Israel: A History

Never before have I sped so quickly and enjoyably through such a dense history book.

A comprehensive history of Israel from 1862 to 1997 (6/12 people found this helpful)

Martin Gilbert, in this comprehensive volume, chronicles the history of the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), from 1862 to 1997.
He describes the ancient attachment of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, through the millenia. Since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in CE 70, the Jews who were dispersed all over the Roman Empire, had prayed for a return to Zion.
'Next year' in Jerusalem, has always been the hope expressed at the end of every Passover meal, commemorating the exodus from Egypt.
During the 1700s movements of Hassidic Jews took place to Eretz Yisrael, from Eastern Europe.
By mid-19th century there were around 10 000 Jews living in Eretz Yisrael.
More than 8000 of them lived in Jerusalem. A few hundred lived in the ancient holy city of Safed in the north, in Tiberius, Acre and Jaffa, and there was a community in Peki'in, where there has been a continuous presence of Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple.
He describes the origins of the modern Zionist movement born out of Jewish national aspirations and the ages old attachment to Israel: Moses Hess, George Eliot, Bilu and Hovevei Zion, the return to the land, the actualization of the Zionist programme by Theodore Herzl, and the rebuilding of the blighted and empty Palestine.
By 1914 there were 90 000 Jews living in the Land of Israel, of whom 75 000 were immigrants.
Gilbert reviews the Arab attacks on Jewish communities, in 1920-21, 1929 and 1936-1939, in which Jewish communities were attacked and thousands of Jewish men, women and children murdered.
The answers today to the problems posed by the opponents of Zionism, were already evident before the State of Israel was re-established.
Islamic radicals and the international extreme left demmand that Israel be dismantled and be replaced by a unitary Arab 'Palestine' in which the Jews would survive at the tolerance of Hamas and the PLO.
Zionist leader Arthur Ruppin wrote in 1931 that there was no hope for the Jews to rely, for their survival on Arab goodwill:
"At most the Arabs would agree to grant national rights to the Jews in an Arab state, on the pattern of national rights in Eastern Europe. But we know only too well from conditions in Eastern Europe how little a majority with executive power can be moved to grant real and complete real and national equality to a minority. The fate of of the Jewish minority in Palestine would always be dependent upon the goodwill of the Arab minority which would steer the state."
With Hamas in the ascendancy today, among the Palestinians, with it's aim to clear 'Palestine' of all Jews, and it's murderous apparatus, we all know that a 1 State Solution would lead to a second holocaust of Jews.
Israel was created so that Jews could rely on themselves for their own security and welfare, afetr two thousand years of being subjected to tyrants and murderous rabble.
This remains the case, more than ever today, and always will.
Gilbert covers the massive immigration to Israel, from Germany in the 1930's of hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing form Hitler's Nazi Reich, and how Britian later shut the doors to Jewish immigration into Israel, while allowing massive immigration from neighbouring Arab regions.
Millions of Jews, who could have fled, to Israel, were instead consumed in the Nazi infernos, in part due to Arab-British connivance.
We read of the indepth anti-Semitic and Nazi-inluenced culture, inculcated among arabs , since the time of Hitler's arch-ally and leader of the Palestinian Arabs, Mufti Haj amin el Husseini.
Later, for example, we read of how Egyptian troops captured by Israeli soldiers, during the Suez War of 1956, carried on them Arabic translations opf Hitler's Meim Kampf.
We read of the surivial of the Jews in Palestine during World War II, and how it miraculously survived being overhelmed by the Axis powers in neigbouring Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
Finally we read of the struggles of the state internally and externally.
The growth of a society of refugees, and their descendants, refugess either from Nazi-occupied Europe, and holocaust survivors, and of the 800 000 Jews brutally driven oput of Arab countries, after 1948.
Of the wars for survival, and of the countless terror attacks, across the borders from the 1950's.
The continuous provocation and murder from Israel's Arab neighbours , and we discover how every war, contrary to Islamic and radical left propaganda, was initiated by the Arabs and their allies.
Unfortunately, the last few chapters of the book, seems to have a bias towards the left of the Israeli political spectrum, and the demmand that Israel gives countless concessions to the 'Palestinians', with nothing in return.
The last word, for me, however go's to the former Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Chaim DAvid HaLevi who in response to one of the countless Arab atrocities against Israeli women and children, said at the funeral of a an elderly holocaust survivor, who dies in a Hamas suicide bombing:"These deaths are more painful than all of the losses of the Jewish people suffered while in exile. Here they are trying to flush us out of our homeland. But we will stay in this land, despite everything".
G-D Bless the Jews of the Land of Israel, forever!

A great history book (18/20 people found this helpful)

This is a greatly detailed and interesting history of the State of Israel (a fascinating coutry) from its earliest origins in the 19th Century with the Zionist pioneers carving out a safe home in the Negev or Gaillee away from persecution, through independence and the various wars to the present day.

Israel has one of the most interesting histories possible and Gilbert has captured in the pages of this great book all the incidents, wars, characters, events, peoples, etc that go to make up any country in a very readable, enjoyable, accessible way.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Israel and the Middle east.

