LONGEST WAR V471

by Jacobo Timerman, Miguel Acoca (Translator)

Argues that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was really designed to destroy Palestinian nationalism rather than insure the defense of Israel's borders from terrorists

Genres: History, Lebanon, War

167 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 1982

About the author

Jacobo Timerman was born in the Ukraine, moved with his family to Argentina in 1928, and was deported to Israel in 1980. He returned to Argentina in 1984. Founder of two Argentine weekly newsmagazines in the 1960s and a commentator on radio and television, he was best known as the publisher and editor of the newspaper La Opinión from 1971 until his arrest in 1977. An outspoken champion of human rights and freedom of the press, he criticized all repressive governments and organizations, regardless of their political ideologies.

Reviews

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A personal reflection in journal form that offers insight into a specific historical event in Israel's history but also opens a conversation on a significant paradigm shift in Israel. That shift being from defender to aggressor. This shift was very disturbing and it seems to the point of being heart wrenching for Timerman as he watched Israel's leadership take their nation down a violent and dangerous path.

Timerman voices concern for the authoritarian behaviour of Israel's leadership. Timerman's own personal circumstances forced him to experience an authoritarian regime first hand. Timerman devoted many years of his journalistic work to exposing the violence and corruption of the military regime in Argentina during the "Dirty War". Timerman highlights the similar behaviours and tendencies now being exhibited by Israel's government.

The book is small in size but a dense and deeply personal examination of a country moving dangerously close to authoritarianism and militarism. Timerman's own arrest, torture and imprisonment in Argentina gave him very personal and unique insights into the damage he was convinced was being caused by Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Given current events in Gaza (April 2018) one can't help but view Timerman's "The Longest War" as prophetic.

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being tortured and imprisoned for being a Zionist and liberal critic of the Argentine government, Timerman is ignobly deported by the military to Israel where he arrives just in time for the invasion of Lebanon in ‘82. This was Israel’s “Vietnam”—the first war instigated by the first right-wing government, and arguably the first war that Israel waged that wasn’t defensive. Timerman wrote in the first months of the war which was allegedly waged to push back PLO forces, but ends up destroying whole cities, thousands of civilians, and the morale of the Israeli army. Israelis organize groups like Peace Now to protest Ariel Sharon’s cynical adventure to force regime change in Lebanon. Timerman’s reporting is more jeremiad and impressionistic than comprehensive and this wouldn’t be a good historical introduction to the war. Still, as a document of moral protest against the Israeli government by an impassioned liberal Zionist, Timerman’s diagnoses are, sadly, still valid 30 years later.

[William Guerrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember feeling that summer like being on a raft of impotent rage, afloat on an ocean of indifference. And now, reading again after all these years Jacobo Timmerman's sober reflections I recognize from a more recent time the same motives, the same justifications, the same blunders and I wonder: why didn't we learn?

[Alek · Rating 5 out of 5]

So interesting to see how much and how little has changed since the 80's

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undoubtedly those of us sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, especially in light of the Gaza genocide, will find passages in this book frustrating, given Timerman’s liberal Zionist illusions about Israel’s history pre-Lebanon invasion and at times severe denunciations of Palestinian politics. Nonetheless, this book is worth reading, less for the history of Israel’s 1982 Lebanon invasion, which has been better-documented elsewhere, but for how it shows Timerman, someone undeniably committed to human rights, grappling with the consequences of Zionism, a cause he had supported his entire life, and how that ultimately led to a savage, human rights-destroying, militarized monstrosity. Much of the book appears prophetic, as Timerman’s pessimistic analysis of where Israeli politics was going, in spite of the resistance to the war at the time, has ended up far worse than he could have imagined.

[Annika Järvinen · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Nothing can replace the need of a people to organize into a state in the territory in which they live and which belongs to them. The alternative our [Israeli] government offers, no matter how it masks it, is to continue repressing the Palestinian people until we destroy their will to live and liquidate their national identity. It’s incredible that such a policy is being considered by the very people who demonstrated that this is impossible, that it is immoral, that it is criminal.”

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting to see how little has changed since the ‘80’s and interesting to read such a personal and honest take on the first part of the lebanon war

[SD]

Complicated thoughts on this one , but an important book to provide perspective on the ‘82 invasion of Lebanon.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing it was from the heart. It tells the story of the PLO-Israel war in Lebanon from a Israeli who lived during the war. I highly recommend it