Obviously, history, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What to one person might seem a triumph, to another appears to be a tragedy. Few objective observers, however, would find it difficult to see a positive outcome for the nation of modern Israel. For Israelis, the story and future of their nation is not so simple. And for the embattled city of Jerusalem, the direction being taken is even more uncertain.
Jodi Rudoren is able to capture the confusion and conflict among many Israelis concerning the future of Jerusalem in her book review of Yossi Klein Halevi’s book Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation.
Jerusalem Day celebrates the capture of East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war. Not everyone views this victory over five Arab armies in the six-day-war as a good thing, not even all Israelis. For example, a resident of Gush Etzion, a suburb of Jerusalem, considers the outcome of the six-day-war a miracle and wonders why others do not. Whereas, another secular Israeli considers the east Jerusalem settlement of half a million Jews will make resolving the conflict with the Palestinians impossible.
The author of Like Dreamers describes his book as “a story about the fate of Israel’s utopian dreams, the vast hopes imposed on this besieged, embattled strip of land crowded with traumatized Jewish refugees.”
Yisrael Harel an advocate of building more West Bank settlements takes Arik Achmon, an airline executive, on a tour of what he is building in the West Bank. Achmon was impressed but he saw a different outcome than did Harel. “You and I, Arik thought, represent opposite visions of Israel … Here in this romantic landscape, thought Arik, was rising the greatest mistake in the history of Israel.”
The title of Halevi’s book Like Dreamers is a reference from Psalm 26 about the Jews returning to Israel. But those who have returned and those Jews of Middle Eastern origin constitute a divided nation. Zionists who have ignored their own laws to build West Bank settlements are on one side of what they see as the unfolding history of Israel, and on the other side are those both within and outside Israel who see the settlements and even the East Jerusalem occupation as immoral obstacles to peace and progress.
The last chapter of the history of Israel has already been revealed by the principles found in Simple Reality; it will not be easy to watch.
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in the Simple Reality books:
Where Am I? Story – The First Great Question
Who Am I? Identity – The Second Great Question
Why Am I Here? Behavior – The Third Great Question
Science & Philosophy: The Failure of Reason in the Human Community
