Herzl's Nightmare
one land, two people
Peter Rodgers
‘puts into context a situation that all of us have puzzled about at some time or other.’
John Wright, BAY-FM 100.3
Theodor Herzl’s dream of a national homeland for the Jewish people was a triumph achieved in little more than half a century. Yet it was made possible through the deaths of millions of European Jews and the fragmentation of Palestinian society. Whatever their historical or emotional attachment to the land they came to rule, the Jews of Israel had supplanted another people another people who would not forget. Herzl’s dream of ending Jewish insecurity, once and for all, would prove illusory.
This important new study shows how little the dynamics of the conflict have actually changed; how eerily reminiscent today’s antagonisms and falsehoods are of yesteryear’s; how ‘modern’ leadership is anything but; and how much today’s self-righteous intransigence owes to what went before. It poses the vital question: have the nationalist dreams of both peoples been doomed by the determined refusal of Jew and Palestinian to contemplate what life must be like for the other?
While the story of the conflict between Jew and Palestinian in the past century has its share of both political and military and human triumphs, too often the recurring themes are those of lies and hypocrisy, myth-making and mutual demonisation and of a determined, energetic refusal to contemplate and acknowledge the other’s history and point of view. Peter Rodgers brings a rare understanding of the recent history of the region to explain with fair-minded clarity the nightmare of modern Israel and Palestine.
Reviews
‘Peter Rodgers is a brave man. He has had the courage to write and say what many of us feel about the Arab-Israeli conflict but dare not say — that our world is hostage to a struggle with no apparent solution in a blood-soaked land that is captive to its past …The end of the Zionist dream may already be upon us. What will replace it? This is a brilliant, timely, and disturbing book.’
Phillip Knightley
An ‘important and timely essay. It provides a much needed reality check for those too ready to come up with clever, rational 'solutions’ to a deeply complex problem that defies such solutions — as well as for those well-meaning morally outraged souls too ready to side with one or the other perceived victim in a conflict where, ultimately, all are victims.'
David Bernstein, Age
» All reviews for this title‘Peter Rodger’s new book offers a short, sharp and illuminating narrative of how things have miscarried. As a former Australian ambassador to Israel, he is well equipped to reflect on his subject, and he does so with considerable punch. But his is also a sensitive book, one that captures the tragedy of moderates trapped between extremists whose spoiling capacity exceeds the former’s ability to make reasonable solutions work.’
William Maley, Australian
