A Stranger in the Land: Jewish Identity Beyond Nationalism by Daniel Cil Brecher

In A Stranger in the Land, Daniel Cil Brecher creates an engaging narrative about the Israeli Nationalism. As a Jew who grew up in Germany and as a historian who worked in Israel, Brecher came face to face with anti-Semitism in Germany and chauvinistic nationalism in Israel. By incorporating personal experiences and contexts from Middle East conflict, he supplies an account that is at once personalized and representative of biases, prejudices and myths that Israelis have build to rationalize their relationship with Arabs and Arab States.

The justification of certain excesses committed by the Israel state rests on their own victimization during holocaust. Brecher identifies the rational and irrational arguments advanced through propaganda and myths to portray Jews as being driven into conflict after conflict in Middle East. He examines the choices made by various Jewish leaders in past hundred years, be it armed conflicts in Palestine, Syria or Lebanon, or acquisition of land, and details the contexts by which every choice was justified, defended and is celebrated in retrospect. As a historian, he found access to sources and facts that he uses to serve us an analysis which captures difficult human contradictions, epitomized in Middle East conflict.

Israel is a relatively young, but powerful nation. By merely existing in a land bought, annexed, captured or taken away from Arabs who lived there for centuries, as a nation, Israel has been a defiant, unwelcome neighbor for most Arab nations that surround it. Israel presents itself as a territory battered by terrorists and hostilities from all sides. In Brecher's view, the hostilities are fed by Israeli ultranationalism, 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 grey 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 Chirstians or Nazis in Europe?

Of course, the Middle East conflict is fed by armed and political struggle or unrest kept alive by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas, Hezbollah and various other radical Muslim outfits. In this war, every side has its share of bitterness and bad blood. Revenge drives some, religion motivates others and for some, it is a simple question of seeking a homeland. The idea of attracting the world attention to Palestinian issue by making loudest noises (bombs) or through dramatic episodes (hijacks) seem to have originated by political climate where Jews hold the cards. The approach has repeatedly resulted in severe backlashes and have in fact helped Israel market their side of the story, which portrays such acts as terrorist acts. Sometimes the backlashes have been evoked to articulate the Palestinian situation of a weak victim being trounced by the strong Israeli military. While Arab nations buy the Palestinian version of story, the same story sells in US and UK and Israel as struggle of a tiny nation against a strong neighborhood of terrorist states. Injustice is considered as the attribute of enemy by both sides, and of course both sides need to step back and consider if bloodbath can ever resolve this vicious circle of hate.

Brecher, in his remarkable analysis, also portrays the complexities inherent in the Israelis. The contrast between the original, pre-world war settlers and those driven to the land by Nazism or Hilter; people of the Eastern European vs Western European origin; the conservatives and liberals; the agricultural and industrial citizens & between the natural born and naturalized citizens is brought out by the book. In the quest for a common identity, and a nation, Israelis have relied on religion as much as they have relied on creation of common myths, fears, memoirs (of holocaust), and perhaps the conflict binds the diverse groups within the country much better than any other attribute could.

Likewise, the Palestinians are torn between the radical elements and peaceful protesters. The escape route to Jews or Muslim in Middle East is to emigrate to US or Europe, and both communities discourage it by showing an aversion to materialism or profit-intensive capitalism. Again in exercising that option, a Jew is more welcome than an Arab. Be it per capita income or land holdings or education or propaganda, the Jews are at much more advantageous position, and while this feeds the ego of an Israeli, it also accentuates the bitterness of a Palestinian.

I recommend this book as an essential reading for anyone vaguely interested in understanding the genesis and complexity of Middle East conflict. By looking at Jewish identity beyond the nationalism of the state of Israel, Brecher provides a perspective which seems less biased than most Jewish takes on Middle East conflict. His book is critical of Jews as much as it is critical of the Palestinians involved in the conflict. Just playing the blame game can never end this conflict. The attempt to compile the intricacies of the problem usually reveals how problem can be solved. Brecher manages to supply us with a narrative that gets us to sit down and mull over details. The book has value as both as a memoir and a history text, and above all, as a script of contradictions that present themselves when we look at our beliefs about our nation, religion and past.