A review by littlemiao
Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War by Micah Goodman

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

I find Micah Goodman to be a moderate, thoughtful speaker so I thought I would read this book even though it is painfully outdated since October 7. Goodman works in terms of broad conceptualizations and categorizations, which leaves many of his claims open to dispute. The essence of his recommendations is similarly broad, but worth heeding: “thinking in degrees,” not dichotomies. His goal isn’t so much to solve the Catch-67, but to call for a shift in the terms of the discourse within Israeli society. His constant refrain can be summarized as: The left and the right are both correct, but they are also both wrong. He encourages a move away from binary thinking, away from thinking in terms of perfect solutions rather than partial improvements, and a move away from the toxicity of discourse that prevents people  from talking to each other at all. Since October 7, there are even deeper fractures in Israeli society, the whole right vs left divide has shifted, and the discourse is even more toxic and filled with misinformation. Still, it would be nice to envision a future in which, like the Houses of Hillel and Shammai, people who disagree fundamentally can at least talk, and be open to the idea of not having all the answers themselves.