Catch The Jew!

Catch Toe Jew!, by Tuvia Tenenbom, Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2015, 484 pp.

Reviewed by YISRAEL MEDAD

In 1982-83, leading Israeli author Amos Oz traveled throughout the country on both sides of the long-gone Green Line. He recorded his experiences, first in a series of articles in the Labor party newspaper, Davor, and, later, in a book entitled Here and There in the Land of Israel, published in 1983. Oz refers to the country as "Land" rather than "State" because of his visits to Ofra and Tekoa, newly established Jewish communities in Samaria and Judea. He thus maintains the prestate geographical terminology. A decade later, the English translation of his book was published with a postscript. Recently, some thirty years later, Tuvia Tenenbom has written a riveting account of his travels throughout Israel, on both sides of the Green Line, during 2013-2014. The difference between the two books is striking.

Tenenboms engrossing, shocking, cynical and humorously scripted bookpeels away layers of the context behind the news about Israels administration of Judea and Samaria. These territories, referred to as the West Bank (of the river Jordan), were ruled by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1948-196?. When Israel was attacked in June 196?, it took those areas that were originally part of the League of Nations Mandate. Many Israelis, Diaspora Jews, Arabs and their supporters, mainly from Europe, regard Judea and Samaria as lands that are under Israels "illegal occupation" that must be liberated from Zionist-Israeli rule.

Catch the Jew! is a sequel to the investigative study by Edwin Black, Financing the Flames: How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation...