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karen_unabridged's review against another edition
2.0
A monster of a book. Densely written and packed with footnotes but the Israeli politics remain incomprehensible to me and I don't feel like I gained any great insight to Ben Gurion, either. I don't think the author liked his subject very well, ultimately. It's so long I would have abandoned it, but thanks to Covid-19 I had plenty of reading time.
safetygarden's review against another edition
2.0
The subject: incredibly unique. Ben-Gurion is a singular figure with a complicated legacy, Zionism is an incredibly interesting movement containing a huge span of political and philosophical factions, from the colonial era of the 1800s to the end of the second world war, and Ben-Gurion engaged with it over decades of personal, national, and global change.
The book: disappointing. Far, far too thorough, including constant miniscule details that have little relevance to establishing Ben-Gurion's character, the movement of Zionism, or the historical contexts of the time. The book is crazy long and unfocused, there's no narrative line connecting one event to another, showing consequences and motivations for Ben-Gurion's actions, highlighting his ideals and contradictions. Does that make it bad? No. Does it make it super hard to read? Yes.
This is a historical biography, not a narrative one. I feel like a retelling of Ben-Gurion's story with a greater focus on character interactions, motivations, and consequences could be an incredibly moving and memorable read, if there ever is one.
The book: disappointing. Far, far too thorough, including constant miniscule details that have little relevance to establishing Ben-Gurion's character, the movement of Zionism, or the historical contexts of the time. The book is crazy long and unfocused, there's no narrative line connecting one event to another, showing consequences and motivations for Ben-Gurion's actions, highlighting his ideals and contradictions. Does that make it bad? No. Does it make it super hard to read? Yes.
This is a historical biography, not a narrative one. I feel like a retelling of Ben-Gurion's story with a greater focus on character interactions, motivations, and consequences could be an incredibly moving and memorable read, if there ever is one.
lewismillholland's review against another edition
4.0
Three to four years ago the Middle East was big in the news. It still is, always is was and will be, but in my budding, southern Virginia-based world consciousness, there was a local maximum of fervor. What struck me was how little the bombings and rabble-rousing rhetoric affected me. Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia — all a blob of war somewhere east of Germany and west of India. Each one blurry and inextricable from the others. Arabs, I'd call them, if I had to call them something, though like the term "Jew" I wasn't sure if it was a slur or not.
So I decided I wanted to go to Israel. Not for the food. God, no, I couldn't stand hummus or falafel. Not for the religion (at this point I'd yet to start reading the Bible). Not for the geography, either — after visiting Moab it was hard to imagine Israel holding a candle the majesty of the Great American Desert. It was just to understand the area better so I could care more about the news.
Of course this motivation crumbled quickly. I started reading the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the movement of young American liberals to question our implicit pro-Israel stance. I cracked open Genesis and then skipped to Mark. Researching tours you come across mountain hikes, ancient cathedrals and, of course, the Old City, cause how damn cool is that place. Tel Aviv is of course the go-to tourist attraction (although Eilat seems to be shouldering its way in), but to be honest that was maybe the least exciting stop for me, since it seemed to be only a lovechild of D.C. and San Francisco.
More importantly than all of that was Jonathan Foer's *Here I Am*. That book's presentation of the Israeli Jew's machismo versus the American Jew's guilt for not representing the reclaimed homeland was... something else. It's hard not to fall in love with the intellectualism and self-hate of the American Jew, with the internal compass permanently set on Jerusalem and the eyes bashfully averted. Foer's book, alongside other Israeli works of fiction, exemplified the Jewish identity better than any history book or news article could have. And that made me excited.
It's not worth it to linger on the trip here — I've taken notes in my diary and translated it into fiction of my own a dozen times already — but suffice to say the traditional Shabbat dinner threw the gender roles blatantly into my face, the Arabs barring Jews from visiting the Foundation Stone twisted my heart, the omnipresence of armed guards and landmine warnings along hiking trails reminded me of the constant fragility of the land's existence. For how Western Israel is, it was undeniably foreign.
And so when I read an article on Tom Segev's "A State at Any Cost" I pulled the trigger immediately and bought it. The book itself is written masterfully, and although the names and areas mentioned that would be immediately recognizable to any Jew are lost on me, Segev keeps the action coming and reintroduces the roles of characters as needed so I'm not lost in a sea of names. The political analysis is what really drew me in. For example, Ben-Gurion's reluctance to annex the Gaza Strip not because of the military cost but because of the influx of Arabs into the democracy, and the resulting diminishment of the Jewish majority. Or just the strangeness of Ben-Gurion's leadership. Him disappearing for weeks at a time during some of the country's most vital moments, only to be caught up in the London Blitz and growing infatuated with the English mentality of resilience. The constant racism, not only to the Arabs but to the "wrong kind of Jews," a label that wasn't limited to but mostly included the Holocaust survivors.
Segev averts the need to tell a story chronologically and skips around with the timeline to tell anecdotes thematically. Again and again Ben-Gurion is thrown back into ~retirement~ at the Sde Boker kibbutz, only for a rotating cast of government officials to attempt to lure him out for one reason or another. Because there was no singular reason that brought Ben-Gurion back into government a final time, and there's no need to linger on how it was a combination of things (so often authors get caught up on this. "It was no one thing, but a host of reasons, and this is an original and unique thought because...") Segev skips over this bilge and uses each discrete reason as necessary to tell the story. It makes for a much more engaging read.
