Sharing the Promised Land : A Tale of the Israelis and Palestinians

Dilip Hiro

New York: Olive Branch Press, 1999; Pages: 372

Despite the blurbs on the back cover, this book is not "non-judgmental and unbiased." Although the author is an Indian (not Muslim) and should have been expected to favor neither side, the book is marred by a rather large degree of pro-Palestinian sentiment that often blemishes the otherwise even-handed fine journalistic account. The author relies only on interviews really and sometimes on secondary sources. There is no additional research or even reference to the copious literature dealing with both sides of the conflict. As journalism, this may be fine. As a balanced account that purports to explain, it is severely lacking.

Hiro has written a number of books on the conflict in the Middle East and is well-known for his articles in many leading newspapers. This book is an attempt to trace the roots of the conflict and explain the reasons for the many failures of the peace process, especially the Oslo Accords. He starts out well enough by describing Jerusalem, which, as the meeting place of three important faiths, is emblematic of the multifaceted problems in the region.

Next, Hiro outlines the composition of Israeli society, a very well done, if somewhat too 'non-judgmental' narrative. Hiro begins with the ultra-Orthodox, the vocal, anti-Arab, militant minority that has been putting hawkish prime ministers like Netanyahu and Sharon in power. I would have preferred to see a bit more discussion of the reasons the secular Israeli are losing ground to this very dangerous group that not only alienates fellow citizens but also makes peace in the region virtually impossible by insisting on Eretz Israel (which would gobble up most of Palestine and then some of Jordan as well). The surge of religious fundamentalism on both sides is perhaps the most alarming development since the failure of Oslo II.

The next chapters are dedicated to the intra-Jewish divide between the Sephardim (descendents of the two Israeli tribes, who later migrated to Spain) and Askhenazim (the dominant European Jews). The social, economic, and political divide is startling especially when one realizes that most of these people have spent their lives under siege from all sides.

The inequality between these two, however, is nothing compared to the discrepancy in living standards between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Although some may consider the latter a type of a sixth column, in reality these people provide perhaps the only clue toward resolving the problem without annihilating either side. Marginalized from both sides, the Israeli Arabs manage to retain their Palestinian identities (although some of that may change with the succession of Likud governments) and still be peaceful citizens of Israel. It is unfortunate that they have been forced to vote for extremists for various political and economic reasons.

After discussing the 'secular center' populated by 'pragmatic politicians' (something that has not been true ever since Rabin was assassinated), Hiro provides a brief chapter on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The formidably efficient military plays a dual role as a defender of the state and as the cement that holds Israeli society together. The chapter, however, is terribly short and dissatisfying. There is nothing about the development of the force from a ragtag band of enthusiastic but not well-trained fighers in 1948 to the army it is today. Constant references to the triumph of 1967 do not do justice to its efficacy. Given that every Jewish man and woman serves in the IDF, more analysis is needed about the way people are socialized and educated while in the force.

Finally, Hiro has a chapter on the settlers, the troublesome Jewish 'frontiersmen' who are responsible for often contravening orders of their own government in the rush to occupy Palestinian lands in the Occuppied Territories and thus prejudice the outcome of any final negotiations. While ardently supported by the hawkish cabinets, the settlements in the West Bank are clearly one of the worst obstacles to any lasting peace and even pro-Israeli American administrations have been unable to press the Israeli governments from halting construction there. The problem is doubly worse because the settlers are also naturally the most bellicose of the Jews, which inevitable leads to more bloodshed.

The rest of the book is concerned with the other side of the coin, the Palestinians. Hiro traces (in minute detail) the origins and growth of the PLO and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. It is mostly after these chapters that the author begins to lapse more and more in his "unbiasedness." Given the extensive treatment of Israeli society, politics, and even economics, the part on the Palestinians is surprisingly cursory except for the political developments. Even though there is a chapter on Hamas and Islamic Jihad (most about the former), almost nothing is said about the radical Islamin fundamentalism that underlines the recent waves of suicide terrorism.

I will contend myself with brief examples of Hiro's less than even-handed journalism. Although he constantly harps on Israel's quest for security, he makes it seem as if it is merely a convenient excuse for repression of Palestinians and more land grabs. This is simply not so even if some Israeli politicians abuse it once in a while. First, one should recall that it was the Arabs (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestinians) who attacked the newly founded Israel in 1948. While one may quip about the desirability of establishing the state in Palestine in the first place, the simple fact remains that Israel has won its right to exist by that ancient ultima ratio, force of arms. It was then when many Palestinians became refugees, which was in no small part due to the wrong and stupid encouragment of the friendly Arab regimes who promised that they would return but failed to deliver. These same corrupt kingdoms even discouraged the Palestinians to take root in the camps, breeding discontent and ensuring a life of penury that would produce only anti-Israeli sentiment. (For a revealing confirmation of this story, read the memoirs of Khalid al-Azm, who was Prime Minister of Syria during the war.)

The largest land-grab was, of course, the result of the Six Days War in 1967. Once again, even though Israel attacked preventively, it was the direct result of the Arab states plotting its complete destruction. In fact, Hiro never even mentions that the Arab League was formed with the express purpose of destroying Israel altogether. One is hard pressed to see what bargain one can strike with such an opponent. The ones who suffer from all this are, naturally, the unfortunate Palestinians.

It is quite misleading to treat the Israel-Palestinian problem in separation from the wider Israeli-Arab antagonism because the former is very much a result of the latter and not only that, but it is prolonged because of it. When Israel seeks security, it is not from the Palestinians, but from its more powerful neighbors. This is something Hiro completely misses (evident in his mention of a guarded fence as an effective protection). When it only takes 2 minutes to fly from Jordan to Tel-Aviv, one can see that the price of an additional 2 minutes of warning is exceptionally high and those who are not willing to pay it do so at their own peril. Water is another strategic issue. Very crudely, Israel cannot in good faith bargain away such advantages to people who have sworn to wipe it off the face of the earth. Again, the Palestinians find themselves in the middle of hell only because they are Arab and therefore, in Israel's view, not to be trusted.

In addition to this problem with his analysis, Hiro commits several transparent lapses of even-handedness. He insists in calling Jewish terrorists by their proper name (terrorists) but when referring to Palestinian terrorists, he mostly uses terms like 'activists,' 'commandos,' 'guerillas,' and the like. He also fails to adequately explain why these freedom fighters were often found repugnant even by the neighboring Arab regimes, who managed to ban a score of their organizations. The chapter on Hamas is so weak that Hiro never really discusses (or even mentions) many of the terrorist attacks. He, however, never fails to helpfully explain the result of IDF's reprisals. What the author seems to miss completely, is that in the unfortunate war on civilians, the philosophy of 'an eye for an eye' and 'a tooth for a tooth' (to which both sides subscribe) invariably results in the 'wrong eye and the wrong tooth' to put it in the words of John Westwood. While busy explaining how the good poor Arafat was relentlessly goaded by the duplicitous Israelis into hunting down Islamic terrorists, something which Hiro claims he did in good faith, the author either does not know better or is guilty of obfuscating the simple fact that Arafat could not (and would not) hunt down the most important ones.

Given the time the book was written, there is no account of the peace process under Barak when, in May 2000, the Palestinians refused a very generous offer by Israel which would have given them 90% of the West Bank to form the state (during the negotiations in Sweden) or the collapse of the Camp David talks in July. Neither is there a discussion of Barak's offer of an independent Palestinian state in exchange of a formal end to the latter's conflict with Israel (August). And then the Al-Aqsa intifada that erupted in September, the complete collapse of negotiations, and Ariel Sharon's victory in the elections in February next year marked the end of that attempt. It will be hard to blame the Israelis for the failure of this round.

What emerges in the end from Hiro's book, is a nice historical account of the Palestinian problem foisted on an impossible interpretation. While the book will be useful for its factual material, at least the facts it mentions, it will be much less useful as an explanation, policy aid, or a guide to the future of the conflict. Still, as a description of Israeli society, the book has much to offer and I suspect it will be most useful in this regard.

August 10, 2002. BLS

@BOOK{hiro-99,
    TITLE     = {Sharing the Promised Land : A Tale of the Israelis and Palestinians},
    AUTHOR    = {Dilip Hiro},
    YEAR      = {1999},
    PUBLISHER = {Olive Branch Press},
    ADDRESS   = {New York},
    ISBN      = {1-56656-319-4},
    NOTE      = {Pp. 372, index, bibliography}
}