The Israeli leadership portrayed in Be Strong and of Good Courage by Dennis Ross - career diplomat with long experience in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and David Makovsky depends at a very great extent of the historical context of the founding of the state of Israel. David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzak Rabin, Ariel Sharon are usually considered the founding fathers and do represent a certain generation. It is a generation that had to operate under enormous pressure and against a conundrum of inimities and challenges, both internally and externally.
The book follows the historical thread and presents various leadership styles and encounters. While maintaining the historical and geopolitical frame, it displays a variety of arguments explaining one decision or another. Each of the leaders described in the book do have their individual leadership style, mostly inspired by the underground and military experiences - particularly Rabin and Sharon. Given the extraordinary circumstances, judging them through ´normal´/peacetime criteria does not make justice to their times. Knowing more about the context, including the diplomatic unspoken background Ross was largely familiar with, elucidates it.
At the end of the book, I was almost tempted to share nostalgic feeling while comparing ´them´ with ´they´, but finally I realized that it is a very big mistake and in fact, the ´average´ politicians of nowadays are a good sign that no one needs warriors in politics and times turned into a more quiet mood. I suppose that the truth is somewhere in the middle of all this.
Be Strong and of Good Courage do shares a lot of details that may help explaining the many missed opportunities of the ´peace process´, but also the various coordinates that allowed the ´settler movement´ to become such a strong voice within the Israeli politics. Some of the reasons may be, actually, of a very practical nature. The different takes on the relationship with the US, from the very beginning until nowadays is important in the context of Israel´s own state- and national awareness.
Although I much appreciated the well documented narrative, and the interesting political stories brought to life, I was largely disappointed by the writing style. Writing about politics and the Middle East, although it retrains the creative capacity of the writer due to the very complex issues that do not allow too much imaginative tropes, it does not mean that it should be bland and literarily unattractive. More than once I had the feeling that I was just offered some disparate notes on events and characters, that were nissing the thread of a real story.
Rating: 3 stars
