity to monologue for a paragraph in the form of a question which he follows with a terse one sentence answer. Yet none of that takes away from the fundamental strength of his analysis or the deep pathos he feels for the Jewish State. He struggles with his desire for a “normal” state, even as he celebrates Israel’s accomplishments and suffers for its failures. Ultimately, sympathetic, ethically questioning, and feeling no shortage of angst, Shavit’s book speaks volumes of the Jewish experience in general and the Israeli experience in particular.
...more

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Nov 19, 2013 Trish rated it really liked it

Shelves: foreign-affairs, mideast, nonfiction, history, political-science, religion

Shavit begins what he hopes is an international dialogue with this book. Such a dialogue has been long in coming. Perhaps the time is ripe. He can see that the Israeli position in the Middle East is dangerous and endangered. He uses interviews to illustrate various events that have shaped the nation and its now shifting worldview.

Shavit shows us how both the right and the left in Israel today have flaws in their grasp of where Israel is in relation to the Palestinians, the Arab world, indeed, e Shavit begins what he hopes is an international dialogue with this book. Such a dialogue has been long in coming. Perhaps the time is ripe. He can see that the Israeli position in the Middle East is dangerous and endangered. He uses interviews to illustrate various events that have shaped the nation and its now shifting worldview.

Shavit shows us how both the right and the left in Israel today have flaws in their grasp of where Israel is in relation to the Palestinians, the Arab world, indeed, even America. He is blunt, bruising, argumentative but illuminating as he cuts away at justifications of former and would-be leaders. The underpinnings of their stance are revealed in this way.

We know where Shavit stands:

”…the choice is clear: either reject Zionism because of (the expulsion of Palestinians from) Lydda, or accept Zionism along with Lydda. One thing is clear to me: the brigade commander and the military governor were right to get angry at the bleeding-heart Israeli liberals of later years who condemn what they did in Lydda but enjoy the fruits of their deed. I condemn Bulldozer. I reject the sniper. But I will not damn the brigade commander and the military governor and the training group boys. On the contrary. If need be, I’ll stand by the damned. Because I know that if it wasn’t for them, the State of Israel would not have been born. If it wasn’t for them, I would not have been born. They did the dirty, filthy work that enables my people, myself, my daughter, and my sons to live.” (p. 131)

The following passage was one of the most revealing and enlightening to me for it gave me a perspective I had not considered:

”Israel of the 1950s was a state on steroids: more and more people, more and more cities, more and more villages, more and more of everything. But although development was rampant, social gaps were narrow. The government was committed to full employment. There was a genuine effort to provide every person with housing, work, education, and health care. The newborn state was one of the most egalitarian democracies in the world. The Israel of the 1950s was a just social democracy. But it was also a nation of practicality that combined modernity, nationalism, and development in an aggressive manner. There was no time, and there was no peace of mind, and therefore there was no human sensitivity. As the state became everything, the individual was marginalized. As it marched toward the future, Israel erased the past. There was no place for the previous landscape, no place for previous identities. Everything was done en masse. Everything was imposed from above. There was an artificial quality to everything. Zionism was not an organic process anymore but a futuristic coup. For its outstanding economic, social, and engineering achievements, the new Israel paid a dear moral price. There was no notion of human rights, civil rights, due process, or laissez-faire. There was no equality for the Palestinian minority and no compassion for the Palestinian refugees. There was little respect for the Jewish Diaspora and little empathy for the survivors of the Holocaust. Ben Gurion’s statism and monolithic rule compelled the nation forward.”(p. 151)

Shavit seems to mourn, to regret, that the folks who were instrumental in setting up and continuing the success of the Israeli state seemed not to know what they were doing in terms of outcomes. The folks he is talking about were big, big in every way: in society, in influence, in action, and that they should have taken more care to think how their actions would affect the present and the future of Israel (and I would add, the world). But they were only men. Only human. They did the best they could at what they were best at. Most of us would be proud to have that written on our gravestones. But we now have to ask ourselves, “is this the best we can do?” The legacy of these folks is unacceptable today.

Shavit begins with the historical underpinnings of the state of Israel, but by the end he admits the “binding historical narrative has fallen apart.” One almost wishes it were possible to begin again, starting back when land was actually purchased rather than stolen. Shavit acknowledges it is difficult to ignore the truth of displaced Palestinians. “What I see and hear here is an entire population of ours…imprisoning am entire population of theirs. This is a phenomenon without parallel in the West. This is systematic brutality no democracy can endure.” Whatever else Israel has succeeded in accomplishing must be paired with this bald fact.

