Book Notes
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343311423478 |
| Published date | 01 November 2011 |
| Date | 01 November 2011 |
Book Notes
Ben-Ami, Jeremy (2011) A New Voice for Israel: Fighting
for the Survival of the Jewish Nation. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan. 242 pp. ISBN 9780230112742.
Ben-Ami, the founder and President of J-Street, has
written this book – part memoir, part political manifest
– to urge a rewrite of the current rulebook governing the
conversation on Israel in the Jewish American Commu-
nity. Throughout the first part of the book, Ben-Ami
traces himself, his ancestry and their place in Zionist
history, in an effort to manifest his love for Israel – argu-
ably the least interesting part of the book. While less inter-
esting for readers like myself, this part is a prerequisite for
Ben Ami to get his foot in the door of those readers that
he primarily targets here, namely Jewish Americans.
Paradoxically, that he must do so stems from precisely the
limited,closed political climatethat Ben-Ami seeks to open
and challengewith this book. Througha range of examples
from his considerable experience with US domestic
politics, Ben-Ami shows the almost complete dominance
of the so-called ‘loudest eight percent’ in the US debate
on Israel. Theterm refers to the small percentageof Jewish
voters that cite ‘Israel’ as a guiding issue when they vote in
US elections. Despite being numerically marginal, this
group has managedto place Israel high on the US domestic
political agenda, and has monopolized the definition of
what it means and should mean to be pro-Israel: in essence,
full and unconditional support of Israel, no questions asked.
It is this notion that Ben-Ami and J-Street want to chal-
lenge. And as long as it is the USA that holds the key to the
solution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, this debate – its
outcome and consequences – should be followed by every-
body that is interested in the conflict and its solution.
Marte Heian-Engdal
Byman, Daniel (2011) A High Price: The Triumphs and
Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism. New York: Oxford
University Press. 464 pp. ISBN 9780195391824.
Covering the period 1948–2009, this book provides an
extensive account of small- and large-scale terror attacks
against Israel and Israelis, committed by Palestinians,
Lebanese and Jewish-Israelis, and shows how Israel has
tried to deal with these different c hallenges at different
times and places. It is the history of Israel, seen through
the lens of terrorism. As often is the case in the Israeli–
Palestinian conflict, the history is grey, rather than black
and white, something this book shows in a commendable
way. The book discusses in an unbiased and clear-cut way
the many dilemmasthat Israel, or indeedany country, faces
when dealing with terror while trying to keep within the
parameters of liberal democracy, and it showsin no uncer-
tain terms the double standards that surface when Israel
deals with Jewish terrorists. Although giving an impressive
overview of Israel’s history of terrorism, its conceptual
clarity is sometimes challenged by the effort to simultane-
ously include the history of the failed peace process. That
the two are connected is unquestionable, something that
the book’s (unsurprising) conclusion – that Israel’s only
hope for a long-term solution to terror would be to arrive
at a sustainablepeace agreementwith the Palestinians– also
confirms.Still, the book’sinitial focus could profitablyhave
been further cultivated. Also, the book could have been
clearerin terms of ‘lessons learned’,especially sincethe con-
text of Israelicounterterrorismin many ways seems unique.
Byman arguesthat Israel couldstand a better chance ofsuc-
cessfully combating terrorism if it viewed these groups as
more than justterrorists and approachedthem by methods
of counterinsurgency, rather than merelycounterterrorism.
Marte Heian-Engdal
Andreas, Peter & Kelly M Greenhill, eds (2010) Sex,
Drugs, and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Glo-
bal Crime and Conflict. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press. 288 pp. ISBN: 9780801476181.
Numbers play an important role in reporting and
debates on international politics. Prominent examples
include the claim that civilian casualties are systemati-
cally higher in ‘new wars’ and the 2006 Lancet study
estimating over 650,000 excess deaths following the
US invasion of Iraq. This edited volume reviews many
Journal of Peace Research
48(6) 817–821
ªThe Author(s) 2011
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343311423478
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