Death as a Way of Life: From Oslo to the Geneva Agreement

This is a great window from a violent age in the history of the Levant, which has largely passed, but threatens to return again very soon. The series of essays, all by David Grossman, he's not just an editor, starts us out on a journey from high hopes of peace during the Oslo process, and over the essays we see how that hope diminished and eventually degenerated into bloody violence. It's a very left-wing analysis of events, with Grossman dishing out a lot of criticism of Sharon and Netanyahu. Written over times when Netanyahu was Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and in opposition, Grossman ultimately leaves a haunting message: you can never trust Netanyahu to deliver peace. The other primary message readers take away is: to survive, Israel must excise itself from the West Bank. That is why, years on from the date of the final essay, this book is still insightful and pertinent today. Many of its core messages and observations are yet to reach their endgame in international, Israeli and Palestinian political arenas. An excellent and helpful read to those wanting to gain knowledge of the left-wing Israeli brain.

David Grossman is one of Israel's leading authors. This book tells the story event by event of the Israeli-Palestinian stand-off from the Oslo Accords to the attacks on Gaza. This is a "Must Read" diary of one journalist documenting as it happened in both the facts and it's affects on his family and friends--both Israelis and Palestinians.

David Grossman should never write for the Israeli tourism board, or worse yet, be a spokesman for any Israeli government. In the series of hard hitting essays in Death as a Way of Life, Grossman handles the intractable problems of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the collapse of the Oslo Accords.The essays are deep, penetrating, have small rays of hope, but are largely brimming with despair of finding a solution to the problems of the small patch of the Middle East that is Israel and Palestine. His analysis of the bloodshed on both sides constantly plunges into black despair.The book, published in 2003, has added pathos, as Grossman’s son was killed in the 2006 Lebanon War. Reading it is a chilling reminder that this conflict leaves no person immune.

In an April 1995 essay entitled "Yes, Prime Minister", included in this collection David Grossman wrote that the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians was "reversible", meaning it could be destroyed. He then went on to lay out the 3 the things that could destroy it:1.Arafat becomes inactive or irrelevant.2.The Likud party comes to power.3.The peace process is constantly interrupted by violence.As we know now, all these things have come to pass. How prophetic this collection of essays becomes. They have been collected from publications all over the world dating from the September 1993 hopes of the Oslo Summit to the most recent, an article from September 2002 and the almost hopelessness of the 10 year old Intifada.Grossman's essays cover different topics but they all come down to the ongoing conflict in Israel between the paranoid Israelis and the downtrodden and vengeful Palestinians. Well, he doesn't exactly stereotype them this way but he comes close. He paints Israel as a country of Jews that has suffered hostility and persecution over so many centuries that has bred in them a fear of being exterminated or of being caught up in a new diaspora where they are cast off their land. So any time they feel threatened they respond with overwhelming brutality. A sort of post-trauma of a whole nation. Ironically, the Palestinians find themselves in the same situation as the Jews once did. They are persecuted for their race, for their beliefs, for their wanting of a homeland.One of the big points in the book that I wondered about also was that where are the MODERATE representatives of both sides? Why do we always see these gun toting [people] and fat cat politicians raving up violence and venegence? Are the sane people in this conflict simply cowards? I know they exist! Where is a great leader on either side who could step up and unite their people??? It's like Hitler vs. Stalin all over again. Why doesn't the Likud and Hamas just join forces and declare war against the rest of the Jews and Palestinians?It just seems the people in power are simply there to draw more blood.Another point that Grossman makes in his essays is that both peoples need to realize that their survival depends on the peace they make between each other. Decades more war will only lead to their children becoming bloodthirsty savages who know how to make war and kill but know nothing of living together...I think everyone should read this book because even though it is written by an Israeli it tries to keep a balance and look at both sides of the conflict. He understands that there can be no peace without the absence of oppression. Grossman shows his fear of a future of war but never loses sight of a possible peace.The only negative aspect of his culture that he shows is in an essay called "Point of No Return" in which he argues against the right of return of the Palestians who were thrown off their land when Israel was first constituted back in the 40s. He beleives that there cannot be a single state for both peoples. He believes that they can only be proper states if they are culturally pure. Meaning only Jews can rule Jews and Palestinians can rule Palestinians. We must not pollute the fatherland with the impure. There are certain racists who would agree with him who think that way. In the end, Grossman's enlightened viewpoint can only go so far. We are all a prisoner in the end to our culture.After reading this book, and hearing about the continued idiocy of the conflict on the news every single day, I wish the state of Israel had never been formed, I mean at least after World War II. They never fought for their independence. It was given to them by the United States in what would seem to be the Last Crusade. Freeing the holy land and all that. It was formed in an act of pity and we have been paying for it as Americans ever since by acts of terrorism and ill will from Arab countries and will continue to suffer for our wrongheaded alliance with them. I really don't think we would have a terrorism problem or be hated with such vehemence if Israel didn't exist. If you look back over time, most muslim rulers were very tolerant of the Jews and Christians who came to the holy land. Because really, in the end we worship the same God. It's only the details we kill each other for. Perhaps, that is the saddest thing about the whole deal. That they all kill each other in the name of the same God.