The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide Book

Do not be deceived by the kumbaya introduction to this book -- her goal is not really to show that Jews and Arabs can be friends, but in fact to disprove the simplistic notion that the only problem in Jewish-Arab relations is as superficial and hippie-dippie as misunderstanding. And co-existence supporters and those in favor of dialogue groups had better listen up; so long as there are vast resource inequalities and racist laws, holding hands will get us nowhere.

Susan Nathan's book is an excellent list of the reasons why I am an anti-Zionist, instead of simply a Jew who opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It is a readable combination of personal accounts as well as official records and statistics, which combine to give the clear picture that Israel was built on a racist framework that privileged immigrants at all costs against the indigenous people, and that to remain a "Jewish" state it retains these policies both subtly and overtly. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of the population, are routinely referred to in polite, educated company as a "demographic threat," and Israel's policies reflect a hysterical reaction to this threat.

I would recommend this book in conjunction with Jimmy Carter's book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, for new-comers to the issue. The failing with Jimmy Carter's stance -- that everything within Israel is peachy-keen -- is harshly exposed by Nathan's description of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians who remained within the state of Israel. I only wish a book written by a Palestinian citizen of Israel could receive as much press, and it didn't take a Jew to make this uncomfortable news palatable.

And tell all your friends NOT to "plant a tree for Israel"-- Nathan gives one of the best exposes of the Jewish National Fund's practices that I have ever read. I am sorry, Grandma Marion, that your commemoration tree marks a destroyed Palestinian village.