tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10404411.post7705901255912361274..comments2023-11-05T04:39:42.422-05:00Comments on KaviSpeak कवि-उवाच: A Stranger in the Land: Jewish Identity Beyond Nationalism by Daniel Cil BrecherVivek Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00794419464988884719noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10404411.post-5380911813400455772007-10-22T10:24:00.000-04:002007-10-22T10:24:00.000-04:00from desicritics.org#1Ruvy in JerusalemOctober 4, ...from desicritics.org<BR/><BR/>#1<BR/>Ruvy in Jerusalem<BR/>October 4, 2007<BR/>02:51 PM<BR/><BR/>In Brecher's view, the hostilities are fed by Israeli ultra-nationalism, and the need or greed to carve out a Jewish state in spite of gross human cost involved. By emphasizing their claim to land as just and as ordained by religious edicts and Western support, the Israelis are able to treat the claims of Arabs or Palestinians as secondary and unreasonable. The whole education system, employment, businesses, media, government and daily life of an Israeli promotes this nationalism. Holocaust looms as a gray background which sanctions splashing of the non-Jewish blood for the protection of a Jewish state and the Jewish identity. Yet and here Brecher's presentation stimulates the question that Arabs have asked for decades: Why should Palestinians or Arabs be punished for the excesses that were committed by Christians or Nazis in Europe?<BR/><BR/>Vivek,<BR/><BR/>This part of your article is the money shot in this well written book review. You are bearing to the readers of these articles at Desicritics, who are often members of the chattering classes themselves, the message of the author. It isn't fair to shoot at the messenger for the message he bears, so I'll not do so.<BR/><BR/>I'll merely say that if I wanted to intelligently criticize this book, which appears to be yet another by a series of "liberal" Jews living in exile who seem to think they know the answer to our problems, I'd have to read it myself. Unfortunately, I'm not rich enough to do so presently, so that enlightenment will just have to wait.Vivek Sharmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00794419464988884719noreply@blogger.com