But many in Israel are willing to live with this. Even Shavit claims it gives his people the edge (“quick, vital, creative”) that living under the “looming shadow of a smoking volcano” brings. Some “harbor in their heart a great belief in a great war, which will be their only salvation.” Well. (pause) Do I need to add that this does not seem much of a solution?

It was difficult for me to finish reading this book. My emotions roiled as I read the bulk of Shavit’s narrative, and at some point I exclaimed, “thank god for Shavit,” for he is willing to struggle with hard truths and face them like a leader. But I felt I was finished before I got to Shavit’s concluding chapter.

This exhaustive (and exhausting) catalog of personal histories, slights and wrongs, achievements and successes, thoughts and second thoughts about who really deserves to be in Israel and Palestine culminated in me wanting to say “just do it.” Now that everyone has had their say and we understand all…just fix it.

The contrast between Israel’s self-congratulation on one hand (we have so much talent, wealth, ambition, vision) and the despair on the other (we have no friends, and so many enemies, we must actually bomb sovereign states to feel safe) is stark. But the state of Israel may be facing what every nation appears to be facing these days: a more divided electorate that hews to less moderate viewpoints, growing ever more radical and less tolerant by the year. While it is possible for me to feel empathy for individuals, it is difficult for me to feel sorry for a nation.

I did read the end of Shavit’s book. He is not optimistic. We all have reason for despair, but real leadership refuses to acknowledge the same boundaries that constrain the rest of us. It seems clear that we all want someone else to do the hard work of compromise and “leading” for us, and we wait for someone else to appear…when we really should all be thinking now, in this age of global warning and divided nations: What have we wrought?
...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Mal Warwick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

If you care about Israel and its people, or if you’re simply concerned about the prospects for peace in the Middle East, you owe it to yourself to read Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land. Fair warning, though: you won’t come away from reading this book feeling optimistic about Israel’s future. Though the author ends on a high note, celebrating the emergence of new, middle-class political forces in the 2013 Israeli elections, he dwells at such length on the strategic cul-de-sac that the country has du If you care about Israel and its people, or if you’re simply concerned about the prospects for peace in the Middle East, you owe it to yourself to read Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land. Fair warning, though: you won’t come away from reading this book feeling optimistic about Israel’s future. Though the author ends on a high note, celebrating the emergence of new, middle-class political forces in the 2013 Israeli elections, he dwells at such length on the strategic cul-de-sac that the country has dug for itself that, on balance, you’ll worry.

If there is a single message in My Promised Land, it’s this: “As the second decade of the twenty-first century has begun to unfold, five different apprehensions cast a shadow on Israel’s voracious appetite for life: the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might not end in the foreseeable future; the concern that Israel’s regional strategic hegemony is being challenged; the fear that the very legitimacy of the Jewish state in eroding; the concern that a deeply transformed Israeli society is now divided and polarized, its liberal-democratic foundation crumbling; and the realization that the dysfunctional governments of Israel cannot deal seriously with such crucial challenges as occupation and social disintegration.” Not a pretty picture, is it?

It would be difficult to find anyone better informed or better positioned to write this wide-ranging assessment of Zionist history, Israel’s internal politics, and the country’s strategic position in the region than Ari Shavit. A long-time columnist for Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, and a contributor to The New Yorker, Shavit is a fourth-generation Israeli, a great-grandson of one of the founders of the Zionist project. And you can’t read My Promised Land without reaching the conclusion that Shavit personally knows just about everyone who is anyone in Israel and has interviewed the rest of them for his column.

The book interweaves memoir with commentary and interviews with travelogue, yielding both a sketchy but useful history of emergence of the Jewish state and an assessment of its present-day reality and prospects for the future. Shavit writes with verve and conviction — conviction, for sure, as he argues passionately with many of his interview subjects. His deep feelings about his subject are unmistakable: he writes about his emotional attachment to the land, his grief over the expulsion of the Palestinian people and their unequal treatment in Israel today, his disgust with the settlers and the ultra-Orthodox, and his despair over the occupation of the West Bank. Shavit is, in short, a quintessential Israeli who wears his emotions on his sleeve.

