PanThe Washington PostEdited by Chabon and Waldman, the 26 essays here constitute a chorus of condemnation of Israel ... What we get here is a peculiar product. The visiting writers aren’t experts — most seem to have been here for only a few days, and some appear quite lost ... What it’s really about is the writers. Most of the essays aren’t journalism but a kind of selfie in which the author poses in front of the symbolic moral issue of the time ... Whatever this anthology set out to be, Kingdom of Olives and Ash is an unintentional group portrait of a certain set of intellectuals. Would they like a curated trip to a foreign country? Sign them up! Do they think a few days is enough to pass judgment on the participants in a century-old conflict? They do!
