I’m thrilled to know about this book simply so I can point to it to prove that, yes, you can support Israel but also be a Leftist.
Grossman’s essays chronicle ten years of living in Jerusalem from 1992 to 2002. (He’s a novelist, so these published dispatches represent something of a side gig.) We start with the signing of the Oslo Accord, the make our way to the assassination of Rabin, Barak and Arafat in Camp David, Sharon on the Temple Mount, the second Intifada, 9/11 and various incursions and disengagements from the settlements.
In other words: all the hits.
Throughout it all, Grossman makes the same point: can’t everyone see this is crazy, and they only way out is a real peace agreement? He also tosses in the occasional “well, what do you expect? These things take time!”
He’s quick to point fingers in both directions and concludes with a depressing-as-hell epiphany at a symposium with Protestant and Catholic Irish leaders. They realized that the fighting simply had to stop. Of course, they fought for six centuries. The Jews and Arabs in this region have only been fighting for one. Oy vey.
