This book is not worth reading. Its conclusion is drawn before the first word is written: Arabs 100% wronged; Israelis 100% guilty. The most ludicrous statement of all is that the 1948 War was between equals. Apparently, Nathan never took arithmetic.

Don't buy the book and don't give her the royalty. Neither side is blameless for the history of Israel but Nathan can only find support for her thesis with Arab authorities. Find something on the subject of Arab-Israeli relations more worthwhile to read.

Do Australian aborigines have exactly the same standard of living that Australians of European descent do? Does Australia practice apartheid? Are you outraged by this? Will you do a follow-up book in the outback?

Susan Nathan left her native England where she had never felt at home and came to live in Israel the country she had long identified with. The daughter of a South- African Jewish father and a Protestant mother who converted to Judaism she upon her divorce decided to make a new life in Israel. However in Israel she discovered herself more and more distressed at the situation of Arab citizens of Israel. She then decided to go and live in the Arab village of Tamra in the Galilee. Though her Jewish friends warned her against this , she found the population of Tamra warm, hospitable, accepting. They invited her into their homes, and told her their stories.
She came to identify wholly with their situation, to see and feel them as victims of discrimination in all facets of their everyday life. She became an advocate of their cause. She tells stories of discrimination against them , of their difficulty in getting permits to build homes, of the poor public facilities they suffer from, of their being behind the Jewish majority in all elements of socio- economic well-being.
All of this makes for disturbing reading.
It also makes for angry reading for one has knowledge of the facts and history Nathan persistently distorts or simply omits.
For instance she writes of Israel's 'invasion of the West Bank' in 2002 without indicating anything about the wave of suicide- bombings that preceded it. She speaks about a massacre in Jenin and tells the story of seeing the documentary film about this produced by Mohammed Bakri. She does not mention that the whole story of an Israeli massacre though it seized the world - media for a few weeks, was later disproved a finding even a U.N. commission accepted. She mentions nothing of course about the Israeli soldiers who lost their lives in Jenin because their commanders decided not to bomb a building where terrorists were hiding behind civilians. Nor does she say anything about the Jewish victims of the whole series of suicide- bombings which preceded the Israeli military operation.
She in the course of the writing reveals herself as one who has lost her objectivity completely, gone over all the way to the 'other side'. She writes of the 1948 Israeli War of Independence without considering the role of invading Arab armies, or without giving the background in Palestinian Arab violence against the Jews which was prelude to the struggle. She accepts with a kind of naivete Arabs account of their victimization without in any way providing an account of the tremendous improvement in the level of health, and social services this largely rural peasant population has known thanks to their being part of Israel.
She says nothing of course about the seditious activities of a good share of this population, including many Arab Knesset members.
She says nothing about the special security situation of Israel and the special privilege the Arab minority is given of not having to serve in its armed forces. She does not seem to understand that Israel has real security needs, and that the Arab minority is connected by family ties with those whose single aim is the destruction of Israel.
Nathan has not simply crossed the Israeli/ Arab divide in this book. She has gone over to the Arab side and so firmly planted herself there that she has lost all perception of what the whole Israeli reality truly is.

It is very difficult to write and talk about such a complex topic, without being biased or not taking sides. It is impossible, I would say. And this is the case of The Other Side of Israel, where one can feel from a distance, on whose side the author is. I consider the book just another view on what is nowadays one of the hottest political (and not only) issues.

No doubt, Susan Nathan managed to write an interesting and honest story, but that is not all. One also has to listen to the other side. Yes, Palestinians are being terrorized, are being deprived of many freedoms, are being treated as second class citizens. But this is only one side of the puzzle. The whole Israeli-Palestinian problem goes deeper than that.

Why doesn't she mention anything about Palestinians blowing up themselve, thinking that this will save the country and will get them to heaven? Why doesn't she talk at all about Palestinian politics, but criticizes a lot the Israeli government? Since when is Israel the source of all evil? And what about bringing in the Jewish perspective?

Don't stick to this book only - that is not universal. Try to see other views. Read more on the history and politics of the region as well - there are plenty of good choices on Amazon. It will only enrich your perspective and help get your own ideas.

