Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel

Published by Nation Books in New York in 2013, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel is an English-language volume with bibliographical references and an index. Its catalog record gives the ISBN as 9781568586342 and a length of xvi, 496 pages, while a review lists 512 pages.[1][2]

The publisher-provided description presents the book as a portrait of political developments after the collapse of the Oslo peace process, with particular attention to the 2008–09 Gaza war, elections held during the conflict, the occupation of Palestinians, and disputes over civil liberties.[1] Its catalog subject headings include Israeli politics and government since 1993, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Palestinian Arabs and Israeli government policy.[1] The book is arranged in ten parts, with headings including “The Campaigns,” “Laws of the Land,” “Outcasts,” “Feeling the Hate,” “Indoctrination Mills,” and “The Big Quiet.”[4]

The publisher’s description says the book seeks to illuminate the present by “uncovering the ghosts of the past,” focusing on Palestinian neighborhoods and villages it characterizes as lost or forgotten.[1] That framing is the publisher’s presentation of the work rather than an independently established account. The description also states that “half of Jewish youth declare their refusal to sit in a classroom with an Arab,” but the catalog supplies no underlying survey or methodology for that statistic.[1]

In the preface, Blumenthal says he began researching Goliath in May 2009 and continued through early 2013. He characterizes his method as immersive reporting, describing months spent in Ajami, central Jerusalem, and Ramallah, along with interviews with Israeli political leaders and Palestinian protest leaders.[4] He says the narrative follows developments through Israel’s 2012 national elections against a historical backdrop of 1948, and that his US passport and Jewish heritage eased his movement and access.[4]

The publisher’s account says the narrative begins with the 2008–09 Gaza war and elections held during it, then follows subsequent political and social developments.[1] The opening chapters recount the December 27, 2008, airstrike on a Hamas police-cadet graduation ceremony, report Palestinian casualties, and discuss public and political reactions to the war.[4] They also examine campaign rhetoric associated with Tzipi Livni, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and Avigdor Lieberman and cite polls about Israeli public attitudes.[4] These are accounts and figures presented by Blumenthal, not independently verified findings.

Petra Marquardt-Bigman’s review notes that Blumenthal’s acknowledgments credit Mondoweiss and The Electronic Intifada as outlets that had published significant portions of the reporting later included in the book.[2] This information is presented through a sharply critical review rather than an independent study of the book’s development.

The book’s stated coverage extends across political leaders and movements, Palestinian communities, debates over civil liberties, and Jewish Israeli dissidents. The publisher’s description says Blumenthal interviewed hardline political figures in private homes, the Knesset, and social settings. It also describes Palestinians challenging separation policies through unarmed protest and Palestinian citizens of Israel facing security-service scrutiny and speech-restricting legislation.[1] These are descriptions of the book’s reporting and argument, not independent findings about the situations discussed.

The text includes chapters on Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied territories, addressing disputes over political speech, citizenship, land, and public commemoration of the Nakba. It discusses proposed and enacted legislation, Arab members of the Knesset, and cases involving individual families and communities, presenting these examples within Blumenthal’s critical argument about Israeli policy.[4] Other chapters address Bedouin communities, including Al-Araqib, and historical memory surrounding villages whose residents were displaced in 1948 or 1967.[4]

The book also addresses Holocaust education and public references to the Holocaust in Israeli political life, a subject the publisher’s description connects to its critique of arguments used to justify occupation.[1][4] Its contents include chapters titled “Banning Books,” “At the Heavy Gates of Gaza,” “The Enemies,” “The Concentration Camp,” and “The Night of Broken Glass.”[4] Contrary to the earlier claim that the digitized text ended during chapter 35, its contents run through chapter 73, “The Exodus Party,” followed by acknowledgments, notes, and an index.[4]

The book’s public profile was shaped by polarized responses to its reporting and rhetoric. Marquardt-Bigman reports that David Hirst praised its detail and that Chris Hedges called it “one of the most fearless and honest books ever written about Israel.”[2] The same review recounts that The Nation commissioned Eric Alterman to review the book and that his critical essay was titled “The ‘I Hate Israel’ Handbook.”[2]

A later Jewish Review of Books article recalls Alterman’s description of Goliath as a “carelessly constructed case against the Jewish state,” faulting it for insufficient historical context and evenhandedness.[3] Related media also attracted attention: Marquardt-Bigman reports that an 11-minute video by Blumenthal and David Sheen about African migrants received more than 500,000 visits during the first three months after the book’s publication.[2]

Criticism focused on the book’s selection of evidence, its portrayal of Israel, and its use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery. Marquardt-Bigman says roughly 400 pages consist of 73 short chapters that she characterizes as “context-free snapshots.” She argues that the book presents Israeli failures as uniquely characteristic of the Jewish state while overlooking comparable wrongs elsewhere; these are the reviewer’s interpretations rather than neutral descriptions of the book.[2]

The review reports that the Simon Wiesenthal Center included Blumenthal in its 2013 list of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs in connection with Goliath.[2] Marquardt-Bigman also criticizes chapter 62, “The Concentration Camp,” arguing that Blumenthal invoked Reuven Rivlin’s criticism of detention facilities while omitting Rivlin’s qualification that he meant places where people were warehoused, not extermination camps.[2] This is the reviewer’s allegation about Blumenthal’s use of the passage.

Marquardt-Bigman further describes a debate between Blumenthal and political scientist Ian Lustick. According to her account, Blumenthal argued that Israel’s end as a Jewish state was necessary and referred to expelling Israeli Jews unwilling to “become indigenized” under Arab political, cultural, and social dominance.[2] Because this characterization comes through a critical review rather than a cited transcript of the debate, it should be understood as the reviewer’s account.