Yossi Klein Halevi narrates a sober, heartfelt examination of one of the world's oldest conflicts. In doing so, he transforms a personal book into an even more intimate experience for the listener. Halevi is precise and measured in his delivery. These are deliberate choices that allow the listener to focus on the historical facts and the emotional, often difficult-to-hear anecdotes that are intertwined throughout. The author takes us on his unique journey as a Jewish Israeli citizen who tries to see the conflict from the perspective of the Palestinians. His somber narration underscores the difficulty of his task as an objective observer and of his self-appointed role as a mediator in this historically entrenched dispute. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Narrated by Yossi Klein Halevi
Yossi Klein HaleviUnabridged — 6 hours, 19 minutes
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Narrated by Yossi Klein Halevi
Yossi Klein HaleviUnabridged — 6 hours, 19 minutes
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Overview
Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of*Like Dreamers*directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.
I call you ""neighbor"" because I don't know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, ""neighbor"" might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other's dream, violators of each other's sense of home. We are incarnations of each other's worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor*is one Israeli's powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of ""the enemy."" In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.
This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide.
Halevi's letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor, but to all concerned global citizens, helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.
Editorial Reviews
03/26/2018
Halevi, codirector of the Muslim Leadership Initiative at the Shalom Hartman Institute, which teaches Muslim American leaders about Judaism and Israel, offers a poetic and moving account of “my experience as occupier” that asserts Israel’s legitimacy and evokes its emotional importance for Jews, but refuses to gloss over its flaws. Halevi’s goal is to open a dialogue with an imagined Palestinian neighbor living on the other side of a protective wall constructed in Jerusalem to deter terrorists. He frames his chapters as a series of letters to that neighbor that 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.” Halevi, who considers both Israel and Palestine to be “rightful claimants” to the territory for historical and emotional reasons, makes clear that he understands Palestinians’ perspectives. In that spirit, he asks his imagined correspondent for “respect for my people’s story” rather than to buy into positions advocated by the Palestinian government and media that deny the legitimacy of Jewish claims to the land and seek “to be free of Israel’s existence entirely.” In keeping with Halevi’s approach, this heartfelt, empathetic plea for connection and mutual acknowledgement is available as a free download in Arabic. (May)
The tantalizing proposition of Halevi’s book, never belabored but always peeking from between the lines, is that faith might unite these two warring tribes whereas reason only fanned the flames of discord.” — Tablet Magazine
“By providing an honest, soulful and balanced recap of two emotional narratives, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor has given us a spiritual roadmap, if not to peace, then at least to hope.” — Jewish Journal
“A clarion call, not to arms but to empathy…a profound and original book, the work of a gifted thinker…[an] urgent and heartfelt message.” — Daphne Merkin, Wall Street Journal
“One of the best one-volume introductions to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.” — Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic
“Refreshingly honest...In explaining Israel to the Palestinians, [Halevi] appeals to a certain ideal, a higher ambition, a sense of wonder and beauty.” — The Forward
“I was enlightened by the extraordinary insights that filled page after page, often on topics I thought I knew quite well. I was also moved by the haunting beauty of the superbly crafted language, by the many passages that speak to my deepest yearnings, and especially by coming to know better the extraordinary soul of the author.” — Mosaic
“Eloquent and important.” — Jewish Boston
“Yossi Klein Halevi wants to extend an olive branch to his Palestinian neighbors, and does so, in his incredibly compelling and heartfelt book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.” — Jerusalem Post
“A powerful, challenging, and deeply moving plea for human understanding across one of the most tragic divides in modern politics.” — Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
“Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor conveys the urgency and poetry of the Israeli story in a way that is accessible to any reader. I hope everyone will read these beautiful letters—Palestinians and Jews and anyone else interested in understanding who the Jews are and why we returned home.” — Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive, Jewish Agency for Israel
“A poetic and moving account…heartfelt, empathetic.” — Publishers Weekly
Yossi Klein Halevi wants to extend an olive branch to his Palestinian neighbors, and does so, in his incredibly compelling and heartfelt book Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor.
By providing an honest, soulful and balanced recap of two emotional narratives, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor has given us a spiritual roadmap, if not to peace, then at least to hope.
A clarion call, not to arms but to empathy…a profound and original book, the work of a gifted thinker…[an] urgent and heartfelt message.
One of the best one-volume introductions to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Refreshingly honest...In explaining Israel to the Palestinians, [Halevi] appeals to a certain ideal, a higher ambition, a sense of wonder and beauty.
Eloquent and important.
A powerful, challenging, and deeply moving plea for human understanding across one of the most tragic divides in modern politics.
