I have an affiliate relationship with Bookshop.org and Malaprop's Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. Read more on my affiliate page.
Title: Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted
Author: Daniel Sokatch
Illustrator: Christopher Noxon
Genre: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Social Justice
Audience: Adult
Format: Hardcover
Content Warning: Violence of war and terrorism
My Review:
Sometimes it feels that everyone has strong opinions about Israel and the Middle East. Given the current war, I found myself forming my own strong opinions even though I knew practically nothing about the modern history of Israel and its relations with the Palestinians and surrounding countries. I decided to educate myself before I became too entrenched in my completely uninformed beliefs.
I wanted to find a book written by an unbiased outsider. I was also looking for a book of average length. I don’t want to become an expert; I just want the highlights. Can We Talk about Israel? fit my requirements reasonably well. The author, Daniel Sokatch, is an American Jewish man who’s spent quite a bit of time in Israel. He’s also the CEO of the New Israel Fund, which “stands for equality and justice for everyone in Israel.” He’s not quite as much of an outsider as I would have liked but at least he’s a bit removed and tries to view issues from all sides.
I won’t get political here but I feel like I learned a lot in less than 400 pages. The book starts with the ancient history of Israel and the diaspora but then leaps forward to the late 1800s when Jewish settlers started moving back to the area. I felt the explanations of the major events in the modern history were clear and concise so that I didn’t get too bogged down in the details.
No one can ever be completely free of bias, but I feel that the author made every effort to be as fair as humanly possible. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there with strong opinions on both sides of the issue who will disagree with me though.
The book was published in 2021, before the current war started, so the present-day state of affairs isn’t discussed at all. At least I feel like I have some idea what led up to this point.
This book isn’t going to be for everyone, notably those with immovable opinions, but if you have a fairly open mind and want to educate yourself about a part of the globe that seems to have an outsize influence on world relations, I highly recommend this as a good starting point.
Synopsis from GoodReads:
When it comes to Israel and Palestine, it can be hard to know what to say. Daniel Sokatch gets it. He heads the New Israel Fund, an organization dedicated to equality and democracy for all Israelis–Arab, Jewish, and otherwise. The question he gets asked, on an almost daily basis, is, “Can’t you just explain the Israel situation to me? In, like, 10 minutes or less?” This book is his timely and much-needed answer.
Can We Talk About Israel? tells the story of that country and explores why so many people feel so strongly about it without actually understanding it very well at all. Sokatch grapples with a century-long struggle between two peoples that both perceive themselves as (and indeed are) victims. And he explains why Israel (and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) inspires such extreme feelings–why it seems like Israel is the answer to “what is wrong with the world” for half the people in it, and “what is right with the world” for the other half. As Sokatch asks, is there any other topic about which so many intelligent, educated, and sophisticated people express such strongly and passionately held convictions, and about which they actually know so little?
Complete with engaging illustrations by Christopher Noxon, Can We Talk About Israel? is an easy-to-read yet penetrating and original look at a subject we could all afford to better understand.
Similar Books:
If you liked Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted, you might also like my reviews of
- True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News by Cindy L. Otis
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition by Anton Treuer
- The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph
Purchase:
Buy Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC or
2 Comments
This is such an important topic; I am glad you found a book that helped you understand the nuances. Tempers and opinions are at such a high right now that understanding the background is really important.
I wish everyone would read this or something like it before they go spouting off or, worse yet, cast an uninformed voted in Congress.