The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for its Inner Soul
By Isabel Kershner
Published by Scribe 2023, pp.370

Some view the Israel of today through rose-coloured glasses, often as a reaction to campaigns against the state from those who wish that a Hebrew republic had never been established in the first place.

This excellent book by Manchester-born Isabel Kershner, Israel-based correspondent for the New York Times, paints a realistic, nuanced picture of Israel, exploring the Jewish state’s spirit of innovation, its identity politics, its culture wars and its inability to agree a border with the Palestinians.

In Kershner’s words: “Israel has largely learned to live with its outside enemies but seemed less adept at managing itself.”

She explores the soul of contemporary Israel in a way that recalls David Grossman’s The Yellow Wind, published in 1987.

A1nnQcPVtIL. SL1500

The Land of Hope and Fear book (Photo: Handout)

Each chapter focuses on a section of Israeli society — Russians, Ethiopians, Charedim, Mizrahim, the IDF — telling the story through their triumphs and tribulations. In many cases, this is a story of the transition from immigrant to Israeli citizen.

The book also examines how the socialist collectivism of the state’s founders has given way to “a society that is more competitive, individualistic and controlled by market forces”.

There are, for example, now more Thai than Israeli workers in the Arava, in southern Israel, managing its fish farms and the production of medicinal cannabis.

Israel’s citizens’ army, a founding precept of the state, is also now being questioned, notes Kershner. Given that half the country’s first graders are being educated in Arab and Charedi schools, the idea of a paid, professional IDF has become a serious consideration.

Quoting the Haim Gouri poem I am a Civil War, Kershner writes about the widening chasm between Israel’s warring tribes, a gulf that can often be reduced to “only Bibi” or “anyone but Bibi.”

As she points out, even some old-time Likudniks and disciples of Jabotinsky bemoan the direction Netanyahu has taken.

2B29PK8

A market in Jerusalem (Photo: Alamy)

The Mizrahim, who felt discriminated against by the Labour establishment for decades, have made big strides in society, argues Kershner.

By way of example, she cites three particularly prominent Jews of Mizrahi descent: Eyal Golan, who, in 2012, was the third wealthiest person in the country, the fêted poet and founder of the cultural group Ars Poetica Adi Keissar and the Israeli rock musican and record producer Dudu Tassa.

The book also charts the trajectory of Mizrahi politicians on the right and how they have raised the spectre of “an Ashkenazi deep state that was using the judiciary and mainstream media to persecute and bring down the prime minister”.

Kershner also reminds us that 40 per cent of the students at Haifa University are Arabs, and that Haifa citizen Ayman Odeh convinced various Arab parties to form a Joint List, which went on to win 15 seats in the September 2020 election.

The citizens of Bnei Brak are vividly described, including the Charedi paparazzi (who knew?)who seek out prominent rabbis in unexpected moments, capturing them eating “a steaming bowl of cholent”, for example.

And Kershner discusses Lo Tishtok (literally meaning don’t be silent), a grassroots organisation driving awareness of sexual abuse in the Charedi community.

Israel has also had its version of a Black Lives Matter moment, writes Kershner. When 18-year-old Solomon Tekah was killed by an off-duty police officer, Ethiopian-Israelis and their allies demonstrated in Haifa, blocking a junction near where the officer was stationed.

Kershner’s comprehensive, accessible book should be compulsory reading before any trip to Israel.