Walking Through Israel

Library stamp & Blacked out lint FLEP, Black out marks FTP + "Not For Resale" Stamp, Pocket intact, BLEP, along with with black out line & number, else content appears as unread and unblemished with blue/gold gilt, cloth covered boards with no significant surface/edge wear, in DJ & poly cover, as shown. Small poly scuff, back spine.

The author lived in Jerusalem for a number of years and worked as a reporter for the national radio. He conceived the idea of getting out of the pressures of his work and the hectic life of the city to the countryside. His chosen mode of transportation for this trek was...WALKING.

Kirkus Review: Outside of the cities, away from the luxury and incivility, there is another Israel-maintains Israeli journalist Gavron--that is "he real Israel," still. But as a demonstration that "pioneering and idealism"" persist in the countryside, Gavron's 1978 trek from northernmost Metulla to southernmost Elat, recorded here, cannot be judged a great success: too many social ills turn up, attributable to complacency and prejudice--the intolerance of natives for newcomers with different ideas, the contempt of European Jews for oriental Jews with alien lifestyles. Nor does Gavron's walk compel interest on its own: his descriptive powers (of people or places) are very limited; actual occurrences are rare; and we hear all too often, meanwhile, about his aching calves and sore feet. But what will, finally, recommend the book to some and put off others completely is Gavron's habit of detouring into biblical history, Jewish history, and Israeli history at every appropriate spot on the map, whether or not he actually visits the site. The reader perforce accumulates considerable background knowledge--much of which coalesces, however, into a comparison between the aggressive pioneering of the first, second, and third aliyahs (waves of immigration), on the one hand, and the pragmatism, the willingness to compromise, of both biblical figures and early Zionist leaders. So the discussions are not without purpose: along with Gavron's choice of a route--within the 1948 borders--and his attention to social ills, they are meant to show that Israel's claim to further territory is both unfounded and unwise, that the Israelis might better apply their vaunted audacity and enterprise to putting their own house in order. And he does turn up some pertinent examples of latter-day pioneering (especially in the Negev), of stirrings among the oriental Jews, even of established kibbutzim (communes) and moshavs (cooperatives) not entirely spoiled by success. But it's another of his conclusions that may strike the reader strongest: the smallness of a country that can be walked, slowly, in a mere month; the intimacy of a country where Gavron--from living here and there, from periods of military service--knows someone almost everywhere. If the book doesn't quite instill optimism, then, it does convey something of Israel's uniqueness, along with the general state of affairs--but only readers with more stamina than Gay:on himself displays will last out the journey. Jewish History

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