My Promised Land is the second important book I’ve read about Israel in recent years. The other was a novel, The Debba, by Avner Mandelman. Though framed as a murder mystery, the novel is, more properly, an inquiry into the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two books are well worth reading together. ...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Jef Sneider rated it really liked it

Shelves: israel-middle-east

Ari Shavit tries to be fair to everyone. The first third of the book is heartbreaking as he reminds us of the horrors of the holocaust and the centuries of antisemitism that drove the Jewish people to want a homeland of their own while telling an honest story of the displaced Palestinians who lost their homes to the forces of history. He knows Palestinian history and acknowledges their displacement, and he knows Jewish history and acknowledges it in a very personal way, using his own family stor Ari Shavit tries to be fair to everyone. The first third of the book is heartbreaking as he reminds us of the horrors of the holocaust and the centuries of antisemitism that drove the Jewish people to want a homeland of their own while telling an honest story of the displaced Palestinians who lost their homes to the forces of history. He knows Palestinian history and acknowledges their displacement, and he knows Jewish history and acknowledges it in a very personal way, using his own family story as a framework. He tries to keep his head up and his eyes open, especially to better be able to see the true situation of the Palestinians. I learned a lot from his open and straightforward history.
The second third of the book was hard for me to read as he highlights the contradictions of modern Israel, a Jewish state founded by non religious Jews now threatened demographically by a non Jewish occupied population. He outlines seven threats to the existence of the country, starting with the surrounding and inhospitable Islamic world and ending with the Israeli people's own loss of identity in the modern world. The threats and contradictions are daunting, confusing and scary. He interviews leftists and settlers, Generals and ordinary citizens. He walks the fields with a Palestinian friend and listens to his story, his anger and emotion. After reading all this, you have to think, this cannot go on.
Finally, he tries to bring it all together, leaving room for some hope. Amazingly, he does so, in spite of it all, and I am left with a feeling of possibility for the future. None-the-less, modern Israel is a country living on the edge, living surrounded by threats, living in the moment and trying to live up to its own history, but living!
Ari Shavit's Promised Land is not a fairy tale or an apology, it is an attempt to put it all in perspective, honestly, without an agenda. An enemy of Israel will find much in the book to agree with and much to hate about Israel, and a lover of Israel will find much to admire and much to cringe at. I recommend the book for both. ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Penni rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, history, israel

An amazing book presenting the triumph and tragedy of Israel, as promised in the book's subtitle.

The human experience.
The beautiful along with the ugly.
the good along with the bad.
the sexiness along with the uncouth.

I loved the fact that there was no whitewashing. The moral ambiguity along with the love of the land shines through in every page.

I grew up with mixed feelings about the state of Israel. I didn't come from a rabidly anti Zionist home, yet the stuff we were taught in school gave me ...more

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Jan 02, 2014 Rachelle Urist rated it really liked it

Ari Shavit has written this landmark work with passion, courage, and vision. It is intensely personal. It is also a stunning overview of the rise of the modern state of Israel within the context of 20th century Jewish history. My Promised Land is like a letter, sent through time and space, to Jewish brethren round the world. It beseeches us all to open our eyes to the grim realities that beset our beloved state of Israel. The book reflects the author's sense of mission and purpose, and it testif ...more

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Jan 19, 2016 Cathy rated it did not like it

Shavit begins his history of Zionism and Israel honestly and that's what kept me reading, even though I fundamentally disagree with his thesis that because of the Holocaust, European Jewry had an inalienable right to create the State of Israel on the land that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been living on for hundreds of years. But he was honest about the inability and/or unwillingness of early Zionists to see or acknowledge the indigenous people of Palestine and about the ethnic clea Shavit begins his history of Zionism and Israel honestly and that's what kept me reading, even though I fundamentally disagree with his thesis that because of the Holocaust, European Jewry had an inalienable right to create the State of Israel on the land that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been living on for hundreds of years. But he was honest about the inability and/or unwillingness of early Zionists to see or acknowledge the indigenous people of Palestine and about the ethnic cleansing that took place during the 1948 war that was explicitly ordered by Ben Gurion. He is also honest about the disaster of Occupation and the illegal settlements and how those "facts on the ground" make a 2 state solution impossible. However, his gloating over the Israeli nuclear weapons capability combined with his paranoia about Iran acquiring the same capability turned my stomach. The book is also endlessly repetitive and at least twice as long as it needed to be. Shavit presents an Israeli "success story" in every chapter: the difficult history of each subject before coming to Israel, whether from Europe during or after the Holocaust or from other Middle Eastern countries after the foundation of the State. All are victims of anti-Semitism, all make fantastic lives for themselves in Israel and contribute to the greatness of the Zionist vision. Although he also repeatedly reminds the reader that this great vision has been built on another peoples' land, he actually only sees the Palestinians as posing an "existential threat" to the "Jewish and democratic state". Insert much eye rolling here.
He goes into a lot of detail about the foundation of Israel, the wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973, the rise of the right and the settler movement, the Oslo accords and the Intifadas, the Lebanon war of 2006, but makes no mention of Operation Cast Lead. Since the book was written in 2013, I was quite curious to discover his POV on this particular and very recent Israeli war crime. Turns out he thinks it was a "defensive war" and those Israelis who called it a war crime are "self-hating". Apparently Shavit is trying to revive something called "Liberal Zionism", which is clearly an oxymoron. Kind of like being a "liberal fascist", methinks.
He is much like Benny Morris who was the first of the new Israeli historians to confess to the ethnic cleansing of 1948 but who then turned around and claimed it had to be done to clear the land for the Jews. I honestly can't understand how one can hold these two ideas at the same time. It's like saying "It's OK if I do a really bad thing because it's going to make my own life better." That's the rationale of every criminal on the planet. ...more

