Can We Talk About Israel? (Revised and Updated)

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Can We Talk About Israel?, written and read by Daniel Sokatch.

An essential, accessible guide to one of the most complex, controversial topics in the world, from a leading expert on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—now revised and updated.

Israel—and its conflict with the Palestinians—is one of the hardest things in the world to understand, let alone talk about. And if talking about Israel has long been divisive, contentious, and controversial, it got a whole lot harder after the horrific events of October 7, 2023 and the catastrophic violence that followed. Daniel Sokatch regularly deals with this challenge as head of the New Israel Fund, an organization dedicated to equality and democracy for all Israelis, not just Jews. As Sokatch asks, is there any other topic about which so many intelligent, educated, and sophisticated people express such strongly and passionately held convictions, and about which they actually know so little?

Can We Talk About Israel? is the story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, grappling with a century-long struggle between two peoples that both perceive themselves as, and indeed are, victims. And it’s an attempt to explain why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict inspires such extreme feelings. Can We Talk About Israel? is an easy-to-read yet penetrating and original look at the history and basic contours of one of the most complicated conflicts in the world.

Critics Review

[A]n accessible and balanced survey of the Israel-Palestinian conflict . . . Readers will welcome this informative and fair-minded primer on one of the world’s most fiercely debated issues
Publishers Weekly
If you fall into the camp of the “curious, confused, and conflicted,” then this book is for you. [Sokatch] provid[es] an engaging and evenhanded . . . history of the conflict
The New York Times Book Review
. . . Sokatch has the bravery to come along with an antidote that suggests that there is always so much more than one truth . . . He disrupts and therefore re-nuances the accepted narratives, and he does this with great generosity of style and spirit. This is an important book, exceedingly well written, full of insight and empathy and even humor in the face of all available evidence
Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author
One of the best short contemporary guides to the complicated politics of the place
American Prospect
Everything that so often seems lacking in our thoughts, feelings, and arguments about Israel and Palestine—clarity, fair-mindedness, and universal compassion—can be found in this elegantly written and surprisingly entertaining book
Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman
Daniel Sokatch has done the impossible—he writes a breezy, sometimes even witty book about the always hot-button, depressing, and controversial topic of Israel and Palestine . . . [S]omehow he weaves a historical commentary that is both authoritative and entertaining. He must be some kind of wise man—or at least a mensch
Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of CROSSING MANDELBAUM GATE and THE OUTLIER
This is an important overview of Jewish perspectives, both in Israel and in the United States, of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians. It is balanced, insightful, and highly recommended
Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar, Arab Gulf States Institute of Washington
Daniel Sokatch has done a remarkable job telling the story of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in clear, understandable terms. No reader will agree with everything he writes. That's good! But every reader should appreciate his honesty, passion, intellect, and humanity
Daniel Shapiro, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, 2011-2017
Israel is a nation, a symbol, a legacy, an enigma, a disappointment, an outrage, and a promise all in one, and untangling those threads can seem overwhelming. If your answer to the question ‘can we talk about Israel?’ is ‘do we have to?’ then this is the book for you. It is essential not just for its frank and accessible narrative, but also for Daniel Sokatch’s ability to fill the gulf of knowledge that leaves so many of us outside a vital conversation
Prof. Juliette Kayyem, Faculty Chair of the Homeland Security Project, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government
Like almost everyone, I can hardly think about Israel without feeling furious, saddened, frightened, righteous and wrong. At last, here is a clearheaded, evenhanded book about a crucial and troubled region that makes all of us bonkers.
Daniel Handler
[Sokatch] earnestly and humanely parses the Palestinian-Israeli conflict . . . from the fair-minded position that Israelis and Palestinians are both right and both wrong . . . An optimistic, evenhanded instruction manual, with upbeat illustrations, for anyone trying to understand the conflict
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
A calm, balanced guide …. What Sokatch offers, then, is an accessible, engaging explanation of the Israel-Palestine conflict
Keith Kahn-Harris, Times Literary Supplement

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