Starred review from July 8, 2013
In this shattering memoir, former Israeli army officer Chayut details his long, painful journey of self-realization. Raised in a town where the commemoration of the Holocaust and its perpetrators is continually stressed, Chayut was eager to perform his compulsory military service. As a soldier, he was certain that he belonged "to the most moral army in the world." A chance encounter with a terrified 10 year-old Palestinian girl planted the seed that eventually forced Chayut to face the fact that "For that girl, I embodied absolute evil." Slowly he realized that, while he had thought of himself as a noble warrior, he was himself guilty of a thousand petty, sadistic acts; pointless humiliations intended to keep a subject people in their place. Chayut is now active in "Breaking the Silence", a group of former soldiers who testify about their misdeeds in the occupation of Palestine. And though he is Israeli, he must be understood as the universal soldier: trained to obey, numbed by experience, taking out his frustrations on those who can't fight back. Chayut could be any one of us, anywhere; if only we all had the courage to face ourselves so unflinchingly.
May 15, 2013
A former Israeli soldier's lucid memoir on his ideological conversion from a boy raised amid Holocaust memorials to a young man whose belief in Zionism and absolute evil was shaken. Chayut, whose childhood was marked by anger, sorrow, shame and the "unwillingness to be a part of all this [Jewish legacy]," soon accepted the anti-Arab rhetoric of those around him, served as a youth counselor, joined the Nahal Brigade with pride and proclaimed Israel's cause to raise funds in the United States. Doubts regarding his service in the "most moral army in the world," however, were planted during the course of a routine excursion when he encountered a villager who returned his smile with fear--a moment he would later consider pivotal and which helped him to realize that in the girl's eyes, he was the enemy. Through travel after leaving the army, meeting Bedouins, Palestinians and others, Chayut gradually distanced himself from his former righteousness. The latter half of the book chronicles the author's efforts with Breaking the Silence--an organization that urges Israeli soldiers to record their experiences in the occupied territories--and includes some of the testimonies he has gathered over the years: e.g., "Soldiers shoot wildly into residential areas without even knowing where the shots they're supposedly reacting to are coming from....Neighborhoods are sprayed with gunfire and the guys laugh their hearts out." Readers initially drawn to this title for its controversial topic will find that the book is more layered than a straightforward confession of military crimes. The author skillfully plays out questions of regret, nationalism, misplaced loyalty and the courage to remake one's life against the chance meeting with the girl who unwittingly sparked reflection. Chayut's account of self-reckoning is remarkable not only for the portrait of an unexpected turnaround, but also for its appealing prose.
COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.