Speaking For Israel

The exclusive—and explosive—account of the politics of one of the most controversial nations in the world. According to Aviva Klompas, representing Israel at the United Nations is like volunteering to sell Red Sox paraphernalia outside Yankee Stadium. During her time as the director of speechwriting for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Klompas crafted highly acclaimed speeches that advanced Israel’s policies and informed public opinion. In Speaking for Israel, Klompas gives readers a glance behind the curtain of international politics and all the drama, intrigue, and conflict that simmer under the surface. During her tenure as Israel’s UN speechwriter, Klompas saw the collapse of four Middle Eastern states, faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, waves of Palestinian terrorism, stop-and-go nuclear negotiations (culminating in the Iran Deal), an attempt to push Palestinian statehood through the UN Security Council, the Palestinians’ bid to join the International Criminal Court, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, and fifty days of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Constantly in the thick of things, Klompas’s experience with the Israeli UN delegation is full to bursting with juicy insider stories and a day-to-day look at what it’s like in the top diplomatic echelon. With humor and bite, Speaking for Israel tells her story, one that is both universal and uniquely singular.

What is a homeland and when does it become a national territory? Why have so many people been willing to die for such places throughout the twentieth century? What is the essence of the Promised Land? Following the acclaimed and controversial The Invention of the Jewish People, Shlomo Sand examines the mysterious sacred land that has become the site of the longest-running national struggle of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Invention of the Land of Israel deconstructs the age-old legends surrounding the Holy Land and the prejudices that continue to suffocate it. Sand’s account dissects the concept of “historical right” and tracks the creation of the modern concept of the “Land of Israel” by nineteenth-century Evangelical Protestants and Jewish Zionists. This invention, he argues, not only facilitated the colonization of the Middle East and the establishment of the State of Israel; it is also threatening the existence of the Jewish state today.

The United States not only played a significant role in the creation of the state of Israel; we also play a significant role in shaping Israel today. How does our role align with our values? Addressing that question requires knowledge of the history and situation today. It also requires language skills to better understand the messaging we hear.A lot of what we're told about Israel doesn't make sense unless we learn a new language I call "Israel." In that language words such as security, equality, defensive, peace, rights, and illegal have different definitions than we're used to, and that's why I wrote this book. I got confused when I had been told that Israel is always on the defensive, yet learned that it controls territory that it seized from its neighbors. We're told that God gave the land to His people, yet Israel is a secular state. We're told that the Palestinians are terrorists, yet the US has supported them with aid for decades.How I Learned to Speak Israel shines a light on what we have not been told. It uncovers ? the unpublicized history kept from most Americans that clarifies today's situation ? real-life situations on the ground that provide context for the vocabulary ? an analysis of the messaging we hear and how it can be a house of cards that collapses under scrutinyLearning to speak Israel is a journey. It is a journey in time, in place, in beliefs, and in self-reflection. Welcome to How I Learned to Speak Israel.

When They Speak Israel bridges the gap between people who are concerned about Israeli policies and those who defend Israel's actions. This guide provides tips to avoid stepping on conversational mines, to develop listening skills, and to build understanding relationships. The guide encourages both the reader and their conversational partner to think deeply about the issues, their personal priorities and how to understand others' perspectives on the issue.

2014 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award In Goliath, New York Times bestselling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens. Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008-09, which brought into power the country's most right-wing government to date, Blumenthal tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process. As Blumenthal reveals, Israel has become a country where right-wing leaders like Avigdor Lieberman and Bibi Netanyahu are sacrificing democracy on the altar of their power politics; where the loyal opposition largely and passively stands aside and watches the organized assault on civil liberties; where state-funded Orthodox rabbis publish books that provide instructions on how and when to kill Gentiles; where half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab; and where mob violence targets Palestinians and African asylum seekers scapegoated by leading government officials as "demographic threats." Immersing himself like few other journalists inside the world of hardline political leaders and movements, Blumenthal interviews the demagogues and divas in their homes, in the Knesset, and in the watering holes where their young acolytes hang out, and speaks with those political leaders behind the organized assault on civil liberties. As his journey deepens, he painstakingly reports on the occupied Palestinians challenging schemes of demographic separation through unarmed protest. He talks at length to the leaders and youth of Palestinian society inside Israel now targeted by security service dragnets and legislation suppressing their speech, and provides in-depth reporting on the small band of Jewish Israeli dissidents who have shaken off a conformist mindset that permeates the media, schools, and the military. Through his far-ranging travels, Blumenthal illuminates the present by uncovering the ghosts of the past -- the histories of Palestinian neighborhoods and villages now gone and forgotten; how that history has set the stage for the current crisis of Israeli society; and how the Holocaust has been turned into justification for occupation. A brave and unflinching account of the real facts on the ground, Goliath is an unprecedented and compelling work of journalism.

"In this volume, a collection of strong Jewish voices come together to explore some of the most challenging issues facing diaspora Jews, notably in relation to the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine. Most of the contributors are signatories of the Independent Jewish Voices declaration which, when launched in 2007 in Britain, opened a floodgate of responses. This book bears witness to the urgency of that continuing debate. It provides powerful evidence of the vitality of independent Jewish opinion as well as demonstrating that criticism of Israel has a crucial role to play in the continuing history of a Jewish concern for social justice."--BOOK JACKET.

On Palestine is Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe's indispensable update on a suffering region. What is the future of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement directed at Israel? Which is more viable, the binational or one state solution? Ilan Pappé and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss these critical questions and more in this urgent and timely book, a sequel to their acclaimed Gaza in Crisis. 'Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . he may be the most widely read American voice on foreign policy on the planet' The New York Times Book Review 'Ilan Pappé is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian' John Pilger 'This sober and unflinching analysis should be read and reckoned with by anyone concerned with practicable change in the long-suffering region' Publishers Weekly (on Gaza in Crisis)