Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel

by Glenn Frankel

Glenn Frankel, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work as The Washington Post 's Jerusalem bureau chief, pulls no punches in this thorough exploration of the birth of a new Israel.

With remarkable access -- to figures ranging from the most senior officials to the young Palestinian street fighters --Glenn Frankel informs his sweeping account of years of civil unrest, political upheaval and diplomatic crisis.

Genres: History, Politics

432 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

As a boy growing boy up in Rochester, NY, I loved movies, especially Westerns and most especially John Ford's The Searchers. Everything about it thrilled and frightened me---most especially John Wayne's towering performance. I grew up to become a journalist and a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and when I came back to the United States in 2006 I wanted to write a book about America. And what could be more American than The Searchers? The book did surprisingly well, and I found myself working in my own little sub-genre: books that combine the making of a classic film with a momentous era in American history. Next up was the making of High Noon and its connection to the Hollywood blacklist, a time of vicious rhetoric and false allegations not unlike our own troubled decade. Shooting Midnight Cowboy is my third: I’d always loved the movie---the only X-rated film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture---and felt a personal connection: it was filmed largely in New York City in 1968, when I was a freshman at Columbia University. I feel very fortunate that after a wonderful career as a journalist and professor at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, I’m now finding an exciting new world to explore as an author.

Reviews

[Maimon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dare to absorb all the facts?
My mind is reeling...

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond the Promise Land takes a deep dive into the Intifada and how a peace process arose out of the intense fighting. There is a LOT to take in with this one. He does a deep dive in showing the arrogance of the Israeli’s during the time, the incompetence of the PLO and stays a middle course with lots of blame to go around. He also looks at the misconceptions between the United States and Israel especially between Bush Sr and Shimar. This book covers a lot of ground, with a ton of detail but does a great job of remaining accessible and almost reads like a fiction book with keeping the reader invested with the people being discussed. It gives a preview into the Settlements, the rise of Hamas, the disparity between Tunis PLO and the Palestinians on the ground as well as the Israeli internal politics regarding the situation. This is one of the best things I have read on the Intifada and definitely something you should pick up if you are trying to understand the situation in the Middle East vis a vis Israel.