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ISRAEL AND ITS PLACE
AMONG THE NATIONS
• From the heart of Israel, author
Richard Oestermann presents 35 unique
human interest stories in Born Again
(Gefen Publishing House; $16.95).
Jews, Arabs, a ballet star, a Nobel Prize-
winning author, a Bedouin doctor, a
transsexual and a murderer are just some
of the characters whose stories are told.
A Danish journalist, Oestermann has
lived in Jerusalem since 1961.
• As former prime minister of Israel
and former Israeli ambassador to the
United Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu
has witnessed at close range the Middle
East's troubled history. In A Durable
Peace: Israel and Its Place Among the
Nations (Warner Books; $30.00), he
offers his prescription for peace while
tracing the origins, history and politics
of Israel's relationship with the Arab
world and the West. Originally pub-
lished in 1993 as A Place Among the
Nations, Netanyahu revised his book to
reflect the most recent developments in
Israeli-Palestinian relations.
• Straight to the Point! Limor Livnat
— The Leading Woman in Israeli
Politics Speaks her Mind (Gefen
Publishing House; $16.95) is a collec-
tion of speeches by Israel's former minis-
ter of communications under Benyamin
Netanyahu. An eighth-generation Israeli,
Livnat covers a range of topics, includ-
ing her opinions on women's rights, the
Oslo Accords, telecommunications,
Israel's security, Israel as a Jewish and
democratic state and Jewish unity.
Livnat, often credited with the success of
Israel's telecommunications revolution,
has been involved in Israeli politics since
1992 and currently serves as a member
of the Knesset.
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2000
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• Contemporary historians of Israel
have raised serious concerns concern-
ing the Zionist mission of Israel's
founders. In The Jewish State: The
Struggle for Israel's Soul (Basic Books;
$28.00), author.Yoram Hazony
explores Israel's history and its contem-
porary culture, providing an in-depth
study of the "new Israel" and "post-
A
s,
A roundup of recent books that
reflect on the Jewish state.
SHARI ZINGLE
Special to the Jewish News
Zionism," including its origins and
political impact on both Israelis and
Americans, Jews and non-Jews. In por-
traying the cultural and political revolt
against Israel's legal and moral status as
a Jewish state, Hazony examines the
latest ideological trends in Israeli acad-
emia, literature, law, the armed forces
and the foreign policy establishment.
In a sure to be controversial book, the
author, president of the Shalem
Center, an institute for Jewish social
thought and public policy in Jerusalem
and Washington, D.C., contends that
many leading Israelis are preparing
themselves for the final break with the
Jewish past and the Jewish future.
• America's foreign policy with Israel is
thoroughly scrutinized in A Concubine
in the Middle Fast (Gefen Publishing
House; $24.95). Professor Ezra Sohar,
M.D., analyzes the positive and negative
factors in Israel's relationship with the
United States in the pre- and post-Cold
War eras. He also covers America's policy
toward the Arab states, Israel-Palestinian
peace politics and U.S. foreign aid.
Raised on a kibbutz, Sohar is an interna-
tionally renowned medical expert and a
pioneering environmentalist.
• Commander of the Exodus (Grove
Press; $25.00) is the story of Yossi Harel,
who commanded four of the largest ille-
gal Jewish immigraRt ships that bought
24,000 Jews from Ei1rope to Palestine
between 1945 and 1948. Award-winning
Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk details both
Harel's life story and the suffering and
determination of the refugees. Harel's
career climaxed with thq voyage of the
famous ship _Exodus, an expedition later
depicted in the novel by Leon Uris.
• In 1993, Israeli reporter Amira Haas
drove to Gaza to cover a story, and
stayed for four years. Drinking the Sea
at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land
Under Siege (Metropolitan Books;
$26.00) is an account of ordinary
Palestinians — doctors and house-
wives, taxi drivers, farmers and Islamic
leaders — and a probing analysis of
the major political forces shaping their
future. Translated in 1999, Haas
shares the grief and humiliations of the
Palestinians and offers a portrait of a
spiritually resilient people.
• In The Biography of Ancient Israel:
National Narratives in the Bible
(University of California Press;
$24.95), author Ilana Bardes examines
the formation of the Israelite nation
through the first five books of the
Bible. She suggests that history and
literature go hand in hand more
explicitly than in modern historiogra-
phy. The Bible does not provide a
homogeneous account of national for-
mation, suggests Bardes, but rather
reveals points of tension between dif-
ferent perceptions of the nation's his-
tory and destiny. The author teaches
comparative literature at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
• A unique Israeli-Arab author duo tack-
les one of the most complex and contro-
versial situations from both sides of the
firing line in The Fifty Years' War: Israel
and the Arabs (TV Books; $29.95).
From the creation of Israel in 1948 to
the current attempts at a reconciliation,
authors Ahron Bregman and Jihan El-
Tahri draw on hundreds of in-depth
interviews with politicians, soldiers and
journalists in a comprehensive account
of Israel's relations with its Arab neigh-
bors. The documentary film (of the
same name) based on the book has aired
on PBS and is available on video.
• The Bible has long been a guide to the
history of the Middle East. In The View
From Nebo: How Archaeology is
Rewriting the Bible and Reshaping the
Middle Fact (Little, Brown and -
Company, $25.95), Wall Street Journal
reporter Amy Dockser Marcus takes the
reader on a tour through the books of the
Old Testament. She investigates how
modem archaeology and its discoveries
have raised questions about many of the
most widely accepted biblical narratives.
She presents controversial findings: The
Pyramids were built not by Israeli slaves,
but by Egyptian artisans and laborers; the
united monarchy of David and Solomon
was probably not in fact united; the
Babylonian Exile was suffered by a relative
minority. The discoveries are controversial
not only for what they tell us about the
Bible itself, but for their repercussions on
the contemporary Middle Fast.
• Wendy Orange, a writer, teacher and
psychologist, uprooted her family in
Cambridge, Mass., to live in Jerusalem.
When she got a job as an investigative
journalist, she crossed the line that sepa-
rates Israelis from displaced Palestinians
and began a journey in another country
she came to love. In Coming Home to
Jerusalem: A Personal Story (Simon
and Schuster; $25; June 2000), this
Jewish American offers a portrait of
daily life in Israel and of the country's
wide assortment of endlessly varied per-
sonalities.
• In Between Sodom and Eden: A Gay
Journey Through Today's Changing
Israel (Columbia University Press;
$19.00), Lee Walter traces the political,
religious and social factors that make
Israel a gay rights trendsetter. He exam-
ines the interplay between Judaism and
homosexuality, the growing prominence
of gay themes in Israeli literature, film,
music and television, and the role of the
media in advancing lesbian and gay
political progress. Walter is an attorney,
writer and former vice president of the
World Congress of Gay, Lesbian and
Bisexual Jewish Organizations.