How Israel Lost: The Four Questions

The book is a breath of fresh air. It doesn't beat around the bush, and really gets to the point. Victories are not always material conquests, for I can say that our nation has truly lost its soul. Richard Ben-Cramer, a pulitzer prize winning journalist, would know best, for he has visited Israel in different stages in its development, and can compare and contrast the nation's ever changing (if not decaying) moral persona. To all his critics I say this, you can abuse him all you want, and throw at him phrases such as ever-worn out slurs of "Self-hating Jew". But atleast he fulfils a moral duty to make a case for positive change. For the many things he has proposed is much better then the suicidal status quo. Many people try to complicate matters that really have simple solutions. How many more deaths on both sides will it take to realize that maybe a COMPLETE end to the occupation is the starting point. But no, as the occupation has become an ego boost for many of our countrymen. I highly recommend this book, as it really is an eye-opener in many cases. May G-D pardon those who commit the henious crimes in the occupied territories, for our soldiers have become the standard international image of the ugly Israeli.

For two years here in America I've been trying from time to time to convey Israeli/Palestinian reality to Americans, with partial success. Many times I encountered surprise or misunderstanding, because what I said contradicted existing misconceptions. This is because, to put it mildly: the typical American discourse about Israel is more fiction than reality. I thought to myself: one should write a whole book, just to bring reality in. It turns out someone just did. It is Richard Ben Cramer, who won a Pulitzer prize for his Israel and Middle East reporting in the late '70's and early '80's. Now he returned to the land, and was so dismayed by what he found that he named his book "How Israel Lost". The name is perhaps an overkill (forgive the pun) and makes the book less attractive to some. Forget the name. Go to the nearest library or bookstore and get it. The thing I liked most about it was the unromantic approach and the off-the-cuff language. That's the way people think, act, write and talk in Israel/Palestine. The typical American sugar-coated texts seem to remove the essence of what's going on. Cramer's definitely a "leftist" in the sense that he thinks Israel's out of line with the Occupation - no excuses accepted - but you won't find any romantic admiration of Israel's peace movement (or of the Palestinian cause) in his book. In fact, there's not a single Israeli peace activist there (as far as I can remember). And not because he wants to portray Israelis as warlike: Cramer is simply interested in the mainstream, a place where the peace movement does not exist anymore. As he aptly describes. The book is divided into 4 parts, to "answer" 4 questions like the 4 questions of Passover eve. Parts 1 and 3 look at Israel, part 2 at Palestine, and part 4 wraps them up together. The first 3 parts are mostly based on individual stories. If by the end of part 1 you think Cramer is just another "self-hating anti-Israeli", hold your breath till part 2, where he lashes out equally harshly at the Palestinian leadership. In between he shows quite a bit of compassion and understanding to the people of both nations. He brings people, events and reports which are well-known (even iconic) to Israelis and Palestinians, but rarely make it past the American filters. As an Israeli I can testify that most of Cramer's analysis of Israel is right-on. He clearly has an insider's knowledge of the culture. Regarding Palestinians, I don't know enough to judge and seems like he too (as he admits) has less knowledge of them. Yet, the overall picture of "current status" in the land is by far the most reliable and accurate I've seen from an American, and his analysis places the ball squarely in... American and international hands. Which is another reason why you should go and read it. And if you like it, tell your friends. If enough people read this book, it might yet make a difference. ps: there are some inaccuracies in the book are regarding the wall/fence/barrier, b

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Richard Ben Cramer, has committed a courageous but relatively unpopular act by writing this book. He does not seem to fear sacred cows. Cramer dares to discuss Israel's activities in the occupied territories and the viability of an independent Palestinian State, and by this very act, he impacts the boundaries of the Israeli Palestinian discussion. American Jews are concerned, primarily, with the preservation and security of Israel. But are Israeli leaders as concerned with the principles the state was founded on - the principles I believed in while growing up? "We shall be like a light unto the nations of the world," is what I was taught. Israel was to be a beacon of hope and democracy in a hostile world. Cramer, through personal observation and challenging arguments, questions whether the Israelis, and Jews who support them, have forgotten their original high standards and goals. Are we failing ourselves as a people, as a nation? Cramer's narrative revolves around four questions, a modification of the Four Questions asked during the Passover seder: "Why do we care about Israel? Why don't the Palestinians have a state? What is a Jewish state? Why is there no peace?" Cramer believes that Israel, as the occupier, has become just as much a victim of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinians. He argues that the enduring occupation has corrupted and corroded both Israeli and Arab societies. And he asks, is Israel losing her very soul? I don't know if Mr. Cramer is saying anything here that hasn't been discussed before. All I know is that he has consolidated many of my own thoughts and clarified various issues which have weighed heavily on me for over 30 years. The rise of the Knesset's right wing coalition is discussed at length. The Israeli Supreme Court is taken on for its failure to issue injunctions against demolitions, security checkpoints, land expropriations, torture and assassinations that impact the lives of dozens of innocents along with those targeted. How is it possible for a just and humane society to treat the Palestinians so harshly? And, yes, I can ask this while understanding the violence the Israelis have been subjected to for more than half a century. Cramer paints an extraordinary realistic portrait of the two societies, highlighting people and situations with his wonderful humor and humanism. He is at his best when giving advice to Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat!! His writing and observations are startlingly clear, and his ability to work well with languages lend vigor and flair to the blunt, honest narrative. His anecdotes and personal observations are what make this book so compelling. This is journalism at its best and bound to spark conflict and controversy. I, myself felt, and continue to feel, conflicted about the issues discussed here. I grew up in a secular, Zionist household - Zionism meaning, (to me), "a political movement holding that the Jewish people constitute a na

Americans need to read this book. It is about how occupying another people's country can hurt the occupier as much as the occupied. The author, who clearly loves Israel, shows us just what has been lost there because of the occupation....and how valuable that something is. Hopefully, he will be able to redefine what it means for Americans to be FOR Israel. It cannot mean unconditional support for self-destructive policies, and it's too bad that so many American Zionists are too defensive to engage in an honest, intelligent discussion of this subject without resorting to name-calling. I guess they're just afraid. But they are not doing Israel -- or the US -- any favors.

Though Richard Ben Cramer's analysis would hardly raise eyebrows in Israel, where many people agree that the solution to the conflict -- if not the political will to achieve it -- is very simple, it is very difficult to discuss it in this country, where there is a very narrow definition, in public discourse, of what it means to be pro-Israel. Cramer believes, along with many Israeli intellectuals, that Israeli aggression against the Palestinians whose territory it has occupied since 1967, is hurting Israel, both militarily and morally. His beautiful stories about the victims on both sides of this tragedy are compassionate and compelling. The book has had rave reviews in the Denver Post, Washingtonian magazine, the Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, New York Review of Books (by the great Israeli intellectual Amos Elon), and other publications. But it's best to read it for yourself....you can't trust anyone to read a book on this subject and discuss it fairly and honestly. The argument is too polarized.