Twenty-one sparkling essays (originally published in the New York
Review of Books and elsewhere) on Israel and the Middle East,
covering the period from the Six-Day War up to Benjamin Netanyahu's
recent election as Israel's prime minister, by the insightful
veteran Israeli journalist, historian, and biographer. Elon
(Founder: A Portrait of the First Rothschild and His Times, 1996,
etc.) focuses largely on political and diplomatic events. In two
essays written in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War
(including the quadrupling of Israel's territory), he presciently
expresses concern that his country's extraordinary, lightning-quick
victory has been "marked by more than a trace of arrogance" and has
seemingly resulted in "a somewhat new, animistic cult of holy
places." Elon also has a knack for interviewing the right people -
not only policymakers, but dissidents and intellectuals who
understand a political culture's underlying dynamics. A refreshing
change of pace occurs in his more leisurely profiles, particularly
one on Yair Hirschfield and Ron Pundik, two academics turned
"freelance" diplomats who played a key role in initiating and
negotiating the 1993 Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO. His
celebrations of the political, cultural, and architectural ambience
of Amman, Cairo, and Alexandria, are vivid and persuasive.
Referring to the latter, a Mediterranean port that once had
significant Greek, Jewish, and other foreign communities during the
first centuries A.D., Elon calls it "the New York of the ancient
world, the first world city." These pieces make one regret that
Elon doesn't turn more often to consider modern Israeli culture and
society. When he does, he is powerful and direct, as in a piece
describing (and decrying) "the latent hysteria" in Israeli life
induced by the memory and misuse of the Holocaust. One could not
ask for a more informed and discerning guide than Elon to both what
is tiresomely old and startlingly new between Israeli Jews and
their Arab antagonists and partners. (Kirkus Reviews)
A powerful and evocative collection of essays, "A Blood Dimmed
Tide" gathers nearly thirty years of Amos Elon's work on the Middle
East. Skillfully moving from the Intifada to the Gulf War and its
aftermath to the Peace Now movement, these essays provide a nuanced
account of relations between Jews and Arabs and among the Israelis
themselves. Elon has also written a timely introduction that
provides an overview of his work and brings it up to the election
of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel.
This internationally-known journalist presents sharply observed
portraits of the region's key figures: Shimon Peres, Yitzak Rabin,
and King Hussein; he interviews Yasir Arafat; and he considers
Moshe Dayan's life and legacy. Elon also ranges far to sketch the
political climate of the region and its players, from Israeli
settlers in Hebron and their uneasy coexistence with Arab neighbors
to the foreign policy of Egypt.
Sensitive and powerful, "A Blood-Dimmed Tide" provides a timely
analysis of the conflicts between Jews and Arabs. From the
Palestinians' refusal to accept Israel's 1978 offer of "full
autonomy" to the Israeli government's insistence that settling the
occupied territories would bring security, Elon traces what he
considers to be the deadly miscalculations of both groups. As he
examines the events and misunderstandings that have made it so
difficult for Palestinians and Israelis to establish peace, Elon
concludes taht what will finally bring the two sides together will
not be moral imperative or personal courage but exhaustion. "A
Blood-Dimmed Tide" is a significant contribution to our
understanding of this troubled land.
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