Rise

New novel sounds a prophetic call for renewal of the Jewish state

by Phil Jason

Rise: A Novel of Contemporary Israel, by Yosef Gotlieb. ‘Atida Press. 386 pp. $14.99. Kindle eBook $4.99.

Rise is an astonishing tale, as true as the breaking news from Israel. Though it is easy to characterize it as promoting a leftist perspective on Israeli-Palestinian issues, it’s quite clear that the author and principal characters see themselves simply as practical. The new ingredient, for many readers, will be the increasing dimension of terrorism from within – meaning Jewish terrorism in particular. For Gotlieb, Israel’s own extreme right is as much a danger to the state as the terror born of Islamic fundamentalism. Its values and actions compromise the country not only politically, but also spiritually. They infect the country with a disease that cannot be cured even by Israel’s unparalleled medical institutions.

In the novel, the governing Nationalist Party is headed by a self-perpetuating leadership cadre committed to satisfying the wealthy and powerful. Its policies promote unbridled materialism, increasing the distance between the rich and the poor, and its security stance pays more attention to real estate than to the values of justice, equality, and tolerance. For many, including Naftali Kedem, leader of the opposition forces, and Knesset member, the Nationalist Party is a dead end for Israel, destroying its nobility and essence without solving any of its problems. It implicitly perpetuates home-grown terror.

The story opens with the long-delayed homecoming of Lilah Kedem, a sabra in her mid-fifties who has spent three decades living in the United States. She has become an internationally-acclaimed photographer, long-separated from her husband and son, whose heart now tells her it is time to return.

The Israel Lilah returns to is changed in many ways. The divisiveness is ugly and bitter; variety has transformed into shades of “us and them.” Party lines are sharply drawn, and disagreement is felt and labeled as treachery. The country seems to have lost its soul.

Now reunited with her husband, son, and childhood friend Michal, Lilah inevitably befriends Michal’s husband, an Israeli Arab physician named Issam Halaby. In a short period of time, circumstances lead the two couples to bond and found a new movement. Na’aleh (rise) is not a political party but a loosely organized grassroots organization that fosters communication, cooperation, and mutual support to Israeli communities of all ethnic and religious stripes. It works to awaken the population to rise up against mindless hate and bigotry and the stranglehold that twenty wealthy families seem to have on government policy.

Unofficially allied with Naftali’s New Democratic Party, Na’aleh’s immediate concern is to counteract the Sons of Gideon, a right-wing terrorist group killing Arabs and conciliatory Jews by staging spectacular acts of murderous violence. Essentially, the Gideon group promotes ethnic cleansing of Israel’s Arab population and brooks no dissent from those striving toward fruitful accommodation and reconciliation.

A separate thread of the novel develops around the mission of Eli Zedek, a top-level Israeli security agent charged with investigating domestic terrorism. He, too, is on the trail of these home-grown terrorists, who gladly take credit for their atrocious deeds.

Before long, Eli and Lilah cross each other’s paths. Lilah, who is determined to fight with her camera, discovers an image of one of the perpetrators in a roll of film she shot in Jaffa while building her portfolio for a book on Women of the Ports. The image matches the description of the hulking figure many had witnessed at a terrorist attack by the Gideons.

The novel winds back and forth between the home lives of the key characters, the public rallies to topple the present government staged by the New Democratic Party / Na’aleh organizations, and the growing frequency of terrorist attacks. Lilah becomes the spokesperson for the movement to redeem her country from its social ills and spiritual ills, its debilitating hatreds and violence.

Embedded into the suspense-filled events and rich characterizations are compelling analyses of what must be done to correct Israel’s path and to release it from the stranglehold of a powerful minority. The issues are thoughtfully and clearly expressed, and the passions of the Kedem and Halaby families, along with the almost superhuman commitment of Eli, so often thwarted by government ineptitude or interference, make Yosef Gotlieb’s ideas and principles for a renewed and reawakened Israel come fully alive.

This review appears in the February 2012 issue of Federation Star(Jewish Federation of Collier County, FL) as well as its sister publications: L’Chayim (Jewish Federation of Lee and Charlotte Counties) and The Jewish News (Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee Counties).

----------------------------------

Rise, A Novel of Contemporary Israel

by Dr. Carl Hoffman Category: ESRA Magazine Literature Issue, Dec. 2011-January 2012 No. 162

Times are tough. A country that was established on socialist economic principles and an uncompromisingly egalitarian social structure has one of the widest gaps between rich and poor in the industrialized world. Twenty super-rich families now effectively own and control the nation's wealth and resources. The government, once run by secular liberal intellectuals, is now in the hands of a coalition of far-right politicians and ultra-nationalist clerics preaching violence against Arabs and other non-Jews. Extremist groups, both Arab and Jewish, are locked in a cycle of bloody, tit-for-tat terrorist attacks aimed almost exclusively at civilians, and most often at children. A country that was supposed to be "a light unto the nations" has descended into darkness-marked by rapacious greed, unchecked corruption, racism, hatred and violence.

