“And so of course is Ari Shavit himself: “extremely complex, perhaps even tragic”. Maybe Ari Shavit is complexer than life like John Wayne was bigger than life. But Stockholm-syndrome or not, underneath Shavit’s dualistic word-diarrhea is one message: the Jews are guilty, Israel is guilty, Zionism is guilty and Shavit wants to take part in the guilt and he does not care whether his accusations play into the hands of Israel’s and Shavit’s own mortal ennemies, the repesentatives of the oldest manifestation of a nazi-mentality on earth: islam.”
“There is more reward! Besides getting a literary treat and being dragged into in a vortex of wit and having a look into abysses of deep insight, my 100 pages or so will give you a better idea of what Shavit’s book is about than reading the 475 pages of the book itself. And of course a reader of my essays gets an idea of what the Israel-discussion is about.”
“In short: the book is an incomprehensible mess. You might say: so is life and especially in Israel. Sure, but that is no reason to mess up your text too.”
1) The Hype around Shavit
The hype around Shavits “My Promised Land” started late 2013 in America, continued through 2014 and spread over Europe that last year. Amazon presents the book with these words:
“New York Times Bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review and The Economist. Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.”
And then the praising quotes from the reviews in the important papers follow.
Indeed, In the “mainstream” the reviewers praised Shavits book lavishly. Sol Stern was one of the exceptions in saying that this book is a betrayal of Israel, plays into the hands of the mortal ennemies of Israel and and “is a gift box to Mahmoud Abbas and to haters of Israel, worldwide”. I agree with Stern.
A certain Rob Eshman “publisher and editor-in-chief of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal” epitomized the idolatry that for the rest surrounded Shavit,s promotion-tour in America in early 2014:
“If you want to see what prophecy looks like among Jews in the early part of the 21st century, follow Ari Shavit around Los Angeles.”
I reviewed the book too. And I did it very, very extensively. It took me almost the whole year 2014 to write 17 (!) essays analysing the 17 chapters of “My Promised Land’. Although they deserve to, they won’t make me world-famous, because they are written in the Dutch language.
Still, working on my 17 essays in Dutch I promised myself that my name was going to stick for eternity to that of Shavit. But to do the sticking they will have to be translated from Dutch into English and be read by . . . . eh . . . . an international public. Now the question is: how to seduce this “international public” to actually read them all seventeen?
The least I can say is: the 17 articles to be published on “Snaphanen” comprise 100 pages but will give you a better idea of what Shavit’s book is about than reading the 475 pages of the book itself. Or, for that matter, one would gather from the exalting and idolizing reviews in the mainstream media. And of course a reader of my essays gets an idea of what the Israel-discussion is really about.
So let’s go and write the (relatively!) short essay that must wet your appetite for the other 17.
2) Shavit is a man of many perspectives, maybe too many