Since 1967; more than 60;000 Jewish-Americans have settled in the territories captured by the State of Israel during the Six Day War. Comprising 15 percent of the settler population today; these immigrants have established major communities; transformed domestic politics and international relations; and committed shocking acts of terrorism. They demand attention in both Israel and the United States; but little is known about who they are and why they chose to leave America to live at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.In this deeply researched; engaging work; Sara Yael Hirschhorn unsettles stereotypes; showing that the 1960s generation who moved to the occupied territories were not messianic zealots or right-wing extremists but idealists engaged in liberal causes. They did not abandon their progressive heritage when they crossed the Green Line. Rather; they saw a historic opportunity to create new communities to serve as a beacon―a “city on a hilltopâ€â€•to Jews across the globe. This pioneering vision was realized in their ventures at Yamit in the Sinai and Efrat and Tekoa in the West Bank. Later; the movement mobilized the rhetoric of civil rights to rebrand itself; especially in the wake of the 1994 Hebron massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein; one of their own.On the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 war; Hirschhorn illuminates the changing face of the settlements and the clash between liberal values and political realities at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
#123390 in Books Michael Javen Fortner 2015-09-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x 1.10 x 5.80l; .0 #File Name: 0674743997368 pagesBlack Silent Majority The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Politics of Punishment
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. poop book great sellerBy CustomerThe seller did a great job but the book was terrible0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Noah PainterBalanced and meticulous research.19 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Timely; balanced; and informativeBy L. M. CraneBalanced; well researched; and informative; The Black Silent Majority provides a timely review of how drugs; crime; and racism intersected to affect the black middle class and lead to harsher drug laws. Currently we hear much about "mass incarceration" and its racial implications. Before we can address the subject; we need to understand it. Why did we start increasing drug and violent crime sentence length? When did first occur? Is it all secondary to racism? If not; what other factors led to increasing incarceration of individuals; primarily those of color? Fortner's book stands out for its reasoned approach in explaining a complex history and helps us understand similar problems today. His book covers the time period from the Civil War up to Governor Rockefeller's enactment of harsh drug crime laws in New York in 1973. This information is timely for today's discussion because everything that happened up to 1973 has just repeated itself. Every issue we discuss today was discussed then. Every solution presented today; was also presented previously. What worked and what didn't?Contrast Fortner's book with Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" Like Fortner; she does considerable research and outlines our racist legal history very well. Unfortunately; Alexander cites many of the facts selectively; highlighting those that superficially seem to make her point; mainly that white racists; in an attempt to control blacks when Jim Crow laws seemed to be fading; made laws that unfairly singled out blacks and increased their sentences in order to get them off the streets. She specifically cites Nixon; Reagan; and Clinton as leaders in this effort. Her main solution would be to erase drug laws from the books and release 50% of the prison population to return to prison population levels 40 years ago. Even though her book has achieved critical acclaim; it suffers tremendously from cognitive bias when she attempts to assign "guilt" to whites for all evils and mass schemes worthy of Machiavelli.Ta-Nehisi Coates; a long time critic of racism in America; in his recent Atlantic magazine articles on the subject of black incarceration; is more even tempered; allowing that family dissolution and excess drug usage; combined with racism; led to the abnormally high incarceration of blacks. He also questions the role that welfare laws have played in regards to the poor black family. Coates notes the high number of federal prisoners in for drug violations; but notes that very few of them were non-violent offenders; making early release problematic.Fortner's book lays out all the facts impartially. He notes when politics came into play and when it did not as national attitudes about how to control drug related crime developed. Many black artistic and business advancements occurred during the Jim Crow era of the early 20th century. After WW II; however; heroin usage became more prevalent in the US; especially in the black inner city. As drug usage grew; so did the crime that accompanied it. Middle and upper class blacks; confined to certain housing regions by racist red-lining and other real estate practices; were prevented from leaving these communities where crime affected everyone. As a result; they bore the brunt of the increasing crime wave due to drugs. It was this middle class; represented by Adam Clayton Powell and Charles Rangel among many others; that steadily demanded removal of drug criminals from the neighborhood "for life in prison" or; as some demanded; be "put to death." They also demanded an increased police presence in their communities; despite their aversion to some racist police. This middle class pressure; applied from 1950-1975; finally caused Nelson Rockefeller to reverse his prior moderate views on drug crime and enact harsher penalties for drug crimes in 1973. National politicians would soon follow for many of the same reasons.Fortner's book reminds us that there was (and is) a large silent black majority that constitute the main victims of drug crime. Whites; usually from communities removed from drug crime; concentrated on the drug criminals (treatment; racist structure of society; poverty; etc.) and seemingly ignored the victims of drug crime that were predominantly black.Fortner doesn't shirk descriptions of racism and its effects on the black community. He lists them in great detail. He does; however; point out that the burgeoning black middle class was making great strides forward in the 1940-1970's; while at the same time black community drug crime was rising rapidly; so simple poverty and structural racism weren't the only etiology of drug usage.This book is timely and informative; especially as we are currently considering the role of drugs and crime in our society (increasingly involving whites; both poor and not). What is being discussed today (treatment or incarceration of addicts; level of incarceration of drug dealers who may be addicts themselves; unequal treatment under the law of powdered versus crack cocaine; role of police in neighborhoods; etc.) was also discussed before. Every one of these same issues and a variety of approaches were either tried or talked about several decades ago. Fortner's book provides the historical facts so that we don't just repeat the same mistakes or that we don't simply view these issues through biased political ideologies. I would suggest this book and Coate's Atlantic article for anyone seriously wanting to learn more about the subject of prison incarceration and racial implications. For a conservative counterpoint; read Heather McDonald's article on the subject [ http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_4_decriminalization.html ]. After reading all three you will have a much better understanding of this important issue.
