"My Promised Land" by Ari Shavit
From
Booklist: Shavit
is a columnist for the center-left Israeli daily Haaretz. Unlike some on the
Israeli Left, he isn’t an anti-Zionist provocateur. Rather, he is a fervently
patriotic Israeli with an abiding love for his nation’s history and the best of
its traditions and institutions. So his honest and sometimes brutally frank
portrait of his homeland’s past and its present dilemmas is especially
poignant. Shavit’s narrative is strongest when he utilizes the stories of
individual Israelis to paint a rich tableau based on personal experiences. What
emerges isn’t necessarily optimistic. He regards the current peace process as a
dead end, since no Palestinian leader or government can guarantee an agreement
that offers the necessary security for Israel. Yet his own military experience
on the West Bank has convinced him that control over Palestinians is poisonous
and cannot be sustained. Finally, he makes clear that Iran truly is an
existential threat that must, somehow, be neutralized. This is a masterful
portrait of contemporary Israel.--Jay Freeman
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