ABOUT ISRAEL

Gershom Gorenberg, The Unmaking of Israel (New York: Harper, 2011) ("The rule of law, in its substantive sense, is essential to a democratic state. By increments, the settlement project hollowed out the rule of law. Clear borders are fundamental to democracy. Settlement erased Israel's borders, or created several. For Jews, the state stretched from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, or perhaps to the Green Line plus the municipal limits of settlements. For Palestinians, the Green Line marked where government by the consent of the governed ended. Palestinians in occupied territory were only the subjects of military government. Unlike Arabs who had lived under military rule in Israel, they were not also 'citizens of a liberal nation-state.' No political party in Israel stood to gain votes by paying passing attention to their needs." Id. at 89. "What will Israel be in five years, or twenty? Will it be the Second Israeli Republic, a thriving democracy within smaller borders? Or a pariah state where one ethnic group rules over another? Or a territory marked on the map, between the river and the sea, where the state has been replaced by two warring communities? Will it be the hub of the Jewish world, or a place that most Jews abroad prefer not tho think about? The answer depends on what Israel does now?" Id. at 221-222., Also, see Jeffrey Goldberg, "6 Days, 33 Years," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 11/20/2011.).

Shimon Peres (in Conversation with David Landau), Ben-Gurion: A Political Life (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2011) ("After the 1967 war, Ben-Gurion urged extensive Jewish settlement in Jerusalem and in Hebron too, where the Tomb of the Patriarchs (for Muslims, the Ibrahim Mosque) is a site second only to the Western Wall in its historic holiness for Jews. 'We must not move from Jerusalem,' he was quoted as saying. He was against restoring the West Bank to King Hussein, but he warned against annexing it, with its one million Palestinian Arab inhabitants. 'That would be a serious danger to Israel,' he said. The same applied to the Palestinian refugees living in the Gaza Strip." Id. at 196.).