Israel Is Real

Rich Cohen does not try to present a comprehensive history of the Jews. He picks his spots and delivers an easy to read, quirky history lesson of the Jews and their quest for a homeland. He put a lot of research and travel into the effort. The experience was very enjoyable. His outlook for Israel and Zionism is a wary, realistic one.

Some of these reviewers seem to be confusing Rich Cohen, the author of this book, with Richard Cohen, a columnist for the Washington Post, who did indeed speak of the creation of Israel as a mistake. Two different guys, two different world views, and an indication that the above title is being reviewed by people who have never read the book. I feel compelled to write because I have read the book, and it changed the way I read the news and think of the trickiest region on the globe. The fact is Rich (RICH) Cohen's book, while asking probing questions and looking squarely and honestly at the dangers face by Israel, is a love song to the Jewish state, the Jewish people and the men and women who built that state. You come away from the book with a deep understanding and appreciation of the leaders of the Zionist movement and the great distance the people have crossed. The fact that this book has been sniped at by both those who hate Israel and those whole love Israel without critical faculty is a sure sign the author is honest and thus treading on territory even more dangerous than the Gaza Strip--the truth.

I picked this up after reading the rave in the New York Times Book Review and hearing Mr. Cohen speak on Larry King. This rich and interesting topic is made accessible by great writing and a thoughtful approach. Whatever side of the fence you're on, you should read Israel is Real.

...and the best book I've read about that country: smart, funny, brilliant, incredibly alive. I picked this book up on a Saturday and finished it on Tuesday, after racing across 2000 years of history, desert, and some of the most unbelievable characters and settings I've ever encountered in a book. The even weirder thing is that they're all real. The false messiahs of the 1600s. The New Orleans Fruit Salesman who topples South American governments and helps the UN vote in the state of Israel. The turncoat Josephus who survives the destructioin of Israel (Israel gets destroyed like five times in the book; if it was a movie, it'd have a mongo special effects budget) and so lives to give the rest of us the story. The tank commander who helps single-handedly win a war. It's not just that I understand a topic I couldn't quite see my way through before, because any decent book will do that. This book is a thrilling story, a wake-you-up story, a modern story. It's a story I felt I was listening to, in a crowded room, with a breathless teller. I've read other Cohen books, so I came to this one as a fan. This book is the reason you become one. It's like opening a door and having a whole world blast out at you. I've never read a book, a true book (in both senses) like it.

This is not a book for Jews. Or rather, this is not a book only for Jews. It is simply a wonderful book. Cohen tells the history of Judaism not as a scholarly chronology but as a simple story, with a beginning (the destruction of the Second Temple), a middle (the two millennia during which Judaism existed only as an idea, without a land), and an end (the Zionist movement and the creation of Israel). He gives dimension to the characters you know--your Theodore Herzls, your Moshe Dayans--and focuses on ones you may not, like Sam the Banana Man, who each carry the whole story within them. A huge part of the appeal is Cohen's prose, propelled by biblical rhythms (Ariel Sharon "sinned as David sinned. He sinned as Abraham sinned") and playful associations (comparing the West Bank settlers, for example, to Travis Bickle, Mickey Mouse, and Malcom X in the same paragraph). Wow.