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criticalmiss's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
What a read. Miko Peled is the son of Matti Peled an Israeli general who had a complicated change of heart when it comes to Palestine. This book is an excellent companion piece to Ilan Pappe books (the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the largest prison on earth) as Miko Peled speaks of the main players that Pappe talks about in a closer more personal way as his father dealt with then on a day to day basis. Peled’s journey from Zionist to Palestinian activist fighting for one democratic state for all is inspiring. This is a hopeful book that I am very glad I read.
senquezada29's review against another edition
5.0
I was given this book by a Jewish activist who supported the rights of the Palestinian people and opposed the Israeli occupation. It's a fascinating book from the perspective of the son of an Israeli military strategist leader whose views on what the army he created was doing to the Palestinian people evolved over time until he became an outspoken opponent of the occupation. That influenced his son, the author, to also become an outspoken opponent of the Israeli occupation of Israel. This book tells the story of that self-realization by the author, who was himself a member of the IDF. It's a sad reality check about what's really happening in Israel/Palestine from an author who had access to all the inside information. Great book. It is a fairly easy read, too, despite the heavy content.
ashleycarpentier's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
kingofcheese66's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
noranazmy's review against another edition
5.0
I imagine if we printed a couple of billion copies of this book and sat the whole world down for two days to read it, we would be able to achieve peace in the middle east the next day.
Two days is how long it takes to read this book, partly because it's short and partly because it is too interesting to put down. But before you read it, I recommend you first see the YouTube lecture by the author.
The account of not just any Jewish Israeli, but a former Zionist and army soldier, son to one of the most iconic figures in the Israeli army, grandson to one of the founders of the state of Israel, and close family friend to about a dozen of the most influential people in its history!
Extremely recommended to anyone living in this world and interested in its affairs, but an absolute must to middle-Easterns of all backgrounds, who are often told by the rest of the world some fabricated version of history, and then asked to defend themselves about it. It struck me as I was reading this book that I, who had previously thought myself better-read, was actually unable to give a coherent narrative of the history of Palestine over the past century. The book's references made me ashamed of my own ignorance.
But here's what you'll really get from this book: 1. An understanding of the Zionist perspective and the psychology of Israelis across generations. 2. A deeper look into the IDF. 3. A visual reminder of a Palestine outside the Gaza strip. 4. A realization that you are capable of not only respecting, but admiring, loving, and truly wanting to meet an Israeli person, maybe even an entire family. 5. A sudden urge to learn Hebrew. 6. My most treasured experience: knowing what Palestinians really are. I don't think I have ever felt prouder of a people. I know some people who would be truly ashamed of themselves for spreading around hate speech about the Palestinians if they read half of what's in that book.
Two days is how long it takes to read this book, partly because it's short and partly because it is too interesting to put down. But before you read it, I recommend you first see the YouTube lecture by the author.
The account of not just any Jewish Israeli, but a former Zionist and army soldier, son to one of the most iconic figures in the Israeli army, grandson to one of the founders of the state of Israel, and close family friend to about a dozen of the most influential people in its history!
Extremely recommended to anyone living in this world and interested in its affairs, but an absolute must to middle-Easterns of all backgrounds, who are often told by the rest of the world some fabricated version of history, and then asked to defend themselves about it. It struck me as I was reading this book that I, who had previously thought myself better-read, was actually unable to give a coherent narrative of the history of Palestine over the past century. The book's references made me ashamed of my own ignorance.
But here's what you'll really get from this book: 1. An understanding of the Zionist perspective and the psychology of Israelis across generations. 2. A deeper look into the IDF. 3. A visual reminder of a Palestine outside the Gaza strip. 4. A realization that you are capable of not only respecting, but admiring, loving, and truly wanting to meet an Israeli person, maybe even an entire family. 5. A sudden urge to learn Hebrew. 6. My most treasured experience: knowing what Palestinians really are. I don't think I have ever felt prouder of a people. I know some people who would be truly ashamed of themselves for spreading around hate speech about the Palestinians if they read half of what's in that book.
ironi's review
3.0
It's quite challenging to speak about this book.
So before I get into my opinions, I'd like to say this book is very easy to read. It flows well and I enjoyed reading it. I think it provides a perspective that's important.
The first third of the book is essentially the author flexing his cool family history, as Israelis love to do. If you're not Israeli, I'm not sure how much this part will influence you but for me, I found it quite impressive (and a little annoying).
The author goes on and on about how rare it is for an army general to become a leftist. I found this strange because in my generation, that's practically a cliche. In the words of my former art teacher, "I was an officer for enough time for me to be this left."
