My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel – Ari Shavit
In each of the places I’ve called home, I’ve studied the history of Israel. Detail and focal points varied considerably through each of those forays into the convoluted, delicate, and fascinating history of the country I’m proud to have had as a home, and I reentered that mental state at the encouragement of my father, who recommended Ha’aretz columnist Ari Shavit’s most recent book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Shavit is well known–and sometimes disliked–by many for his critical eye of the matzav, the situation, in the Middle East. In my opinion, his perspective is a crucial one, and this book does an excellent job of remaining relatively even keeled in despite of the fragility of the topic, which grows ever more tense and fragile as the years go by. It’s an unbelievably difficult subject to discuss, and I will inevitably offend someone with this post,
