Durable Peace : Isreal And Its Place Among The Nations

Benjamin Netanyahu’s primer on pro-Israel politics is an updated version of an earlier book, A Place Among the Nations. There’s a good reason for the revision, of course: in the years since the first book was published, Netanyahu has served as the prime minister of Israel. Yet A Durable Peace is not a stale politician’s memoir. It’s a resounding plea for Israel’s acceptance as a full member of the world community, as well as a call for understanding its unique security needs.
Netanyahu displays his knack–perfect for the television era but also helpful on these pages–for channeling complex ideas into pithy statements. Here’s Netanyahu on the importance of Israel to the Jewish people: “If there had been a Jewish state in the first half of the [20th] century, there would have been no Holocaust. And if there had not been a Jewish state after the Holocaust, there would have been no Jewish future.” On the need for Arab concessions in the peace process: “For the sake of peace, [the Arab states] must renounce their claims to part of the four ten-thousandths–.0004–of the lands they desire, which constitute the very heart of the Jewish homeland and the protective wall of the Jewish state.” These are the statements of a skilled debater, and they represent a one-sided view of Middle Eastern politics. Yet Netanyahu also provides an excellent introduction to Zionism and the need to protect a small country against neighbors who have waged war against it. –John J. Miller