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Sep 17, 2020 Thomas Deck rated it liked it

This book was my Everest. Started and stopped reading it three different times. Took a global pandemic to finally get me to finish it. Ended up absolutely crushing it thought it took me 4 months on my 3rd and final attempt.

Turns out the history of Israel is straight up wild. From it's early settlers to pre and post WW2 and the modern day, it's a quite the journey and one I didn't fully appreciate. Ari provides a very balanced view and looks at the issues from all angles and by talking to all di ...more

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May 30, 2020 Ying Ying rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-re-read, non-fiction, history

This non-fiction book is so good that it reads as fiction; I could not put the book down. The story is engrossing, and the author's analysis structured and clear. I've learned so much from this book, and I would like to read this again soon. ...more

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May 16, 2013 Michael Griswold rated it really liked it

Books on Israel typically fall into two categories: heavily pro-Israel or heavily leaning towards the Palestinian cause. Ari Shavit as a reporter for one of Israel's leading daily newspaper falls into the pro-Israel category, so perhaps one would expect a cheerleading love letter about the glories of Israel. But the picture painted by Shavit is far more complex than Israel being an absolute good or bad.

Shavit takes the reader on a historical and biographical journey from the 1890's through prese ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Skylar rated it it was amazing

Shelves: first-reads

I'll be honest. I have no idea who the author is. However, I'm more familiar with Zionism and Israel than the average American, but I try to avoid listening to the politics.

I was really surprised by this book after reading the description. I thought it would make me angry or shake my Zionist foundations or challenge my assumptions. It did those things, but not in the way I expected. In short, the book analyzes internal struggles of Israel, from settlements to racism (to both Arabs and non-Ashke ...more

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Sep 08, 2014 Patsylina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, política, non-fiction, superb-read, touched-my-soul

"I still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Israel along with the dedication of the men and women who brought a dream of statehood to fruition. Shavit does an excellent job of presenting all sides of the issues Israel faced in the past and what they will have to face in the future if they want to remain a viable global entity. I wish I could give this book a rating higher than 5 Stars. It's worth at least a 10."

Excelente ...more

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Aug 03, 2016 Daniel Sevitt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, non-fiction

An outstanding collection of essays and reflections that start with Shavit's great-grandfather arriving in 1897 and end with the aftermath of the 2013 elections.

Tremendously readable and unblinking look at the triumphs and disasters of Zionism's first century. Shavit is as sharp on the failures of the Left as he is on the excesses of the Right. Hard to imagine this changing anyone's mind, but it's bloody good all the same. ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Hermien rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, non-fiction, middle-east, jewish, israel

A well researched history and analysis of Israel providing lots of food for thought.

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Nov 12, 2017 Patty rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, arabs, jerusalem, israel, jesus, judaism, shoah, holocaust, war, world-war-ii

“There was hope for peace, but there will be no peace here. Not soon. There was hope for quiet, but there will be no quiet here. Not in this generation. The foundations of the home we founded are somewhat shaky, and repeating earthquakes rattle it. So what we really have in this land is an ongoing adventure. An odyssey. The Jewish state does not resemble any other nation. What this nation has to offer is not security or well-being or peace of mind. What it has to offer is the intensity of life “There was hope for peace, but there will be no peace here. Not soon. There was hope for quiet, but there will be no quiet here. Not in this generation. The foundations of the home we founded are somewhat shaky, and repeating earthquakes rattle it. So what we really have in this land is an ongoing adventure. An odyssey. The Jewish state does not resemble any other nation. What this nation has to offer is not security or well-being or peace of mind. What it has to offer is the intensity of life on the edge. The adrenaline rush of living dangerously, living lustfully, living to the extreme. If a Vesuvius-like volcano were to erupt tonight and end our Pompeii, this is what it will petrify: a living people. People that have come from death and were surrounded by death but who nevertheless put up a spectacular spectacle of life. People who danced the dance of life to the very end.”

