cover image Ploughshares Into Swords

Ploughshares Into Swords

Shindler, Colin Shindler. I. B. Tauris & Company, $84 (240pp) ISBN 978-1-85043-324-8

Israel, conceived as ``a light unto the nations,'' finds itself a besieged military citadel, turning toward right-wing politics, according to Shandler, a writer/editor based in London. In these brilliantly incisive, humane essays he takes aim at the forces of extremism on both sides--Israeli and Arab--which have subverted the peace process. The closing section, possibly somewhat overtaken by more recent events, maps the drift away from dialogue in the wake of the Gulf War. The rest of the book, written during 1989-1990 while the author was a visiting scholar in Jerusalem, superbly unravels the intricacies of the current political scene in Israel. Shandler analyzes the ascendance of the far right and its dream of a Greater Israel. He attributes the decline of Israel's peace movement to ideological vagueness. Three essays track Diaspora Jews' gradual swing from blind acceptance of Israeli government policies to open dissent, especially as regards the intifada. (Aug.)