Superbly presented historical research. (44/55 people found this helpful)

Drawing on his vast experience of this subject Sir Martin Gilbert has documented a superlative history of Israel which is extremely thorough and accurate.

This study surveys in some detail the first 50 years of Israel's history following the nation's re-birth in 1948. The book also tells of the involvement of the nation's pioneers and founders extending back into the latter half of the nineteenth century, together with many stories pertaining to the individuals who contributed to the re-birth of the Jewish state and to it's very survival during the ensuing conflicts.

The book begins with a chapter entitled "Ideals For Statehood" and describes how, since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70AD, Jews dispersed throughout the World have prayed for a return to Zion. "Next Year in Jerusalem" being the hope expressed at the end of every Passover meal. Later in the book the incredible hostility towards such Zionism is addressed.

The book initially describes the "considerable Jewish activity in Palestine" as the nineteenth century came to an end and extends to the Balfour Declaration and the work towards a Jewish homeland in Palestine that the latter promised. Unfortunately the book lacks any appropriate or real attention to the creation of the state of Transjordan in 1922 and how this affected the eventual rebirth of Israel. An issue where Britain detached 78% of the original area of Mandate Palestine to create another Arab entity in order to satisfy Arab aspirations for independence. This area east of the Jordan was thereafter called Trans-Jordan, and remained legally part of the British Mandate until 1946, when it was declared an independent Arab state, renamed Jordan in 1953. (Jordan then comprising 78% of Mandate Palestine with the vast majority of Jordanians being Palestinians.). The latter, although not discussed in detail here is evident from the contents of the book. Maps illustrating the issue further.

The book on page 37 reveals that the potential of the land following the First World War, (on which fewer than a million people were living on both sides of the Jordan), was regarded as enormous. The reader is shown how less than 10 per cent of the land was actually under cultivation at that time with no Arab needing to be dispossessed, or their rights infringed, for the "Zionists" to make substantial land purchases. The considerable Jewish population already in the land is also mentioned, together with reference to the Arab violence against these Jewish populations even in 1919. Coverage also being given to the increase of this violence through the ensuing decades as Jewish immigration increased with any attempt to reassure or compromise with resident Arabs being rejected. Violence, riots and Arab general strikes described as attempts to stop any influx of Jews to their ancient homeland.

The contents further describing how the rise of Hitler to power in Germany during 1933 affected the situation pertaining to Jewish immigration and the relationship on the ground between Arabs and Jews. The actions of the occupying British forces described as they enforced declared strict quota restrictions on Jewish immigration, even in the face of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. This whilst illegal Arab immigration from surrounding areas was allowed to proceed unhindered.

The British action restricting immigration by Jewish refugees from Nazi occupied Europe is described as a continuing priority even after the war's end in 1945, with imprisonment being afforded those captured in British "detention camps" on Cyprus. Some 50,000 Jews being imprisoned in this manner. From here the conflict in the land is described in some detail until the declaration of independence by the Jewish State of Israel in May 1948. This is followed by a commendable coverage of the ensuing "War Of Independence" during which surrounding Arab nations sought to eradicate the Jewish State by all military means at their disposal.

The ingathering of Jewish exiles to the newly born Jewish State is documented, as is the Suez conflict and events leading up to the Six Day War in 1967. Continuing acts of violence by Arabs against the Jewish population during these periods are also covered, including the formation in 1964 of the "Palestine Liberation Organisation". Another organisation is described as being formed in 1965, whose leader was Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat). The group being Fatah, and it's goal the "national liberation of Palestine". All this whilst the Gaza Strip and the "West Bank" were in Arab hands, occupied by the Arab nations of Egypt and Jordan.

Respectable coverage is also given to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, amid the seeming impotence or unwillingness of the UN to intervene, plus the political susceptibility of the World to an Arab oil boycott. A conflict which the book describes as showing the growing independence of Israel upon the USA.

Increasing Palestinian terrorism is described in the context of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon during 1982, again with credible coverage. The study extending to include the Oslo Accords and the present "peace process", together with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

Numerous photographs are provided, together with a large selection of maps which are relevant to the major issues surrounding the history of the Jewish state. An invaluable piece of historical research and an excellent addition to anyone's library. I would also recommend reading "From Time Immemorial; Origins of the Jewish-Arab Conflict Over Palestine" by Joan Peters.

An Immensely Authoritative History (21/27 people found this helpful)

This is a big book - in more senses than one - but it is extremely readable (note: the author is Churchill's official biographer). Starting with the efforts of the early Zionists in the 1860s and ending with the Peace Process of the 1990s, Gilbert gives an extremely thorough and balanced history of Israel and her struggle to come to terms with her neighbours. This must remain the definitive study for the foreseeable future.

Martin Gilbert

Reader Reviews:

The ultimate account of a great nation (4/6 people found this helpful)

A comprehensive history of Israel from 1862 to 1997 (6/12 people found this helpful)

A great history book (18/20 people found this helpful)

Superbly presented historical research. (44/55 people found this helpful)

An Immensely Authoritative History (21/27 people found this helpful)

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