I have been living with this book for more than two months. I started with the audio, but the CDs did not want to play in my car player. So I switched to the book. One way or another I felt like I was having a conversation with Shavit and that I was learning how one man sees Israel. That is the significant fact for me about this volume. This story is being told by Shavit and it is his version of events. Although this contains history, it also contains opinion. Not all or even most Israelis would see their country as Shavit sees it.

I appreciate his version. Shavit did help me see Israel as history and as current events. We walked through the history of Shavit’s country decade by decade with each decade getting its due. Other non-fiction books I have read have concentrated on the highlights – the battles for independence, for survival. I knew nothing about what happened in Israel as the country absorbed all the emigrants that moved there or about the Israeli nuclear developments. Although I know that some of the history told here is skewed by the teller, that is true of any history.

I am really glad to have read a book about Israel by someone who has lived there his entire life. In my opinion, this is a great part of this book. Shavit is an Israeli and very proud of that fact. He is willing to admit that his country has made mistakes – something that some Americans struggle with. I don’t agree with everything Shavit says, but I feel that my opinions are worth more because I read this work. I may not see Israel clearly, but my vision is improving.

I have to mention one note of concern. My head says that Shavit’s personal behavior should not have affected his journalism. However, his behavior did affect my reading of this book. In the acknowledgements, Shavit says the book would not have been written without his wife who he calls his love and inspiration. I had to take these words with a large grain of salt. Shavit is one of the many men who have abused women over the years. (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/wo...) I learned of these accusations as I read this book.

When I got to the acknowledgements, I found his words to his wife hard to take. I admit, I don’t know anything about Shavit’s marriage. I just know how I would feel if my husband was accused of behaving as Shavit did. I also wondered about what other things we don’t know about Shavit’s conduct. I am hoping that his journalistic ethics are better than his sexual ethics. ...more

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Apr 14, 2015 Book rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, biography

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit

“My Promised Land" is a fascinating, candid and heartfelt historical account of Israel. Leading Israeli columnist and writer Ari Shavit takes the reader on a mesmerizing journey that paints a thorough portrait of the contemporary Israeli experience. This powerful 464-page book includes the following seventeen chapters: 1. At First Sight, 1897; 2. Into the Valley, 1921; 3. Orange Grove, 1936; 4. Masada, 1942; 5. Lydda, 1948; 6. Hou ...more

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Feb 12, 2014 Myles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, middle-east, memoir, jewish-literature

There is much learned about today's Israel in this remarkable book, but I must say one of the most startling things I learned -- which I may in fact have learned before but forgot -- was that the intelligence community in Washington faked a national security estimate (NSE) on information about the nuclear capability of Iran because experts thought George W. Bush would use the truth to start a war against Iran. I will have to check back to see if this is true. If it is, it means the man elected t ...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Julie rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, non-fiction, vine

This book is a dense but thoroughly comprehensive history of a country unlike any other, a nation that has defied all odds just to exist. It is more than just a history lesson about Israel; it is an attempt to articulate its identity. Shavit uses individual experiences to narrate Israel's existence, highlighting different families during different eras to illustrate how a multitude of people have established themselves in the Promise Land. From his English great-grandfather settling in Palestine This book is a dense but thoroughly comprehensive history of a country unlike any other, a nation that has defied all odds just to exist. It is more than just a history lesson about Israel; it is an attempt to articulate its identity. Shavit uses individual experiences to narrate Israel's existence, highlighting different families during different eras to illustrate how a multitude of people have established themselves in the Promise Land. From his English great-grandfather settling in Palestine at the dawn of the 20th century, to an orange grower during WWII, or a Palestinian Israeli in the twenty-first century, Shavit effectively demonstrates the diversity of this turbulent country.

Everything aspect of Israel is presented here: economy, demographics, industry, politics, social commentary. Shavit also explores how shifts in these factors will affect the future of the nation. He has his own conflicted feelings towards his homeland, often contradicting his own ideals to better understand the history of a westernized country in the Middle East. Israel is comprised of so many dualities: left vs. right, secular vs. religious, Ashkenazi vs. Shepardic, etc.