Susan Nathan, a British-born Jew started as an ardent zionist who toook up the 'Law of Return' to move to Israel. Living in Israel, she begins to question the status quo and try to look at things from a different perspective than the official version. This results in great disillusion with the politics of the state of Israel or 'Death of a Love Affair' as she calls it.Her extraordinary decision to go and live among the local Arabs in the Arab town of Tamra, near Haifa gives her an inside perspective of witnessing the Arab-Israeli divide permeating the state of Israel today. She tries to make sense of the feeling of gross injustice, frustration and hapless anger which the non-Jews resident in Israel feel as second-class citizens living among ominous echoes of apartheid. She makes a clear distinction between Jews in Israel and elsewhere as ordinary human beings trying to live normal lives and Jews involved in the state machinery.Still proudly retaining her Jewish identity and not intent on becoming an Arab or converting to Islam, the author tries to paint the historical backdrop which have led to the portentuous deadlock of hatred, violence, repression and senseless death.
She tries to show that modern Israel is a traumatized society with not much leftist politics to challenge the politics of a hawkish government.

Has David become Goliath? Susan Nathan tries to answer this rhetorical question by saying that the Jewish-Arab divide is an illusion in reality as it is only a mindset. The similarities are too much and the stakes too high to continue not talking without hate on either side.

Very compelling read as the writer has firmly commited herself to the issue and she is a mature woman in her late fifties with experience of living in different cultures.

This book shatters, beyond any doubt, the Israeli myths which had and, unfortunately still, been circulating in the main stream American media that Israel is a "democratic" country!

The authour proves beyond a shadow of ANY doubt that the Jewish state is not only un-demcratic but an Apartheid state. The authour being a Jewess herself who is a Jewess herself, lends significat credibility to all of this...a MUST read.

This book shatters, beyond any doubt, the Israeli myths which had and, unfortunately still, been circulating in the main stream American media that Israel is a "democratic" country!

The authour proves beyond a shadow of ANY doubt that the Jewish state is not only un-demcratic but an Apartheid state. The authour being a Jewess herself who is a Jewess herself, lends significat credibility to all of this...a MUST read.

You'll keep on reading until you finish the book. She did a great job describing the suffering of Palestinian Arabs under occupation.

You'll keep on reading until you finish the book. She did a great job describing the suffering of Palestinian Arabs under occupation.

It's a shame that this is the only widely known book about the Israeli-Arab population. It's a shame that Nathan thinks she has to turn her back on Israeli society and slander it to get a truthful image of the so-called "Other Side." It's a shame that she takes her personal experience as universal, whilst remaining unaware of her own exoticising and condescending views towards both Israeli-Arabs and Israeli-Jews, at times appearing to mimic Dian Fossey's "Gorillas in the Mist." It's a shame she resorts to such gross generalizations as: "Individualism is highly prized in many societies, but not in Israel, where the instinct of the herd prevails"(pg. 56). It's a shame that all her good intentions amount to a shallow, biased book and it's a shame I spent my hard-earned money on it.

Susan Nathan is a British Jew, once a ardent supporter of Zionism. She was brought up believing in the Israeli dream, but when she decides to actually move to Israel and finally connect with "her roots", she discovers to her great dismay that her country is built on a pack of lies.

Far from conceding to a life of inaction and complicity, she opts for the rougher yet more rewarding route of moving into an Aran town and living among the Arab citizens of Israel, a segment of society blatantly ignored, consciously ghettoized and systematically marginalized by the society itself as well as the state.

She describes reality in a town of 25,000 that doesn't even exist in the country's official registry, and accounts the everyday hardships faced by citizens who are considered as nothing more that second-class and treated as such with not just the implicit blessings but the explicit backing and support of the official state.

In-between stories of communal life, she draws parallels between the Jewish and Palestinian plight, apartheid South Africa and Israel. As simple, innocuous "love and understanding" offered by Israeli solidarity and peace-seeking groups is hardly enough to effect any change, Susan Nathan chooses to go a step further and engage in poignant political discussion touching on sensitive issues such as "equality", which is considered a taboo subject even by the most extreme left-wingers, who by the way, Nathan believes to be hypocrites of the worst kind.

This is a book that centers on the issue of Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of the state of Israel. As with the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, no end to their suffering will come about unless the cycle of lies Jews tell to persuade themselves and the world that they have a two-thousand-year-old title deed to this land is broken. "A true peace, a just reconciliation can never happen until Israelis and Jews accept that this was not their land, that they are living uninvited in someone else's house".

Until then, courageous people like Susan Nathan had better go on providing the world with accounts of the gruesome reality in the hope that eventually they will stop falling on deaf ears.