Breakthrough: Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Definitely Worth the Read! A Book of Startling Depth and Impact.  This is without question an important book. It is both a fascinating account of one man s journey from ignorance and fear to knowledge and compassion, as well as a meticulous documentation of the principle facts of the Israel-Palestine conflict. It is very well written and carries the reader along effortlessly (if not frighteningly so as the book proceeds into the darker realms of Israel s policies in the Occupied Territories). I am not sure how this book will affect the reader who is a staunch supporter of Israel. From my experience, such people are usually immune to taking a hard look at what Israel is doing. However, if any book can persuade them, then I think this book has the best chance. Because Forer never writes academically, but always brings the discussion back to himself and what he underwent and the blind spots he had before his transformation, the narrative helps the reader to also begin to look and feel the real dimensions of the conflict both the external historical conflict, and the internal personal conflict. There is one part of this book that deserves further comment because it is totally unique. It appears that when Forer made a commitment to discover the truth of the Israel-Palestine conflict, his actual intention was rather modest. He embarked on a research project into the real documentation of the history of the conflict. He simply got some of the better books on the conflict, sat down and read them and meticulously checked their sources and general veracity. Such research was not a small task, but, nevertheless, not dissimilar to what others have done. Essentially, he was after the truth with a small t. But what happened to him was something quite extraordinary. Because the information he was discovering was so contrary to what he had held true and so challenged his identity, which was locked with Israel, he underwent a crisis in consciousness that undermined completely the limitations of his presumed identity, so that he awoke to what he is in Truth. The transformation that Forer talks about is a spiritual one. He discovered Truth with a capital T. There exist other accounts of somewhat similar crises of identity that ended with a spiritual breakthrough; however, I am not aware of any that have occurred in the context of what began as a political issue, or, more precisely, the search for truth in a political context. Thus, I think this book adds to the history of man s spiritual evolution. Forer treads lightly when he discusses the ultimate implications of what he underwent. Indeed, the chapter where he explores the subject is in an addendum at the end of the book. Perhaps he felt that the average reader would not have much familiarity with or sympathy for the spiritual dimensions of his transformation. That chapter should not be missed, however. It is short but remarkably cogent, and sheds considerable light on the real journey to humanity that awaits every one of us. It is a beautiful vision of life lived in Truth and full of compassion. --Tony Sandford, Legal Consultant and PublisherEver wonder what goes on inside the head of a Zionist? Anyone who is concerned about the Palestine-Israel conflict, about the Middle East, who has heard about the influence of the Zionist lobby on US politics, has probably wondered why so many people support Israel unconditionally. And if the way to achieve peace in the Middle East is to convince people who think Israel can do no wrong to take a hard look at the facts, to convince them to learn what happened during the bloody formation of Israel, to make them see what is still happening to the Palestinian people today, you might want to know what makes a Zionist tick. Richard Forer is one of those people who is very reflective, very self analytical. In telling the story of how he himself went from being a die hard supporter of Israel, from someone raised in a Reform Jewish household who saw Israel as that plucky little democracy trying to provide a secure home for the long-beleaguered Jews, to someone who now supports the Palestinians in their struggle for justice, he provides us with an inside look into the mind of a Zionist -- his own -- and how being confronted with the more grim reality changed his mind. Forer may have had in mind as one of his main audiences Jews like himself, or rather, like he was, whose uncritical loyalty to Israel has come to be a liability for Israel, since the rest of the world is slowly but surely learning the truth about Israel. But the book goes beyond that. As someone who has followed the Palestinian struggle myself for several years now, I have come across many stories of the different tragedies that happened to the Palestinians, the massacres, the dispossessions, the theft of water resources, the home demolitions, and the different propaganda techniques Israel and its supporters use to cover up Israel's actions, to divert attention, to delay the peace process while more Israeli settlements are built and more land is confiscated. In Forer's book I have found a concise and inclusive account of all it. In describing the succession of injustices done to the Palestinians, he provides a comprehensive history of the formation of Israel, and a vivid description of the Palestinians plight up to the current moment. It's all here in one place. In laying out this story, in explaining the deep, emotionally rooted motivations behind Zionism, in explaining how Israeli propaganda works, Forer actually points the way toward a resolution. But as part of that resolution, Zionism and its myths must be confronted, and here are the all facts you'd need to counter any Zionist's argument. It's the best argument against Zionism I have ever read. --Frank Conway, Bubba Muntzer BlogIt is difficult to overestimate the emotional attachment of American Jews to the State of Israel, Anna Baltzer writes in her Forward. Zionism, in the words of Baby Boomers like Jewish psychologist and author Mark Braverman, has been mother s milk to Jews in the United States and around the world. Unconditional support for Israel is not so much an intellectual choice as a deeply rooted component of Jewish identity. Indeed, in many Jewish circles today it has become more important to believe in Israel than to believe in God. Criticism of Israel feels like a personal attack, a challenge not of a state but of who we are. In my opinion, Breakthrough is a major contribution to the creation of genuine peace between Israel and the Arab population in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza because it directly explores the emotional issues that block peace and prevents people from seeing. Where a man cannot look, Forer writes, he cannot feel; and where a man cannot feel, he has not really looked. Without both he will never understand. Without understanding there will never be peace. Forer does a masterful job of deconstructing denial with example after example of naked and incontrovertible facts. . . . Where people . . . do not want to see, Forer deconstructs their arguments so they must look away not to see. Denial is a powerful mechanism of defense. . . . Hope is something we will never give up, says Ali, a young Palestinian college student the author interviewed. My people want the world community to give us more support. They don t have to be pro-Palestinian; they just need to be pro-human rights. We don t want to replace or be replaced, and we don t want to treat the Israelis the way they treat us. We just want peace and equality. There are many books that detail Israel s . . . treatment of the Palestinians, the author wrote to me in a recent email. I think my book s strength in that regard is the logic I bring to it, how I show that the arguments that Israel s defenders make are projections [that] should be applied to Israel far more than to the Palestinians. The primary contribution of [the] book . . . is the deconstructing of the mind that creates a world of internal oppression and then projects it out into the world onto appropriate scapegoats . . . who become objects of blame. Equally primary is [the] suggestion that the root problem is a spiritual one, of identity, more so than land or religion as the root cause. If people can begin to intuit their connection to all beings and to life my book will have been effective. I agree. Once we are able to intuit our connection to all beings and to life itself, there will be no need to engage in persecution and war. And isn t that the real end we seek in this so far endless conflict? --George Polley, Palestine Chronicle