My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

by Ari Shavit

They saw the inner circle of the conflict in which an Israeli Goliath stands over a Palestinian David, but they didn’t see the outer circle in which an Arab-Islamic Goliath stands over an Israeli David. They saw that for the Palestinians the 1967 occupation was disastrous, but they did not see that for many Palestinians there are other matters that are far more severe and visceral than occupation, like the homes they lost in 1948. They knew that Israel had to deal with the challenge of occupation, but they overlooked and dismissed the other critical challenges facing the state. Because of these three cognitive flaws, their vision was impaired and their scope of reality grew more and more narrow, until finally they were disconnected from reality. The well-meaning leaders of the Israeli Left and the Israeli peace movement became irrelevant.