Yellow Wind: With a New Afterword by the Author
The Israeli novelist David Grossman’s impassioned account of what he observed on the West Bank in early 1987—not only the misery of the Palestinian refugees and their deep-seated hatred of the Israelis but also the cost of occupation for both occupier and occupied—is an intimate and urgent moral report on one of the great tragedies of our time. The Yellow Wind is essential reading for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of Israel today.\ \ \ Commissioned by a...
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The Israeli novelist David Grossman’s impassioned account of what he observed on the West Bank in early 1987—not only the misery of the Palestinian refugees and their deep-seated hatred of the Israelis but also the cost of occupation for both occupier and occupied—is an intimate and urgent moral report on one of the great tragedies of our time. The Yellow Wind is essential reading for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of Israel today. Publishers Weekly This stellar, seamlessly translated report records the devastation that two decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has wreaked on Palestinians and Israelis alike. On assignment for an Israeli newsweekly, the 34-year-old Israeli novelist spent seven weeks in the area, and his is one of the most stirring, refreshing voices of moral conscience to emerge from the depths of this political imbroglio. Supporters of right-of-center Israeli policy will surely take umbrage with these timely interviews, but others will marvel at Grossman's deftly intimate penetration of multilayered issues and personalities. Thus, to his own expressed bafflement, the author discovers that an elderly and wise, tale-spinning Palestinian refugee reminds him of his grandmother and her stories about Poland, from which she was expelled. A description of refugees returning to their Israeli village evokes imagery from the biblical book of Ezekiel; the Arabic apocalyptic tale of the hot and terrible yellow wind, which seeks out those who have performed cruel, unjust deeds, and its accompanying yellow dust, becomes a symbol of the suffocating cloud of occupation that hangs above Israel. Laid bare and damned is the intransigence of both Palestinians who refuse to improve their lot or negotiate for peace and lawbreaking Jewish settlers of Gush Emunim. Evenhandedly, Grossman depicts the criminal treatment by Israelis of Palestinian hunger-strikers, the murder of innocent Jews by Arab terrorists, Israeli and Arab profiteers, an Israeli army, at once brutal and considerate, that puts an Arab town under curfew but stations soldiers to prevent plundering, and the prejudices that exist between Israeli and West Bank Arabs. Grossman's rich and eloquent call to action is aimed at his fellow Israelis who slumber atop a time bomb, unwilling to acknowledge that their moral and political destinies are intertwined with those of the Palestinians. ``The situation is a mint casting human coins with opposite legends imprinted on their two sides. But the contradicting legends do not change the fact that between themfreedom fighter or terrorist; ours or theirscan be found the dark, hidden raw material: a murderer.'' First serial to the New Yorker; BOMC, QPBC and Reader's Subscription Book Club alternates. (March)
Introduction1A Man Is Like a Stalk of Wheat52I Want to Shoot Jews173What the Arabs Dream294Don't Pity Them Too Much345Life Sciences536The Yellow Wind657Catch-44778Jews Don't Have Tails909The Essence of Being a Sabra9810The Other Barta'a11411Swiss Mountain View - A Story12712Sumud14513A Doll at the Allenby Bridge16114The Wastonaires17015Like a Boy with a Teddy Bear17516The Terrorist's Father18817Last Night There Was an Inferno Here19718The First Twenty Years211
\ From the Publisher\ “A brilliant, searing examination of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank...beautiful, passionate and profoundly disturbing.” —Chicago Tribune\ “The most honest, soul-searching book yet written by an Israeli—or, for that matter, by a Palestinian—on an agony that neither of them alone can bring to an end.” —Los Angeles Times\ “Even the most cautious readers—and even the most hostile—are bound to learn something about the conflict that they never knew before, something that illuminates the news and the reality that produces it, something that explains what is and may yet be, something deep and achingly, damningly, true.” —The New York Times Book Review\ “Invaluable. It should be available alongside the road maps at Ben Gurion Airport, for it is a map of the psychological distances that now separate not only occupier and occupied, but willing from unwilling conquerors.” —The Wall Street Journal\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ This stellar, seamlessly translated report records the devastation that two decades of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has wreaked on Palestinians and Israelis alike. On assignment for an Israeli newsweekly, the 34-year-old Israeli novelist spent seven weeks in the area, and his is one of the most stirring, refreshing voices of moral conscience to emerge from the depths of this political imbroglio. Supporters of right-of-center Israeli policy will surely take umbrage with these timely interviews, but others will marvel at Grossman's deftly intimate penetration of multilayered issues and personalities. Thus, to his own expressed bafflement, the author discovers that an elderly and wise, tale-spinning Palestinian refugee reminds him of his grandmother and her stories about Poland, from which she was expelled. A description of refugees returning to their Israeli village evokes imagery from the biblical book of Ezekiel; the Arabic apocalyptic tale of the hot and terrible yellow wind, which seeks out those who have performed cruel, unjust deeds, and its accompanying yellow dust, becomes a symbol of the suffocating cloud of occupation that hangs above Israel. Laid bare and damned is the intransigence of both Palestinians who refuse to improve their lot or negotiate for peace and lawbreaking Jewish settlers of Gush Emunim. Evenhandedly, Grossman depicts the criminal treatment by Israelis of Palestinian hunger-strikers, the murder of innocent Jews by Arab terrorists, Israeli and Arab profiteers, an Israeli army, at once brutal and considerate, that puts an Arab town under curfew but stations soldiers to prevent plundering, and the prejudices that exist between Israeli and West Bank Arabs. Grossman's rich and eloquent call to action is aimed at his fellow Israelis who slumber atop a time bomb, unwilling to acknowledge that their moral and political destinies are intertwined with those of the Palestinians. ``The situation is a mint casting human coins with opposite legends imprinted on their two sides. But the contradicting legends do not change the fact that between themfreedom fighter or terrorist; ours or theirscan be found the dark, hidden raw material: a murderer.'' First serial to the New Yorker; BOMC, QPBC and Reader's Subscription Book Club alternates. (March)\ \ \ Library JournalIsraeli novelist Grossman offers his observations of fellow Israelis and Palestinians and the ongoing conflict that has spelled disaster for both. This reprint of the 1988 original sports a new afterword updating the story. Still a solid title on the subject. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ BooknewsTranslated from the Hebrew. A prominent Isaraeli writer's report on the Israeli-Arab situation. Portions of the book have recently appeared in The New Yorker. No bibliography or index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
