Haunting eyewitness accounts of one of the decade’s most catastrophic events.
A collection of intimate stories about the Israeli victims in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
With contributions from Cohen, Haaretz journalist Yaron has interviewed countless people and their families to craft this moving look at the lives and harrowing deaths of Israelis and guest workers on 10/7. The author alternates the heartbreaking, immediate profiles with some history of Israel as well as of the kibbutzim, the small activist, agricultural communities where many of the victims were struck. “The terrorists of Hamas murdered and destroyed the very communities that did more than any others to promote peace between the two peoples,” she writes. Moreover, in story after story, Yaron relates how many victims of 10/7 descended from Holocaust survivors or had moved to Israel for their safety. Beginning with Sderot, she notes how this southern city of immigrants has suffered from Hamas’ onslaught of rockets for many years and how 50 of its citizens were killed on 10/7. A group of elders on a minibus to a Dead Sea resort, many of whom were refugees from the Soviet satellite states, were gunned down on the streets; in Ofakim, one of Israel’s poorest cities, 49 residents were murdered. The author visited Bedouin communities in the Negev, where missiles rained down on the vulnerable residents, as well as the Kibbutz Alumim, where a group of Nepalese students working the fields were killed. The most horrendous toll of all was the 364 people murdered at the Nova music festival site (another 40 were kidnapped). “In the minds of many Israelis, including leading politicians,” writes Yaron, “disengagement from Gaza was the original sin, and a direct line connects Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the strip to the far-right Judicial Reform and massacre eighteen years later.”
Haunting eyewitness accounts of one of the decade’s most catastrophic events.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781250366283
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
For those satisfied with blame-the-victim tidbits of received wisdom.
The noted conservative economist delivers arguments both fiscal and political against social justice initiatives such as welfare and a federal minimum wage.
A Black scholar who has lived through many civil rights struggles, Sowell is also a follower of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who insisted that free market solutions are available for every social problem. This short book begins with what amounts to an impatient declaration that life isn’t fair. Some nations are wealthy because of geographical advantages, and some people are wealthy because they’re smarter than others. “Some social justice advocates may implicitly assume that various groups have similar developed capabilities, so that different outcomes appear puzzling,” he writes. In doing so, he argues, they fail to distinguish between equal opportunity and equal capability. Sowell is dismissive of claims that Black Americans and other minorities are systematically denied a level playing field: Put non-white kids in charter schools, he urges, and presto, their math scores will zoom northward as compared to those in public schools. “These are huge disparities within the same groups, so that neither race nor racism can account for these huge differences,” he writes, clearly at pains to distance himself from the faintest suggestion that race has anything to do with success or failure in America. At the same time, he isn’t exactly comfortable with the idea that economic inequalities exist, and he tries to finesse definitions to suit his convictions: “The terms ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ are misleading in another and more fundamental sense. These terms apply to people’s stock of wealth, not their flows of income.” As for crime? Give criminals more rights, he asserts, as with Miranda v. Arizona, and crime rates go up—an assertion that overlooks numerous other variables but fits Sowell’s ideological slant.
For those satisfied with blame-the-victim tidbits of received wisdom.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781541603929
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.
Two bestselling authors engage in an enlightening back-and-forth about Jewishness and antisemitism.
Acho, author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, and Tishby, author of Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, discuss many of the searing issues for Jews today, delving into whether Jewishness is a religion, culture, ethnicity, or community—or all of the above. As Tishby points out, unlike in Christianity, one can be comfortably atheist and still be considered a Jew. She defines Judaism as a “big tent” religion with four main elements: religion, peoplehood, nationhood, and the idea of tikkun olam (“repairing the world through our actions”). She addresses candidly the hurtful stereotypes about Jews (that they are rich and powerful) that Acho grew up with in Dallas and how Jews internalize these antisemitic judgments. Moreover, Tishby notes, “it is literally impossible to be Jewish and not have any connection with Israel, and I’m not talking about borders or a dot on the map. Judaism…is an indigenous religion.” Acho wonders if one can legitimately criticize “Jewish people and their ideologies” without being antisemitic, and Tishby offers ways to check whether one’s criticism of Jews or Zionism is antisemitic or factually straightforward. The authors also touch on the deteriorating relationship between Black and Jewish Americans, despite their historically close alliance during the civil rights era. “As long as Jewish people get to benefit from appearing white while Black people have to suffer for being Black, there will always be resentment,” notes Acho. “Because the same thing that grants you all access—your skin color—is what grants us pain and punishment in perpetuity.” Finally, the authors underscore the importance of being mutual allies, and they conclude with helpful indexes on vernacular terms and customs.
An important dialogue at a fraught time, emphasizing mutual candor, curiosity, and respect.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668057858
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon Element
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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