The place, of course, is Israel and the time is now, as seen through the eyes of author Yosef Gotlieb in his just-published new novel, Rise. Both political statement and thriller, Rise is subtitled, "A Novel of Contemporary Israel". Much of it, especially the comments about Israel's economic tensions and the control of its economy by a handful of powerful cartels, seems as though it came from today's newspaper. As we meet one of the novel's main characters, we are told, "Michal thought it sad how materialistic the culture had become in a society where the gap between rich and poor-no, rich and everyone else was growing daily. Michal yearned for the simpler Israel she had known growing up when people meant more than things. When had it slipped away? Who had withdrawn it?"

The depictions of almost daily terrorism will resonate with anyone who lived in Israel during the second intifada, except for one important new element. Gotlieb has added an array of violent Jewish extremists to the mix, including what appears to be a dangerous new group of Jewish terrorists, calling themselves the "Sons of Gideon". The cycle of violent attacks, blood-soaked political manifestos, fear, hatred and rioting in Israel's towns and urban neighborhoods begins when this previously unknown group guns down an elderly Jaffa Arab woman in an unprovoked attack.

The title, Rise, is taken from the non-sectarian movement for unity formed by the novel's protagonists in the midst of the rising violence. Lilah, a photographer returning to Israel after a 30 year self-exile in the U.S.; her husband Naftali, a left-wing Member of Knesset; Michal, Lilah's closest friend from childhood, and Issam, a doctor, an Arab and Michal's husband decide to start the movement at a "Rally of Hope" at which one of the lead characters exhorts the crowd to rise up and build a new Israel. "Rise. We must rise to confront the challenges and realize the potential that we, the people of Israel possess." The resulting movement, called Na'aleh, is to stand for the "real" Israel-"a country of justice, equality and tolerance," a land shared equally by "Ordinary Israelis. People like us: Jews, Arabs, Druze, Ashkenazim, Ethiopians, Sephardim, Russians. Men, women, workers, farmers, managers, shopkeepers, veterans, new immigrants, orthodox, secular. The whole rainbow of Israel."

It is not difficult to discern the political leanings of the book's author. His protagonists are all comfortably situated on the left of Israel's political spectrum, while his villains are clearly right-wing. Gotlieb's ‘villain-in-chief', so to speak, is the one dimensionally evil Rabbi Yehezkel Epstein, who first appears in the story stridently exhorting his followers to "gouge out the eyes of Amalek" and to "eradicate their presence from our midst." Epstein leads an organization called "Hebrew Fighters Association", the members of which are described as "unemployed thugs", "malcontents", "hooligans" and, most significantly, as "brownshirts". Gotlieb is both a sensitive and intelligent writer, and one must assume that he is aware of the specific historical images he is calling up by referring to Jewish followers of a Jewish rabbi as "brownshirts".

Similarly, the government in this "novel of contemporary Israel" is described as "a gang of reactionaries" composed of "buffoons" and "Neanderthals". Jewish settlements are called "feral", composed of "slashers and stabbers" and "extremists" acting out a "deep guttural pathology". It soon becomes evident to the reader that "the whole rainbow of Israel" that the Na'aleh Movement intends to unite is likely to end up excluding virtually everyone to the right of either Pnina Rosenblum or Yossi Beilin.

It would be easy to say that one will either love or hate this book depending upon one's political leanings but, as it happens, Rise is about a lot more than just politics. A story of romance, crime, detection, intrigue and conspiracy, Rise is also a crackling good, fast-paced thriller that will have its readers turning pages well into the night. I found myself finishing the novel in one frenetic read, sitting up until 3:00 am to do so. The action is warp speed, and Gotlieb skillfully creates main characters that seem like real, flesh-and-blood people with genuine human conflicts. His knowledge of Israel is intricate and fine-tuned, and his use of the US city of Boston as a calmer, quieter counterpoint to Tel Aviv is refreshingly accurate and well-informed.

Gotlieb is a top-notch writer, with a superb ear for dialogue and an extraordinary ability to grab and hold the attention of his audience. Rise is to be commended and recommended as both a thriller and a highly topical dramatic novel. As far as the politics of the book are concerned, dear reader, you are on your own.