Rubber Bullets

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

When the author's grandfather came to Palestine from Russia at the end of the 19th century, he shed the family name "Krichevsky" for "Ezrahi," the Hebrew word for citizen. "In choosing to connect the private and the public in such a way he probably could not have anticipated the ambivalence of at least one of his grandsons, who would share his enthusiasm for... citizenship for Jews but would feel an equally insistent impulse to keep the family domain separate from the public space and public duties." In this deeply personal book, Ezrahi traces how Jews of his grandfather's generation were transformed from "a disempowered and vulnerable religious minority into an armed citizen-soldier of a sovereign state governed by a Jewish majority." But Ezrahi, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of The Descent of Icarus, sees younger Israelis shrugging off that militarized collective in favor of individual conscience. In the stretched metaphor of the title, Ezrahi asks whether the rubber-clad steel bullets issued to soldiers for use against demonstrators represent real concern for the demonstrators or "a compromise between our recent recognition of the need to use force to secure our independence and our traditional moral critique of power, our own moral identity as Jews?" While there can be no question of the breadth of Ezrahi's knowledge (Rousseau, Bettelheim, the Bible) when combined with post-modern political analysis and memories of, say, his summer swimming escapades, it is diffuse and likely to convince only the converted. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Ezrahi, an Israeli-born and -reared political, science professor at the Hebrew University and a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, examines the outlook for Israeli democracy, particularly as it conflicts with traditional Zionist ideology. With deep roots in a broadly based political philosophical tradition and bringing to bear modern liberal democratic thought, the author questions the direction the current Israeli government policy has taken. He notes that Israel developed a collectivist culture early in its history but is now faced with the demand for greater individualism, creating a domestic conflict of conscience in the country. How to maintain security while simultaneously respecting reasonable Palestinian demands in a democratic setting is a challenge to which Ezrahi has committed his efforts. This book requires a great deal of concentration and pondering but is well worth the effort. Recommended for a wide audience.Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.