Still, it was hard to get too emotionally involved in the book, since as a young liberal I couldn't bring myself to fully support Israel, even though it's the "hero" of the book. Many of the values and cultural expectations were foreign to me as well. Part of that's my Western perspective — another people's history can't strike me the same was as Washington resigning as general or Frederick Douglass meeting Abraham Lincoln.
But then... I kept thinking about Israeli politics. I'd read an article in the news about Black reparations, and my mind instantly went to Germany and Israel. Or Israel and the Arab refugees. My frame of mind was skewed to look at Israel as a comparison, because Segev illustrated their struggle so well and so articulately that I understand not only the decisions made by the government at various stages but the reasons, arguments, and lingering bitterness over each action.
One last thought: the genre of autobiography is, if it's a good piece of work, obligated to end on a high note. A powerful author's life (and thus book) can't end on detailing mental decline or political failure, unless you have a truly exceptional individual. The mental degeneration and frantic policymaking that scarred the end of Ben-Gurion's career can only be captured by a third party, and Segev capitalized on this literary advantage gorgeously.
So I decided I wanted to go to Israel. Not for the food. God, no, I couldn't stand hummus or falafel. Not for the religion (at this point I'd yet to start reading the Bible). Not for the geography, either — after visiting Moab it was hard to imagine Israel holding a candle the majesty of the Great American Desert. It was just to understand the area better so I could care more about the news.
Of course this motivation crumbled quickly. I started reading the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the movement of young American liberals to question our implicit pro-Israel stance. I cracked open Genesis and then skipped to Mark. Researching tours you come across mountain hikes, ancient cathedrals and, of course, the Old City, cause how damn cool is that place. Tel Aviv is of course the go-to tourist attraction (although Eilat seems to be shouldering its way in), but to be honest that was maybe the least exciting stop for me, since it seemed to be only a lovechild of D.C. and San Francisco.
More importantly than all of that was Jonathan Foer's *Here I Am*. That book's presentation of the Israeli Jew's machismo versus the American Jew's guilt for not representing the reclaimed homeland was... something else. It's hard not to fall in love with the intellectualism and self-hate of the American Jew, with the internal compass permanently set on Jerusalem and the eyes bashfully averted. Foer's book, alongside other Israeli works of fiction, exemplified the Jewish identity better than any history book or news article could have. And that made me excited.
It's not worth it to linger on the trip here — I've taken notes in my diary and translated it into fiction of my own a dozen times already — but suffice to say the traditional Shabbat dinner threw the gender roles blatantly into my face, the Arabs barring Jews from visiting the Foundation Stone twisted my heart, the omnipresence of armed guards and landmine warnings along hiking trails reminded me of the constant fragility of the land's existence. For how Western Israel is, it was undeniably foreign.
And so when I read an article on Tom Segev's "A State at Any Cost" I pulled the trigger immediately and bought it. The book itself is written masterfully, and although the names and areas mentioned that would be immediately recognizable to any Jew are lost on me, Segev keeps the action coming and reintroduces the roles of characters as needed so I'm not lost in a sea of names. The political analysis is what really drew me in. For example, Ben-Gurion's reluctance to annex the Gaza Strip not because of the military cost but because of the influx of Arabs into the democracy, and the resulting diminishment of the Jewish majority. Or just the strangeness of Ben-Gurion's leadership. Him disappearing for weeks at a time during some of the country's most vital moments, only to be caught up in the London Blitz and growing infatuated with the English mentality of resilience. The constant racism, not only to the Arabs but to the "wrong kind of Jews," a label that wasn't limited to but mostly included the Holocaust survivors.
Segev averts the need to tell a story chronologically and skips around with the timeline to tell anecdotes thematically. Again and again Ben-Gurion is thrown back into ~retirement~ at the Sde Boker kibbutz, only for a rotating cast of government officials to attempt to lure him out for one reason or another. Because there was no singular reason that brought Ben-Gurion back into government a final time, and there's no need to linger on how it was a combination of things (so often authors get caught up on this. "It was no one thing, but a host of reasons, and this is an original and unique thought because...") Segev skips over this bilge and uses each discrete reason as necessary to tell the story. It makes for a much more engaging read.
Still, it was hard to get too emotionally involved in the book, since as a young liberal I couldn't bring myself to fully support Israel, even though it's the "hero" of the book. Many of the values and cultural expectations were foreign to me as well. Part of that's my Western perspective — another people's history can't strike me the same was as Washington resigning as general or Frederick Douglass meeting Abraham Lincoln.
But then... I kept thinking about Israeli politics. I'd read an article in the news about Black reparations, and my mind instantly went to Germany and Israel. Or Israel and the Arab refugees. My frame of mind was skewed to look at Israel as a comparison, because Segev illustrated their struggle so well and so articulately that I understand not only the decisions made by the government at various stages but the reasons, arguments, and lingering bitterness over each action.
One last thought: the genre of autobiography is, if it's a good piece of work, obligated to end on a high note. A powerful author's life (and thus book) can't end on detailing mental decline or political failure, unless you have a truly exceptional individual. The mental degeneration and frantic policymaking that scarred the end of Ben-Gurion's career can only be captured by a third party, and Segev capitalized on this literary advantage gorgeously.