Diary of a Crisis:Israel in Turmoil

by: Saul Friedländer (Author)

Publisher: Verso

Publication Date: 2024/9/10

Language: English

Print Length: 304 pages

ISBN-10: 1804296783

ISBN-13: 9781804296783

Book Description

Searching reflections on the crisis in Israel and Gaza by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the HolocaustDiary of a Crisis explores the past tumultuous and traumatic year in Israel-Palestine. The eminent historian Saul Friedländer began a diary of Israeli politics in January 2023 as the country was convulsed by protests against Netanyahu’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against this threat to democracy. But the protests said nothing about the Palestinian question—the "elephant in the room," according to Friedländer, who resumed his diary after Hamas’s 7 October assault on southe Israel. Israel was facing one of the worst crises in its history, he observes, under the worst possible inteal conditions.Friedländer weaves together profound reflections on a national history in which he has been an active participant. He describes how Prime Minister Golda Meir once flatly declared to him, "There is no Palestinian people." For Friedländer, on the other hand, the fight for democracy is inseparable from equality of treatment for Arab and Jewish citizens and an end to Israeli domination over Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. He argues that despite the continuing bloodshed, a two-state solution remains the only long-term answer to this most intractable of conflicts.

About the Author

Searching reflections on the crisis in Israel and Gaza by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the HolocaustDiary of a Crisis explores the past tumultuous and traumatic year in Israel-Palestine. The eminent historian Saul Friedländer began a diary of Israeli politics in January 2023 as the country was convulsed by protests against Netanyahu’s attempt to overhaul the judiciary. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against this threat to democracy. But the protests said nothing about the Palestinian question—the "elephant in the room," according to Friedländer, who resumed his diary after Hamas’s 7 October assault on southe Israel. Israel was facing one of the worst crises in its history, he observes, under the worst possible inteal conditions.Friedländer weaves together profound reflections on a national history in which he has been an active participant. He describes how Prime Minister Golda Meir once flatly declared to him, "There is no Palestinian people." For Friedländer, on the other hand, the fight for democracy is inseparable from equality of treatment for Arab and Jewish citizens and an end to Israeli domination over Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. He argues that despite the continuing bloodshed, a two-state solution remains the only long-term answer to this most intractable of conflicts.