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The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel
The further away anyone was from that block of Ben Yehuda street, the easier it seemed to find a solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, that stubborn mess in the centre of the Middle East and the more I studied these solutions, the more I thought that they depended for their implementation on a population of table football men, painted in the colours of the two teams: blue and white for the Israelis, green, red and black for the Palestinians. All the international community had to do was to twist the levers and the little players would kick and swing and send the ball into the net, to victory’
One block of a Tel Aviv street is the starting point for Linda Grant’s exploration of the inner dynamics of Israelis – not the government and its policies, but the people themselves, in all their variety. Iraqi shop-keepers, Teenage soldiers, Mob bosses, Tunisian-born settlers, Russian scientists, and the father of the child victim of a suicide bomber are some of the people she meets.
One block of a Tel Aviv street is the starting point for Linda Grant’s exploration of the inner dynamics of Israelis – not the government and its policies, but the people themselves, in all their variety. Iraqi shop-keepers, Teenage soldiers, Mob bosses, Tunisian-born settlers, Russian scientists, and the father of the child victim of a suicide bomber are some of the people she meets.
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2006
About the author
Linda Grant
96 books213 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 26, 2012
I really enjoyed this book about Israel, its people and the views of ordinary Israelis on the problems they face in the continuing struggle to establish a viable and secure country.
It is not a book that attempts to present the Palestinian point of view, but even though I would have doubted that at the outset, that is one of its strengths. As the author says at the end, there is another author and another book out there to do that job.
To put my comments into context, I believe that the Geneva Accord presents the best chance for a just resolution to the conflict. Israel must make major concessions on borders/removal of settlements with a return to June 4th 1967 borders, and the Palestinians must in return make great concessions on the rights of refugees (in terms of numbers) to return to Israel.
In addition, both parties must agree to split Jerusalem with the Old City (which contains sacred Jewish and Muslim religious sites) being a free, open zone supervised and policed by the UN.
In the sense that it is Israel that therefore has to move the furthest and to my mind holds all the cards as the powerful, nuclear state, I could be deemed by some readers to be pro Palestinian and anti Israeli, but my own views are much more complex than that.
The book is written by a Jewish woman from Liverpool (my own home city), who goes to Israel initially to write a novel and also to explore the nature of being Jewish in the early 21st century. Whilst the book covers the latter to some extent, it becomes perhaps inevitably, more an exploration of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The author is very even handed. She presents the views of hard line, right wing Israelis who do not want to make any concessions, indeed who often just see the Palestinians as a terrorist menace to be oppressed further. She also presents the views of moderates who whilst condemning the suicide bombers, try to see the Palestinian point of view and see the urgent need to implement the Geneva accord as the only viable solution. Then there are those people who just want to get on with their lives who remarkably don't really have an opinion.
One thing the book did explain to me was the reason for the paradox that the Jewish state of Israel continually elects rather intransigent right wing governments, whereas in most democratic countries, it would appear that a broad rump of Jewish people tend to be to the left in their politics. The answer lies partly in the vast swathe of relatively recent immigrants who have come from Russia - over a million - who tend to be right-ish in their views. The other part of this conundrum, seems to be the psychological Israeli need to overcome the Holocaust image of the meek Jew who goes quietly to his ghastly fate and in the main just doesn't fight back. Thus there has developed an admiration for those who resist and fight, and although this is putting it rather simply, this has led to the support for the more bellicose right wing or religious parties.
I found this a fascinating insight into Israeli life and my views on what needs to be done to achieve peace have been strengthened by this book. It would appear that a great many Israelis, if not the majority share my views and that gives me a modicum of hope for the future of that region.
It is not a book that attempts to present the Palestinian point of view, but even though I would have doubted that at the outset, that is one of its strengths. As the author says at the end, there is another author and another book out there to do that job.
To put my comments into context, I believe that the Geneva Accord presents the best chance for a just resolution to the conflict. Israel must make major concessions on borders/removal of settlements with a return to June 4th 1967 borders, and the Palestinians must in return make great concessions on the rights of refugees (in terms of numbers) to return to Israel.
In addition, both parties must agree to split Jerusalem with the Old City (which contains sacred Jewish and Muslim religious sites) being a free, open zone supervised and policed by the UN.