As an Israeli, I found this didn't really give me anything new in terms of information. I found this to be a basic life story of the Israeli that discovers that the conflict is complicated.
What I found strange was that he stops believing in the two state solution. For me, the more I learn about Palestine, the more the two state solution seems right. I think we have to look at Serbia and Croatia.
The ideal, as I see it, would be two democratic states with open borders. I think the religious settlers wouldn't mind living in Palestine as long as they could continue practicing their faith. If you go up north, there are plenty of Palestinians that are okay with living in Israel.
It's not the name that matters, it's the culture and the lifestyle and I truly think we could create a small European Union but just with Israel and Palestine. Autonomy matters but so does freedom of movement. We could cooperate on environmental issues, we would all be bilingual and hopefully manage to create a bridge of Arabic and Hebrew.
As the cliche goes, in the book he goes to Palestine and learns that, wow, Palestinians are people. The more he goes to Palestine, the less he loves Israel. Now, I don't mean to belittle this but honestly, I'm so tired of this narrative.
I know that most of the Palestinians are great. I've decided that once my Arabic gets good enough, I'll reward myself and go to Ramallah. I've met many Palestinians and while I've never been able to cultivate an actual friendship, that could also be down to me being bad with making friends.
What bothers me is that I feel that in order for Israelis and Palestinians to get along, it's always the Israelis that have to come apologetic, to back down on their opinions. I've been to dozens of peace dialogues and I always feel like I'm more familiar with the Palestinian narrative than they are with mine.
I'm happy to admit that in 1948 war, Israel didn't entirely behave right, happy to talk about Israeli war crimes in the West Bank but Palestinians argue with me that Israelis have a claim of the land at all. They simply refuse to acknowledge me as anything but a colonizing European. I've heard Palestinians claim that Jews have no culture, claim that our only culture is stolen from Palestinians, claim that we're all taught to shoot Arabs in the army. There's such a lack of knowledge on their side and that's challenging.
I remember in one of those meetings, a guy from Ramallah was talking about violence from policemen. An Israeli there was immediately sympathizing and talking about how wrong are the Israeli border police. The guy stopped her and explained he was talking about Palestinian policemen and the problems of the Palestinian government. And Israeli leftists don't like hearing about these things. We're proper Jews, we like blaming ourselves for everything and it's as if the left can't comprehend that this shitty situation is not just our fault.
I had hoped that this book would tell the story of an Israeli who holds on to his Zionism and love of Israel but still manages to have a proper dialogue and to further peace. This simply isn't this story. He changes his narrative until he's entirely unable to embrace the Israeli one.
I think there's truth everywhere and a true mediator is able to hold on to the conflicting views. The magic of solving a problem isn't to agree with one side and in a way, he's no different than the right wing extremists that refuse to acknowledge the other side.
During my army service, I decided to start volunteering as a Hebrew teacher to Palestinian women. There was something hilarious about me leaving my army base a little early, finding places to change out of my army uniform (thank you, clothing stores in the central station), and going to East Jerusalem.
One time, I forgot my army beret (a gray one because I was in the Air Force, sorry for not being cool) in the class. A week later, the Palestinian secretary handed it to me. It was a strange moment because I hadn't told anyone I was in the army while volunteering but this secretary knew and it didn't stop her from letting me practice my Arabic with her and offering me coffee all the time.
I found myself thinking that I'm able to love my students even if they come from the same villages where many terrorists came from and they were able to accept me, even if I was in the army.
That said, we never talked about what hurt. And the more I age, the more I'm looking for a painful conversation, I want us to show our true colors, to make it real and genuine. Because it's not about a guy with a kippah and a girl with a hijab. It's about us solving this problem, as civilians.
This was quite long but man, I'm so tired. In Russia, I realized that if I didn't truly and honestly believe that things can change in this country, I'd leave immediately. And so, I do have faith. Even if Netanyahu will win again and even if this country seems to be moving backwards, I want to make this better, I truly think we have so much potential. I'm looking forward to seeing my view change in the next few years, when I'll have more time to work on my Arabic, meet more Palestinians and learn more politics.
what I'm taking with me:
• idk Miko, I served in the army as a leftist queer non binary and I wasn't bullied at all. Things have changed.
• there's a difference between one soldier behaving wrongly and a policy that is wrong.
• Matti Peled seems like a cool dude, I'd like to read more about him.
• honestly man, the fact he skips over Yom Kippur war is quite telling.
So before I get into my opinions, I'd like to say this book is very easy to read. It flows well and I enjoyed reading it. I think it provides a perspective that's important.
The first third of the book is essentially the author flexing his cool family history, as Israelis love to do. If you're not Israeli, I'm not sure how much this part will influence you but for me, I found it quite impressive (and a little annoying).
The author goes on and on about how rare it is for an army general to become a leftist. I found this strange because in my generation, that's practically a cliche. In the words of my former art teacher, "I was an officer for enough time for me to be this left."
As an Israeli, I found this didn't really give me anything new in terms of information. I found this to be a basic life story of the Israeli that discovers that the conflict is complicated.
What I found strange was that he stops believing in the two state solution. For me, the more I learn about Palestine, the more the two state solution seems right. I think we have to look at Serbia and Croatia.
The ideal, as I see it, would be two democratic states with open borders. I think the religious settlers wouldn't mind living in Palestine as long as they could continue practicing their faith. If you go up north, there are plenty of Palestinians that are okay with living in Israel.
It's not the name that matters, it's the culture and the lifestyle and I truly think we could create a small European Union but just with Israel and Palestine. Autonomy matters but so does freedom of movement. We could cooperate on environmental issues, we would all be bilingual and hopefully manage to create a bridge of Arabic and Hebrew.
As the cliche goes, in the book he goes to Palestine and learns that, wow, Palestinians are people. The more he goes to Palestine, the less he loves Israel. Now, I don't mean to belittle this but honestly, I'm so tired of this narrative.
I know that most of the Palestinians are great. I've decided that once my Arabic gets good enough, I'll reward myself and go to Ramallah. I've met many Palestinians and while I've never been able to cultivate an actual friendship, that could also be down to me being bad with making friends.
What bothers me is that I feel that in order for Israelis and Palestinians to get along, it's always the Israelis that have to come apologetic, to back down on their opinions. I've been to dozens of peace dialogues and I always feel like I'm more familiar with the Palestinian narrative than they are with mine.
I'm happy to admit that in 1948 war, Israel didn't entirely behave right, happy to talk about Israeli war crimes in the West Bank but Palestinians argue with me that Israelis have a claim of the land at all. They simply refuse to acknowledge me as anything but a colonizing European. I've heard Palestinians claim that Jews have no culture, claim that our only culture is stolen from Palestinians, claim that we're all taught to shoot Arabs in the army. There's such a lack of knowledge on their side and that's challenging.
I remember in one of those meetings, a guy from Ramallah was talking about violence from policemen. An Israeli there was immediately sympathizing and talking about how wrong are the Israeli border police. The guy stopped her and explained he was talking about Palestinian policemen and the problems of the Palestinian government. And Israeli leftists don't like hearing about these things. We're proper Jews, we like blaming ourselves for everything and it's as if the left can't comprehend that this shitty situation is not just our fault.
I had hoped that this book would tell the story of an Israeli who holds on to his Zionism and love of Israel but still manages to have a proper dialogue and to further peace. This simply isn't this story. He changes his narrative until he's entirely unable to embrace the Israeli one.
I think there's truth everywhere and a true mediator is able to hold on to the conflicting views. The magic of solving a problem isn't to agree with one side and in a way, he's no different than the right wing extremists that refuse to acknowledge the other side.
During my army service, I decided to start volunteering as a Hebrew teacher to Palestinian women. There was something hilarious about me leaving my army base a little early, finding places to change out of my army uniform (thank you, clothing stores in the central station), and going to East Jerusalem.
One time, I forgot my army beret (a gray one because I was in the Air Force, sorry for not being cool) in the class. A week later, the Palestinian secretary handed it to me. It was a strange moment because I hadn't told anyone I was in the army while volunteering but this secretary knew and it didn't stop her from letting me practice my Arabic with her and offering me coffee all the time.
I found myself thinking that I'm able to love my students even if they come from the same villages where many terrorists came from and they were able to accept me, even if I was in the army.
That said, we never talked about what hurt. And the more I age, the more I'm looking for a painful conversation, I want us to show our true colors, to make it real and genuine. Because it's not about a guy with a kippah and a girl with a hijab. It's about us solving this problem, as civilians.
This was quite long but man, I'm so tired. In Russia, I realized that if I didn't truly and honestly believe that things can change in this country, I'd leave immediately. And so, I do have faith. Even if Netanyahu will win again and even if this country seems to be moving backwards, I want to make this better, I truly think we have so much potential. I'm looking forward to seeing my view change in the next few years, when I'll have more time to work on my Arabic, meet more Palestinians and learn more politics.
what I'm taking with me:
• idk Miko, I served in the army as a leftist queer non binary and I wasn't bullied at all. Things have changed.
• there's a difference between one soldier behaving wrongly and a policy that is wrong.
• Matti Peled seems like a cool dude, I'd like to read more about him.
• honestly man, the fact he skips over Yom Kippur war is quite telling.
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