I was enlightened by the extraordinary insights that filled page after page, often on topics I thought I knew quite well. I was also moved by the haunting beauty of the superbly crafted language, by the many passages that speak to my deepest yearnings, and especially by coming to know better the extraordinary soul of the author.
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor conveys the urgency and poetry of the Israeli story in a way that is accessible to any reader. I hope everyone will read these beautiful letters—Palestinians and Jews and anyone else interested in understanding who the Jews are and why we returned home.
The tantalizing proposition of Halevi’s book, never belabored but always peeking from between the lines, is that faith might unite these two warring tribes whereas reason only fanned the flames of discord.
Personal and historical, tough-minded yet thoroughly open-hearted, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is a beautiful, readable, remarkably insightful book. It does not propose to solve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it approaches it from the right direction, opening a door to a place of possibility where mutual understanding might – just might – begin.
When it came to Israel and Palestine, to Muslims and Jews, I had long come to feel that there couldn’t be much new under the sun. How happy I am to be proven so wrong. Halevi’s book is a gift and a challenge, a gorgeously composed, deeply personal accomplishment animated by this simple gesture: I will share my convictions, because I wish for you to share yours. Then, and only then, can we find a durable peace. These letters overflow with faith, conveyed by Halevi’s sincerity and humility. You, like me, may find yourself disagreeing from time to time, and even strongly so. But you will never find yourself unmoved. There are, of course, always those who are willing to talk, if only we’d listen. What Halevi demonstrates is far more unusual: There are also those who are willing to listen, if only we’d talk.
Halevi’s book, a collection of letters addressed to his Palestinian counterparts, functions as a new attempt at discourse that starts on a grassroots level. His language is beautiful. So is the idea behind the book: radical, unceasing empathy for the other — combined with an unadulterated, unmitigated dedication to one’s own people and one’s own land.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a very brave man...Halevi’s new book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, builds on what he discovered in his earlier quest: that this spiritual common ground could lead to mutual acceptance. I hope the book reaches its intended audiences both in the Middle East and around the world.”
Powerful and eloquent.... Capturing the enduring Jewish love of the land of Israel and the magic as well as the dilemmas of Zionism, the letters are highly compelling. There is no one better suited to tell the story of Israel and the Jewish people than Halevi—and not just to Palestinians. An inspired reading of the Israeli soul, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor should be recommended to non-Jews and Jews alike.
Yossi Klein Halevi narrates a sober, heartfelt examination of one of the world's oldest conflicts. In doing so, he transforms a personal book into an even more intimate experience for the listener. Halevi is precise and measured in his delivery. These are deliberate choices that allow the listener to focus on the historical facts and the emotional, often difficult-to-hear anecdotes that are intertwined throughout. The author takes us on his unique journey as a Jewish Israeli citizen who tries to see the conflict from the perspective of the Palestinians. His somber narration underscores the difficulty of his task as an objective observer and of his self-appointed role as a mediator in this historically entrenched dispute. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-04-03
A plea for "radical goodwill" in the face of the seemingly intractable bad blood between Israelis and Palestinians.In Judaism, writes the philosophically adept Halevi (Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation, 2013), a senior fellow at the Shalom Harman Institute, there is one transgression so great that even fasting at Yom Kippur cannot atone for it: "desecrating God's Name." By his account, interacting with practitioners of other faiths strengthens and "sanctifies" the bond, forcing the recognition that there are many paths to truth and that, in the end, all that will be left of us is bones and souls. Coexistence has hitherto been sought by exclusion and separation, with Jews, Muslims, and Christians retreating into their separate corners in the Holy Land. Clearly that's not working, Halevi argues, and if every path toward a solution is fraught with problems, at least there's promise at the end. The author proposes some truly radical solutions, including reparations for Palestinians displaced from their homeland (and for Mizrahim, Jews forced to leave their Arab homelands for Israel in return) and a hard bargain for the intractable: "I forfeit Greater Israel and you forfeit Greater Palestine," a proposal likely to fire up opposition among the nationalist hardcore on both sides. More searchingly, Halevi urges that each camp look into its faith to determine where common ground can be found and, even more difficult, where in its doctrine barriers to peace are located: Can Jews give up land they believe sacred, and can Muslims accept the thought that non-Muslims can be equals? The author's reasoned if sometimes too hopeful suggestions for peaceful reconciliation are surely worth hearing out, though one can imagine the din that would accompany any public reading of his pages among the ranks of Hamas or the Likud.A good choice for any reader with an interest in Middle Eastern affairs, though perhaps unlikely to sway those whose minds are made up.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170356171 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 05/15/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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