One thing I thought was missing were details the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars, the two largest and most defining conflicts in Israel's history. Shavit does not address the causes or the fighting itself, but focuses on the results. I would have wanted a little more background on these critical disputes.

I can say that from reading this book, I have a better understanding about the economic and population boom of the 1950's, how it became a world power in the 60's when it obtained nuclear capabilities, and the controversial settlements and border disputes that are still an issue. More importantly, and sadly, I understand Israel's original purpose: to be a refuge for persecuted European Jewry in the first half of the 20th century. Just as Israel was establishing a solid foundation in Palestine to welcome its brethren to a pogrom-free haven, one in three were slaughtered in the Holocaust. But that's what makes Israel's heartbreaking triumph so inspirational. It's not an easy read, but I feel so much more enlightened about Israel's place in the world.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program. ...more

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Aug 26, 2014 Nick Lloyd rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-century-warfare, non-fiction, politics, mid-east, biography

The book was an honest and insightful look into the issues surrounding the Israeli state today. Shavit is at his best when discussing the history of Israel, from the orange groves of Jaffa, to the expulsion of Arabs from Rehovot during the '48 war, to the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He is even handed, self-critical, and transparent about the reasons for each action and their consequences. Where he loses some ground is in the more contemporary chapters, The book was an honest and insightful look into the issues surrounding the Israeli state today. Shavit is at his best when discussing the history of Israel, from the orange groves of Jaffa, to the expulsion of Arabs from Rehovot during the '48 war, to the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank following the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He is even handed, self-critical, and transparent about the reasons for each action and their consequences. Where he loses some ground is in the more contemporary chapters, especially the discussion of Iran's nuclear program and the perceived threats to Israel today. Here, he is clearly injecting emotion into his work, which weakens his position.
Still, the book is a great work, if only for the questions it poses, rather than the answers it provides. The fundamental question, which he discusses in the beginning, is why is Jewish identity so important? His great grandfather and other Zionists came to Palestine a century ago because they felt their identity would be lost, either directly, by means of the repressive states of Eastern Europe, or indirectly, through the liberal culture of Western Europe and America. They didn't want to face the risk of their grandchildren losing their Jewish identity, so they sought to form their own state based on Judaism. I have no doubt that this is an accurate assessment of the opinions of Herzl and Bentwich, but I'm still left to wonder: Why is that identity so important that it is worth dying over? Identities change periodically throughout history. 2000 years ago, there were Roman citizens. 1000 years ago, they became Britons. 200 years ago, Americans. Polytheists became Christians, Catholics became Protestants, Protestants secularized. If we're being technical, 250,000 years ago, we were all Africans. Who knows what identities we will have in the future? Why is Jewish identity so important that it must withstand the drivers of change at all costs? I think this is the fundamental issue which makes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict difficult for Americans to understand. In a country where the descendants of slaves and the descendants of slave owners live together (albeit sometimes contentiously, but never existentially threatening one another), why can two groups with similar cultures and religions not coexist within the same region? ...more

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Apr 03, 2016 John Devlin rated it really liked it

The last chapter is superfluous and is painfully trying to evoke a sense of a Beethoven symphony.

Otherwise, Shavit's book is a great primer on trying to understand the Jewish/Israeli - Palestinian conflict.

Told through a chronological trip through people and events, Promised Land does a great job of presenting a balanced view of the clash of cultures both internal and external. There were many things I found interesting to note. Most strikingly was the secular nature of Zionism really all the wa ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 Mike rated it it was amazing

This is by far the best book I have read on of the modern state of Israel. The author is a liberal and secular (non religious) Israeli journalist whose book begins with the arrival of his great grandfather to Palestine in 1897. The author walks you through the growing pains of Israel. Theodore Herzl, the visionary, early immigration mostly from Europe followed by the Holocaust and the establishment of the state. He minces no words and describes the cleansing of Palestinian villages and the bruta ...more

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“Only a few years ago did it suddenly dawn on me that my existential fear regarding my nation’s future and my moral outrage regarding my nation’s occupation policy are not unconnected. On the one hand, Israel is the only nation in the West that is occupying another people. On the other hand, Israel is the only nation in the West that is existentially threatened. Both occupation and intimidation make the Israeli condition unique. Intimidation and occupation have become the two pillars of our condition.” — 3 likes

“Lost were the depths and riches of the Jewish soul. But the revolutionary Hebrew identity was imperative if the Zionist revolution was to prevail.” — 2 likes

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