Taking in everything from the Kingdom of David to the Oslo Accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power. Traditional Jews believed that upholding the covenant with God constituted a treaty with the most powerful force in the universe; this later transformed itself into a belief that, unburdened by a military, Jews could pursue their religious mission on a purely moral plain. Wisse, an eminent professor of comparative literature at Harvard, demonstrates how Jewish political weakness both increased Jewish vulnerability to scapegoating and violence, and unwittingly goaded power-seeking nations to cast Jews as perpetual targets. Although she sees hope in the State of Israel, Wisse questions the way the strategies of the Diaspora continue to drive the Jewish state, echoing Abba Eban's observation that Israel was the only nation to win a war and then sue for peace. And then she draws a persuasive parallel to the United States today, as it struggles to figure out how a liberal democracy can face off against enemies who view Western morality as weakness. This deeply provocative book is sure to stir debate both inside and outside the Jewish world. Wisse's narrative offers a compelling argument that is rich with history and bristling with contemporary urgency.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Jews and Power:
Gave me an unexpected and refreshing perspective on the history of the Jewish people. They have much to be proud of, I learned, particularly in their need to excel without armies, national power, or centralized wealth and influence in the centuries before establishment of the present State of Israil. The perspective is especially interesting in considering the current conflict with Palestinians in the Middle East.
Good analysis of Diaspora politics; bad analysis of Arab politics:
As a book that seeks to begin a debate about Jews' ambiguous relationship to (and even more ambiguous feelings about) political power, this book works quite well. It works far less well, however, when Ruth Wisse strays into an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here's where the book works. Wisse traces the Jewish communities' Diaspora politics of accommodation which resulted in highly flexible and democratic communities whose first instinct was to see whether there was anything that the... more info
No mention of the word "oil":
To me the strangest thing about the "Arab-Israeli" conflict is that while the facts on the ground are similar to what has happened in many other parts of the world (Indian/Pakistani conflict, Greek/Turkish conflict, etc) one of the sides (the Arabs) has never accepted the reality. While Indians and Pakistanis or Greeks and Turks may not love each other, they have accepted the results and resettled their own refugees. Why the Arabs refuse to accept reality and why many countries support them? Wisse points... more info
Well written eye opener:
In this relatively short book, Ruth Wisse manages to cover thousands of years of Jewish history and to point out the basic aspect of Jewish faith, that God knows why everything occurs, that He has a reason for it, but that at the end, if we are good people, He will bring us back to our home in Jerusalem. Jews also understood, until recently, that they were alive a the good will of the local authorities and that the best way to maintain this good will was to make themselves indispensable. Which led to many... more info
