Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror (Vintage) | 
| Author: Jeffrey Goldberg
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 180587
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375726705
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780375726705
ASIN: 0375726705
Publication Date: January 15, 2008
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Product Description
During the first Palestinian uprising in 1990, Jeffrey Goldberg – an American Jew – served as a guard at the largest prison camp in Israel. One of his prisoners was Rafiq, a rising leader in the PLO. Overcoming their fears and prejudices, the two men began a dialogue that, over more than a decade, grew into a remarkable friendship.
Now an award-winning journalist, Goldberg describes their relationship and their confrontations over religious, cultural, and political differences; through these discussions, he attempts to make sense of the conflicts in this embattled region, revealing the truths that lie buried within the animosities of the Middle East.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Under the surface, nothing new here... September 29, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
It is very disappointing to see yet again a book with such a thin veneer of even-handedness getting many rave reviews (I have to wonder who these reviewers are...). This is yet another of the thousands of one sided, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian books written by so called 'experts' that have so grossly warped the discussion on the Arab-Israeli conflict in this country. This book all but dismisses terrible Palestinian suffering while focusing primarily on the Jewish point of view, as if there isn't already enough of a pro-Israel bias in American politics, academia, news coverage, etc.,...
The worst part is that the author is actually pretending to be even-handed by giving a few snippets of human attributes to people he clearly despises. I would suggest readers here balance their perspectives by reading any of the books by the late Edward Said, or Norman Finkelstein.
To Mr. Goldberg, I'm amazed you still don't want to accept the fact that that by treating Palestinians as sub-human, Israel will never get the peace it needs and deserves!
 Magnificent book August 31, 2008
most Middle East books are either boring or predictable. Prisoners is neither. It's written with humor and pathos by a reporter/journalist with a long histroy of covering the Jewish/Arab confict. Goldberg has written for Rolling Stone, the New Yorker and now the Atlantic. He's spent a lot of time on the ground in the middle east. This book tells his story in an engaging and informative way. If you want to be entertained and learn more about this 2000 year old conflict, this is a great book to read.
Outstanding story August 1, 2008
What a fantastic book.
Jeff Goldberg takes us through his life's journey from an aspiring child zionist to his time as an Israeli military police officer, his return to America for life as a journalist, and his return to Gaza and other cities in Palestine where he tries to reconnect with many of the prisoners he watched over during his time as a "shoter" (policemen) in the prisons
Without telling too much of the outcome, I will say that the many experiences are thrilling, very telling of the situations, and seldom experienced by anyone. It is very rare to find someone trying to find a prisoner he once watched over so that he can open his home to that person. This will open up a whole new set of experiences and ideas for Goldberg.
What drives Goldberg to do this? Maybe it was his desire to end his own personal conflict with the course of middle eastern politics. Maybe it was his apologetic retribution for being a police officer in a palestinian prison. Maybe it was his want to show the Palestinian people that the Israelis are prisoners too, to the hostility that is perpetuated by suicide bombings. Maybe he thought he could end the conflict by reaching out.
After reading the book, all the complexities and truths that exist within this conflict become more clear. The perspective he brings is fascinating and worth being read by anybody who has a care about the situation in Israel/Palestine.
Prisoners by Jerry Goldberg June 18, 2008
This is a must for anyone Jew, Muslim gentile (like me) who despairs at the Israeli/Palestinian problem to be confirmed in the view that there are people of good will on both sides where common humanity exists but unfortunately frustrated by those in power who believe that force is the only way forward
 The questions behind June 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very well written book that grips you from the start and makes you want to keep reading to find out "what happened next" in the manner of successful fiction. The events outlined display a considerable amount of courage on the part of Goldberg, who stayed a few weeks in a Pakistani Madrasa, and repeatedly entered the Gaza strip and was alone among what were, officially, his enemies.
While the author's need to see signs of hope as to the future of the Israeli-Palestinian situation via his friendship with his former Palestinian prisoner "Rafik" is constant throughout the book, many of the questions Goldberg raises throughout his journeys are destined to dead-ends because they are based on a perspective that has been subject to a considerable amount of editing. And, as the nature of any quest goes, if you don't ask the right questions, you don't get the right answers.
Whereas the author's pursuit of these signs of hope, even in hostile territory, is admirable, his premise is not as impassive as the synopsis of the book wants us to believe; It tells us that, as a prison guard, Goldberg "realized that his prisoners were the future leaders of Palestine", hence "this was a unique opportunity to learn from them about themselves", but, when you get to that part of the book, Goldberg tells you that one of his tasks in prison (as a member of the military police) was to confiscate any and all signs of Palestinian national aspirations (flags, rocks in the shape of Israel, national songs). These were the pre-Oslo days, when a "Palestinian state" was unacceptable to Israel. And while Goldberg was genuinely curious about understanding his prisoners, he did not think they'd be "future leaders" of any state, as confiscating any signs of such aspirations testifies. It is very interesting to note how taking such liberties in shuffling around elements of the time-line for the sake of a stronger pitch in the synopsis mirrors what happened with the larger picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
One of the questions the reader is inevitably lead to upon reading Goldberg's accounts of such confiscations in prison is:
What drives one people to try and confiscate all signs of the identity of another people? Or, more accurately:
How can a people base the security of their identity upon the elimination of that of another?
In Goldberg's latest account of the conflict covering the last few years, he presents it more as one that has its origins in religious intolerance and Muslim extremism. It is ironic that Goldberg quotes Israeli writer "Amos Oz" at some point in his narrative, because it was precisely Oz that repeated that this was not a religious conflict, but a real estate one. While the rise of militant fanaticism in the Muslim world is an undeniable fact of considerable threat to many countries, recasting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as being caused by religious pathos is, again, a reshuffling of the story for the sake of a stronger pitch.
Anyone who is interested in knowing more about what is going on in that unfortunate part of the world could benefit from the account of "Susan Nathan", a British Jewess who lived in an Arab village in Israel, in her book, "The Other Side of Israel", or "Emma Williams", a British doctor who lived and worked in Jerusalem, in her book "It's easier to reach Heaven than the end of the street, a Jerusalem memoir". Both provide some parts of the picture that were edited out of Goldberg's story, courageous as he may be.
Some questions open doors to other questions that may well be very different from the ones the author intended, but which are the only ones that could bring the reader closer to an understanding of the real story.
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