In the sense that it is Israel that therefore has to move the furthest and to my mind holds all the cards as the powerful, nuclear state, I could be deemed by some readers to be pro Palestinian and anti Israeli, but my own views are much more complex than that.
The book is written by a Jewish woman from Liverpool (my own home city), who goes to Israel initially to write a novel and also to explore the nature of being Jewish in the early 21st century. Whilst the book covers the latter to some extent, it becomes perhaps inevitably, more an exploration of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The author is very even handed. She presents the views of hard line, right wing Israelis who do not want to make any concessions, indeed who often just see the Palestinians as a terrorist menace to be oppressed further. She also presents the views of moderates who whilst condemning the suicide bombers, try to see the Palestinian point of view and see the urgent need to implement the Geneva accord as the only viable solution. Then there are those people who just want to get on with their lives who remarkably don't really have an opinion.
One thing the book did explain to me was the reason for the paradox that the Jewish state of Israel continually elects rather intransigent right wing governments, whereas in most democratic countries, it would appear that a broad rump of Jewish people tend to be to the left in their politics. The answer lies partly in the vast swathe of relatively recent immigrants who have come from Russia - over a million - who tend to be right-ish in their views. The other part of this conundrum, seems to be the psychological Israeli need to overcome the Holocaust image of the meek Jew who goes quietly to his ghastly fate and in the main just doesn't fight back. Thus there has developed an admiration for those who resist and fight, and although this is putting it rather simply, this has led to the support for the more bellicose right wing or religious parties.
I found this a fascinating insight into Israeli life and my views on what needs to be done to achieve peace have been strengthened by this book. It would appear that a great many Israelis, if not the majority share my views and that gives me a modicum of hope for the future of that region.
May 17, 2009
Grant is an engaging character, and she has some amusing anecdotes about life in Israel. But they're culled from fairly brief engagement with the country, and she doesn't really have much to contribute.
May 26, 2024
Shock horror, Guardian journalist writes hatchet job on Israel. Cliched situations. Looking at the worst side of everything in Israel. Many generalisations, e.g. not all people from Arabic countries speek the same language. Many people from Iran speak Farsi. Terrible.
December 9, 2008
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book.
The title suggested a book that could be very serious, yet the picture on the cover suggested humour and a tongue-in-cheek approach to storytelling.
In the end, this book was amazing to read as far as I’m concerned.
The author captures real Israelis with the quotes and profiles she uses. It went so far that I would have sworn she’d been talking to my friends, as some of the people she talks to and quotes in this book simply sounded so familiar. I read these quotes on paper, but could hear them in my head, pronounced with voices belonging to my friends.
Not only because of the above, but definitely helped along by it, I enjoyed this book immensely. I enjoyed the way the author doesn’t mince her words. She is not afraid to give her own opinion of what she writes about, yet she still tries to write about, and show fairly, the different sides in the ongoing conflict that is modern-day Israel.
Awesome, and definitely worth its five stars!
This was one of those books I wanted to finish, just so I could write about how awesome it was!
The title suggested a book that could be very serious, yet the picture on the cover suggested humour and a tongue-in-cheek approach to storytelling.
In the end, this book was amazing to read as far as I’m concerned.
The author captures real Israelis with the quotes and profiles she uses. It went so far that I would have sworn she’d been talking to my friends, as some of the people she talks to and quotes in this book simply sounded so familiar. I read these quotes on paper, but could hear them in my head, pronounced with voices belonging to my friends.
Not only because of the above, but definitely helped along by it, I enjoyed this book immensely. I enjoyed the way the author doesn’t mince her words. She is not afraid to give her own opinion of what she writes about, yet she still tries to write about, and show fairly, the different sides in the ongoing conflict that is modern-day Israel.
Awesome, and definitely worth its five stars!
This was one of those books I wanted to finish, just so I could write about how awesome it was!
September 17, 2009
A great read while I was in Israel--it was great to see my life mirrored in these essays (especially the inexplicably inefficient mopping system they have here). Grant really captures the Israeli chutzpah, as she lived in Tel Aviv during the second intifata.
January 5, 2010
I learned about Israeli's what I did not learn while I was there.
December 31, 2007
Grant shares some interesting bits of insight from her time spent in Israel. Nothing earth-shattering here, but a good read nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews