Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Yesha, Its Jews, Its Life in Books

Shmuel Rosner reviews several books dealing with life out here in Yesha:

Tris (The Settler)
by Emily Amrousi
Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan-Dvir, 333 pp., 89 NIS

Hebron Jews
by Jerold S. Auerbach
Rowman & Littlefield, 240 pp., $34.95

Ha-Mitnachalim (The Settlers)
by Gadi Taub
Yediot, 190 pp., 88 NIS

Lords of the Land
by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar, Translated by Vivian Eden
Nation Books, 576 pp., $19.95

The Accidental Empire
by Gershom Gorenberg
Times Press, 480 pp., $18

Hitpakhut (Disillusionment)
by Dan Margalit
Kinneret-Zmora-Bitan-Dvir, 318 pp., 89 NIS



Rosner notes this:

...the “settlerism of practice,” the settlerism that is far from being “radical” or “messianic” and is very close in nature and performance to early Zionism. It is the achievement of a settler movement that sets impractical goals, and then settles for those it can get; a settler movement that dreams unrealistically, but is very realistic and pragmatic in its policies. And the proof is on the hills of Judea and the mountains of Samaria. A lively, dynamic, vibrant Jewish community now inhabits those areas, one that builds houses, establishes schools, manipulates governments to get more funds, playing the game dangerously but also carefully, handling its affairs in a shrewd, pragmatic way...

...the settler “movement” never went as far as to lose touch with Israeli society. Even in the aftermath of the Israeli government’s recent decision to freeze settlement construction for a period of ten months, they have still been careful not to go too far in their protests and active opposition. Thus, what Taub describes as the worrying signs of settlers’ lying to Israelis about the “real” motives for settling the land could also be viewed as grounds for reassurance: they feel the need to revise their self-justifications because they want Israelis to be convinced. They want Israelis to be convinced, because they themselves are “Israelis” and would like to be part of Israel’s society. They have to change their story in order to be “acceptable.”

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