Kissing Through Glass; The Invisible Shield Between Americans and Israelis

24 cm, 254 pages, The tempestuous international relationship between the United States and Israel. Publisher's ephemera laid in. Dr. Joyce Starr, a leading expert on the Middle East, explores how the long-standing American-Israeli relationship is often challenged by basic cultural, emotional, political, and religious differences--differences that often prompt Americans to ask, "Why can't they be more like us?" Through exclusive interviews with American and Israeli businesspeople, journalists, community leaders, and government officials, Kissing Through Glass reveals how the idea of Israel fulfills quite different needs for people and how these fundamentally different outlooks foster ambivalence toward the realities of American-Israeli relations. Starr and her interviewees also address those specific issues that often divide Israelis from Americans, including the "Who is a Jew?" debate, the intifada , and Israel as every Jew's homeland. Starr's provocative analysis makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the human side of this tempestuous international relationship. ``Hidden beneath Israel's Superman bravado is the Clark Kent of the Middle East,'' writes Starr, a political advisor on the Middle East in Washington, D.C. The average Israeli citizen, she contends, is an innate pessimist, cautiously conservative, full of deep-seated fears and insecurities. In contrast, Americans who have had extensive dealings with Israelis often describe them as arrogant, blunt, infuriating, willful or defensive. For their part, Israelis--who have deeply ingrained traditions of social welfare, communal support and friendship--tend to view Americans as a parochial, superficial people given to appalling levels of violence and closed to new ideas. This absorbing commentary holds up a mirror to each culture, with reflections that are both fresh and surprising.…