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Preface
- University of Texas Press
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PR EFACE Although I sat down to write this book about a year ago, the idea for it had been with me in one sense or another for more than ten years now. It was nurtured by the longing I felt for the Israel I left behind; it stood before me in the books I chose to read, and informed many of the courses I taught about Israeli literature and culture at Brandeis, Princeton , and George Washington University. Had I lived in Israel at that time I may not have noticed so readily the sweeping changes that transformed the country so much. But I lived far away, and the great distance from home and the sense of removal I felt from it sharpened my vision and at the same time drove me to bridge the gap by staying almost obsessively connected: I read several Israeli newspapers a day, watched newscasts, followed popular television programs, and remained connected to Israel in the many ways made possible by the rapidly growing Internet. The great hopes of the Oslo years in the mid-1990s made my sense of removal deeper and more frustrating still. I was too young to be permanently impressed by the victory in the Six-Day War—I was seven at the time—and too old to believe that the 1982 war in Lebanon would really protect the Galilee—I was twenty-two at the time and on reserve duty for the first time. For my generation, then, Oslo seemed like the End of Days, that blissful time of peace with our Arab neighbors we were promised time and again since childhood. Being away from an Israel that seemed so cool and so “happening” was exasperating. This book was conceived as an attempt to channel these frustrations. The fact that the Oslo hopes did not materialize only makes their promise more alluring. I hope this book captures this promise and allure. Boston Summer 2007 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...