This is the compelling story of a Mossad undercover agent who disappears after her father's funeral. Mossad opens an investigation to track her down. This is the compelling story of a Mossad undercover agent who disappears after her father's funeral. Mossad opens an investigation to track her down. Even though she's not still on assignment, she has too much top secret knowledge for them to not know where she is. Her former handler, Ehud, tells the story of her recruitment, training, assignments, and his feelings for her. Fascinating story. The life of an undercover agent must be so isolating and stressful. It's hard to even imagine....more
This is one of the most beautiful and most sad love stories I've ever read. It begins in 1947 with the chance meeting of Lila and Elias in Jerusalem, This is one of the most beautiful and most sad love stories I've ever read. It begins in 1947 with the chance meeting of Lila and Elias in Jerusalem, before Israeli independence is declared. All hell breaks loose, of course, soon after, and the east and west sides of the city are pulled apart.
Unfortunately, Elias is a Christian Arab living in the east side, and Lila is a Jew living in the west. Their love is a casualty of geography as well as the socially-imposed separation of cultures and religions. Jews and Arabs did not love or marry back then, and there was no chance that they could live even on the same side of the barbed wire. Lila and Elias continue to love each other passionately in their hearts and minds from afar.
This lovely story has stayed with me as many stories do not. The author brings the characters to life in such a way that they feel so real. I am also very familiar with the city and the inhabitants and much of what they have experienced historically. Christians, Muslims, Jews -- they have seen too much tragedy all around. Their story continues through decades of Israeli life almost until present day, so we experience the long term effects of love from a distance, hope and despair. And yet, some happiness and some fulfillment. Highly recommended....more
This book is one of the most heartfelt and honest personal statements of one person's beliefs, joys, sadness, love, and empathy that I have ever read This book is one of the most heartfelt and honest personal statements of one person's beliefs, joys, sadness, love, and empathy that I have ever read or expect to read. The subject of the book and opinions stated are certainly controversial and may anger some who read it depending on their points of view, but it is difficult for me to imagine someone making a more diligent attempt at explaining his views and those of his people and, at the same time, trying to understand the views of the opposite side, those of his "Palestinian neighbor".
Yossi Klein Halevi was born an American Jew in New York. He moved to Israel in his late twenties after completing an MA in Journalism at Northwestern University. His body of work in journalism is diverse and impressive. He had made it his own personal goal to journey as a religious Jew into the worlds of Christianity and Islam in Israel. "Halevi joined the prayers and meditations in mosques and monasteries, in an attempt to experience the devotional lives of his non-Jewish neighbors and to create a religious language of reconciliation" among these three faiths. (Wikipedia)
In this book Halevi bares his soul with great compassion and humility. He creates an open "dialogue with an imagined Palestinian neighbor..." Each chapter is a different letter to that neighbor. The letters "include both concise, balanced histories—of such topics as the history of modern Zionism and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza—and his own memories of growing up an American Jew afraid that Israel would be destroyed in 1967, moving to Israel, and how his 'romance with the settlement movement ended.' " (Wikipedia) Halevi says he is seeking "to start the first public conversation between an Israeli writer and our neighbors about who we are, why we see ourselves as indigenous to this land, and what is our shared future in the region." He has made Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor available for free download in Arabic and he has invited Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims to write to him in response to the book in order to initiate a dialogue. He "may publish the exchanges as a sequel."
The book is a truly important volume in the discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I hope that many people on all sides (or without sides) will read it and think deeply about it.
This book is so eloquent, so quotable, that it is hard to not consider it one long brilliant quote, but here are a few good ones:
“...The fatal flaw of the settlement movement: the sin of not seeing, of becoming so enraptured with one’s own story, the justice and poetry of one’s national epic, that you can’t acknowledge the consequences to another people of fulfilling the whole of your own people’s dreams.”
“Loyalty to the Jewish people is, for Judaism, a religious act. That’s why religious Zionists never hesitated to partner with secular Zionists, who love and protect their people. For religious Jews, strengthening the Jewish people contributes to its ability to function as a Divine messenger in the world.”
“There is, of course, another anniversary that will follow our Independence Day: your day of mourning, Nakba Day. The Palestinian catastrophe of 1948. Not of 1967, not of the occupation and the West Bank settlements, but of the founding of Israel. That is the heart of the Palestinian grievance against me. My national existence.”
“I saw Jews raising Torah scrolls, which contain the injunction to remember that we were strangers in Egypt and so we must treat the stranger fairly, dancing in the streets emptied of their Palestinian neighbors. The insistence on empathy with the stranger appears with greater frequency in the Torah than any other verse—including commandments to observe the Sabbath and keep kosher.”
“Justice, justice, shall you pursue,” commands the Torah. The rabbis ask: Why the repetition of the word “justice”? My answer has been shaped by our conflict: Sometimes, the pursuit of justice means fulfilling two claims to justice, even when they clash.”
On the possible future destruction of Israel: “Today ... we live in the aftermath of the shattering of Jewish faith, brought on in part by Western secularism and the Holocaust. Whatever faith has managed to survive our experiences in the modern world would be tested to the breaking point by the destruction of Israel. Few Jews, I suspect, would accept another narrative of Divine punishment. Even for many religious Jews, this would be one punishment too many.”
“Today, though, each faith community suffers from a decline of one or the other aspect of religious vitality. Modernity has not been kind to Jewish spirituality: Large parts of the Jewish people have become severed from basic faith and devotion. The Muslim world has the opposite problem: an erosion of open inquiry and self-critique.”
“And so, dear neighbor, I end these letters as I began: with the prayer that we will meet. Now we have spent some time together in spirit, but I hope to host you one day in my home—in my sukkah. B’ezrat Hashem. With God’s help. Inshallah.”
This amazing novel is both a page-turner and a morality study of the side-by-side lives lived in any country by citizens and illegal immigrantRiveting
This amazing novel is both a page-turner and a morality study of the side-by-side lives lived in any country by citizens and illegal immigrants. The author allows us into the heads of the characters - the doctor, the immigrant, the detective, and others for a 360° view of the lives of people in each of these situations. " Waking Lions takes place in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba, but as a drama of immigration, it could almost as easily be set in San Diego or Brussels." - Adam Kirsch (Tablet). This story kept taking me to my own inner thoughts and feelings, the way I really feel about "others" in my society. I imagine I will be thinking about this story for a long time....more
