The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege

by Kenneth Levin

Book Overview

The Oslo Syndrome examines the Oslo debacle in which Israel sought to win peace through territorial and other concessions even as Palestinian leaders assured their people their objective was still... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157525557X
• ISBN13: 9781575255576
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Smith and Kraus
• Length: 599 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A Unique History of the Delusions of an Oppressed People

Why would the Israelis and the Jews sacrifice everything for a shallow peace accord with a "peace partner" who increases terror attacks, indoctrinates intensely virulent anti-Semitism at all levels of education and the media, and continues to vow annihilation of the state they feign to be negotiating peace with? Kenneth Levin's answer approaches a perspective that is different from much of the current histories of the region. Levin illuminates a delusion that is the result of the stress of five decades of being under siege, and the result of centuries of demonization in Europe. He explores the history of the responses of the Jews in Europe to the hatred that spanned centuries and the futility of the Jews who vainly sought to appease their state sponsored tormentors by trying ever harder to assimilate. Ultimately the more they tried to assimilate the more the host nations persecuted them. Thus in spite of serving heroically in the German army in WWI they were ultimately rewarded with the holocaust. The delusion that was Oslo was just a continuation of a desire of the Jewish community to either fit in or be left in peace. But it was also a delusion that the Jews could control the will of another party by giving more and more concessions, even when nothing is given in return. It is a unique form of arrogance and is ultimately self destructive. The siege is not likely to end soon and Levin's prescription for Israel's survival is to educate its people on the history and moral purpose underlying the existence of the nation. Under Oslo many in the Israeli educational establishment pushed a curriculum that diminished the Jewish history and culture in favor of a more universalist approach. Revisionist historians embellished this approach with an anti Zionist slant to the story of Israel's history. Levin retorts the revisionists, but draws parallels to much of the self criticism from the Jews in Europe hoping to appease their state sponsors. Meanwhile the Palestinian educational structure, in clear defiance of Oslo, taught that the Jews had no right to the land or any historical connection to it and that it was their divine moral purpose to drive the Jews from their homeland. The results of Oslo have taught what the Jews should have learned from centuries of oppression: that while it takes two people to make peace; it only takes one to make a war. This book is a wonderful addition to the writings and analysis of the situation in Israel and is uniquely illuminating. I highly recommend it.

A Must Read for Anyone With An Open Mind

This is, by far, the best written analysis of the apparently mindless descent into potential oblivion that Israel appears headed to. It begins by setting the stage of Jewish self-hatred and self-effacement as a reaction to anti-semitism, as it developed in the Diaspora during this last millenium. Specifically, there is a detailed analysis of this phenomenon in the "civilized" world of 19th and 20th century Germany, as contrasted with the more "primitive" Eastern European Jewish experience. The author shows how the constant self delusion of the Jews - in its myriad of forms and expressions - is the basis for the present day erosion from within that the Jewish State is undergoing. I believe that this book should be mandatory reading in any Middle Eastern course, or for that matter, for anyone seeking to understand this unique group psychological phenomenon. As a proud Jew and a Zionist, I wish that this book would be sent - gratis - to journalists, academics, politicians, and to other people who collectively can influence the course of history.

Essential Reading

This book is problably the most detailed and researched book ever written on the history of how liberalism has infected and destroyed the State of Israel. Through the constant appeasment of its enemies who want nothing but the death of Israel, Israel has backed itself into a corner from which even the author (I infer) feels it has little chance of recovering. I truly believe Yosi Belin (along with Simon Peres and too many others) will go down in history as the architects of the destruction of Israel. This book is a must read for anyone who cares about Israel!

Important, powerful and sometimes disturbing.

With particular reference to the basis of the Oslo Accords, and quite disturbing at times, this book delves into the "mind-set" of Israelis which has resulted in their pursuit of "peace" with the Palestinian/Arab world. The book outlines how in 1993, the Israeli leadership made the decision to embrace Yasser Arafat as it's "peace partner", installing him and what is cited as a "nascent Palestinian government" in Gaza and the "West Bank" (Biblical Judea & Samaria). Israeli leaders are shown to have allowed Yasser Arafat to bring some 7,000 Palestinian gunmen along with him and provide them with the weaponry which was intended for use by his security services. Weapons which are depicted to have been subsequently used for attacks upon Israelis. The Israeli pursuit of "peace" under what is called an "unprecedented wave of anti-Israeli terror", the subsequent effects upon Israeli society and the "peace process" itself, are all investigated in some detail. Many pertinent questions are asked as to "why" such a path was trodden,whilst Yasser Arafat and his PLO are described as addressing Arab audiences to the effect that, any/all territory acquired from Israel is only part of the PLO's own "phased plan" to eradicate the Jewish state. Due reference being provided throughout. Living in a country which the book describes as being "under perpetual siege", the reader is provided with an extraordinary insight into how "psychological and historical forces" have spawned such Israeli policies. This is provided specifically in the context of how such a political process is still being allowed to proceed when the cited agendas of Arafat and the PLO are still being met with further, territorial, financial and related concessions without any reciprocity from the Arab side. References revealing that Israel's "peace partner" was allegedly becoming accustomed to receiving Israeli concessions without giving anything in return and that unilateral withdrawals were only accelerating that phenomenon. Further significant reference is also made to how Israelis have purportedly been confronted with what is termed "revisionist history". Many pivotal and foundational issues cited to have been distorted to such a degree that innocent "peace-famished" Israeli civilians are described as being colluded into falsely believing that "anti-Jewish sentiment was grounded in a fair and truthful assessment of the Jews". This giving rise to the perception that, through "submission", the Jewish community could pave the way to it's eventual "acceptance" and that it was subsequently possible to achieve peace through territorial and other concessions, irrespective of the ongoing terrorism. The delusional nature of this impression is examined in some depth. The cover of this work carries two photographs;- One photograph is of the late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, shaking each other's hands under the auspices of former US Pr

one of the most powerful books on jewish history ever written

When I was visiting Germany some years ago I happened to stop in a bookshop in Munich, where I saw an English copy of Hitler's Willing Executioners, by Goldhagen. Bringing this, along with a Sunday NYT to the counter, I was met with ghoulish silence from the tellers. Inhabitants of the shop glanced at me, and my purcahses, with looks that had ice water in them. Reading Goldhagen's book on my trip through Germany was an unforgottable experience - I could not have asked for a better travel guide. The soul and theme of Levin's book can be summed up in the remark made 48 hours ago by Abbas to Sharon: "You hurt me by not giving me what I need. You use terror as an excuse not to give me what I need. You only make matters worse." A great difficult and worthy read.