Yossi Klein Halevi

Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes. I call you "neighbor" because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, "neighbor" might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors? Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East. This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide. Halevi’s letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor, but to all concerned global citizens, helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

In June 1967, Israel achieved the unimaginable—a decisive victory against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the Six-Day War. The most symbolic triumph for the young nation was the reunification of Israeli West Jerusalem and Jordanian East Jerusalem, achieved at great cost by a group of paratroopers from the 55th Paratroopers Reserve Brigade. In restoring Jewish sovereignty to the Holy City, these men fulfilled the dream of two millennia, changing the history of Israel and of the Middle East. And as veteran journalist Yossi Klein Halevi shows in Like Dreamers, they played pivotal roles in shaping Israel's destiny long after their resounding military success. A masterful storyteller, Halevi tracks down seven members of the 55th Brigade and traces their lives through the decades following the Six-Day War. But as his narrative reveals, despite the intensity of their shared experience protecting Israel, in their postwar paths they nurture drastically divergent visions for the country's future. Yoel Bin-Nun emerges at the forefront of the religious Zionist West Bank settlement movement, but Arik Achmon—the chief intelligence officer of the 55th—becomes a spiritual father of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Achmon becomes a driving force in the growth of Israel's capitalist economy, whereas Avital Geva, in addition to building a reputation as a leading conceptual artist, ardently defends the socialist kibbutzim. And while Geva is among the foremost activists in Peace Now, Udi Adiv helps create an anti-Zionist terror underground in Damascus, eventually serving twelve years in an Israeli prison. Charting the ideological differences among this band of brothers, Halevi weaves a nuanced and insightful chronicle of modern Israel. His fascinating, diligently researched examination of each man's motivations and actions—supported by extensive interviews with their friends, family members, and comrades-in-arms—humanizes the country 's complex political landscape, facilitating a deeper understanding of the forces that influence its evolution as a state.

The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation

Like Dreamers

An award-winning Israeli journalist recounts his youth as a Jewish activist in America and the Soviet Union, his devotion to the late rabbi Meir Kahane, and his eventual moderation and advocacy of Jewish-Gentile reconciliation.

An American Story

Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist

"Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli's powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East." -- Amazon.com.

Letters to my Palestinian neighbor

From Yossi Klein Halevi—the critically acclaimed author of Like Dreamers, winner of the Jewish Book Council's Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award—comes a memoir, published in paperback for the first time with a new introduction, about his journey from Jewish extremism to interfaith reconciliation. The child of a Holocaust survivor, Yossi Klein Halevi grew up in 1960s Brooklyn perceiving reality through the lens of his family's brutal past. Determined to take action—and seek retribution—he became a disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and a member of the radical fringe of the American Jewish community. In this wry and moving account, Halevi explores the deep-rooted anger of his adolescence and early adulthood that fueled his militant politics. He reveals how he began to question his beliefs and see the world from his own clear perspective, freeing himself from being a hostage to rage. Speaking to a new generation struggling to understand what it means to be Jewish in America, Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist explains how such a transform-ation can happen—giving hope that peaceful coexistence among faiths is possible.

The Story of a Transformation

Lírico e evocatório, este livro é uma das tentativas mais convincentes de estabelecer um diálogo além do muro que separa israelenses e palestinos. Em uma série de cartas, Yossi Klein Halevi se empenha para desfazer o nó ideológico e emocional que tem definido o conflito israelense-palestino por quase um século. Fazendo uso da história e da experiência pessoal como seus guias, ele desemaranha os complexos filamentos de fé, orgulho, raiva e angústia que sente como um judeu vivendo em Israel. Em um esforço sem precedentes para partilhar os dois lados dessa terrível luta, a obra inclui um extenso epílogo de cartas enviadas em resposta a Halevi por palestinos. Algumas irritadas, outras empáticas, embora todas respeitosas, tais cartas abrem a possibilidade de diálogo entre israelenses e palestinos, expondo a sincera emoção de ambos os lados e mostrando que a paz pode ser possível se apenas estivermos dispostos a ouvir o outro.

Cartas ao meu vizinho palestino

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor comes a new edition—with a new and updated foreword—of his brilliantly observed memoir and unprecedented and remarkable spiritual journey. “One of the most important spiritual memoirs of our time.”—Krista Tippett, host of the radio program, On Being While religion has fueled the often violent conflict plaguing the Holy Land, Yossi Klein Halevi wondered whether it could be a source of unity as well. To find the answer, this religious Israeli Jew began a two-year exploration to discover a common language with his Christian and Muslim neighbors. He followed their holiday cycles, befriended Christian monastics and Islamic mystics, and joined them in prayer in monasteries and mosques in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden traces that remarkable spiritual journey. Halevi candidly reveals how he fought to reconcile his own fears and anger as a Jew to relate to Christians and Muslims as fellow spiritual seekers. He chronicles the difficulty of overcoming multiple obstacles—theological, political, historical, and psychological—that separate believers of the three monotheistic faiths. And he introduces a diverse range of people attempting to reconcile the dichotomous heart of this sacred place—a struggle central to Israel, but which resonates for us all.

Yossi Klein Halevi

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