We are the world

Israel: a mobster paradise?

 The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land

 By Donna Rosenthal

 Published by Free Press, 2008

 Available at Asia Books, Bt495

 Reviewed by Paul Dorsey

 THE SUNDAY NATION

 An odd book to be on sale in Thailand, unless the Israeli backpackers have room in their duffels for a hefty self-portrait, "The Israelis" is like some sort of tourism promotion without the hotel recommendations. It's Israel as a muddled but moving multicultural mosaic.

 Yes, things keep blowing up, but there are Ashkenazim, Haredim, Mizrahim, Muslims, Bedouins, Christians, Ethiopians, Russians, Americans, gays, Druze and Jews of every orthodoxy stripe, all living there together fervently hoping for peace. They all enjoy a beer, a TV comedy and a round of golf just like ordinary folks do anywhere.

 Whether the Zionists usurped Palestine and forced the original residents to flee on peril of slaughter is still a matter of debate in the mind of author Rosenthal, who bristles at stereotyping and loves happy endings.

 Here's something for Thailand after all, though: Israel is "a sunny place for shady people", has been dubbed "a mobster's paradise" and has a prostitution problem as well as enough regular beauties for Playboy to call it "the land of milk and honeys". It's loaded with shopping addicts and other conspicuous consumers, and has a booming trade in illicit drugs, as well as all-night rave parties.

 SOUND BITE: "We're always in the headlines [one citizen laments] ... We get more coverage than India, than China,

than the entire continent of Africa. There's so much news about us you'd think we're

also a billion people, not six million. We're all the time on TV and front pages, so people think they know us. Unsmiling soldiers, screaming settlers, crying mourners, bearded guys in black hats.

 "Well, Israelis are much more than those photos. We complain about our teachers, worry about exams, flirt at parties, wonder if we look good in our bathing suits. We curse at traffic jams and cut in line at the movies ... We're just normal people trying to live in this abnormal, tiny,

beautiful country."