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O Jerusalem
This book recounts, moment by moment, the process that gave birth to the state of Israel. Collins & Lapierre weave a tapestry of shattered hopes, valor & fierce pride as the Arabs, Jews & British collide in their fight for control of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem! meticulously recreates this historic struggle. It penetrates the battle from the inside, exploring each party's interests, intentions & concessions as the city of their dreams teeters on the brink of destruction. From the Jewish fighters & their heroic commanders to the Arab chieftain whose death in battle doomed his cause along with the Mufti of Jerusalem's support for Hitler and the extermination of the Jews, but inspired a generation of Palestinians, O Jerusalem! tells the 3-dimensional story of this high-stakes, emotional conflict.
670 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
1262 people are currently reading
6101 people want to read
About the author
Larry Collins
66 books180 followersBorn in West Hartford, Connecticut, he was educated at the Loomis Chaffee Institute in Windsor, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale as a BA in 1951. He worked in the advertising department of Procter and Gamble, in Cincinnati, Ohio, before being conscripted into the US Army. While serving in the public affairs office of the Allied Headquarters in Paris, from 1953-1955, he met Dominique Lapierre with whom he would write several best-sellers over 43 years.
He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the MidEast bureau chief in Beirut.
In 1959, he joined Newsweek as Middle East editor, based in New York. He became the Paris bureau chief in 1961, where he would work until 1964, until he switched to writing books.
In 1965, Collins and Lapierre published their first joint work, Is Paris Burning? (in French Paris brûle-t-il?), a tale of Nazi occupation of the French capital during World War II and Hitler's plans to destroy Paris should it fall into the hands of the Allies. The book was an instant success and was made into a movie in 1966 by director René Clément, starring Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford and Alain Delon.
In 1967, they co-authored Or I'll Dress you in Mourning about the Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.
In 1972, after five years' research and interviews, they published O Jerusalem! about the birth of Israel in 1948, turned into a movie by Elie Chouraqui.
In 1975, they published Freedom at Midnight, a story of the Indian Independence in 1947, and the subsequent assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is said they spent $300,000 researching and still emerged wealthy.
The duo published their first fictional work, The Fifth Horseman, in 1980. It describes a terrorist attack on New York masterminded by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. The book had such a shocking effect that the French President cancelled the sale of nuclear reactors to Libya, even though it was meant for peaceful purposes. Paramount Pictures, which was planning a film based on the book, dropped the idea in fear that fanatics would emulate the scenario in real life.
In 1985, Collins authored Fall From Grace (without Lapierre) about a woman agent sent into occupied France who realizes she may be betrayed by her British masters if necessary. He also wrote Maze: A Novel (1989), Black Eagles (1995), Le Jour Du Miracle: D-Day Paris (1994) and Tomorrow Belongs To Us (1998). Shortly before his death, he collaborated with Lapierre on Is New York Burning? (2005), a novel mixing fictional characters and real-life figures that speculates about a terrorist attack on New York City.
In 2005, while working from his home in the south of France on a book on the Middle East, Collins died of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.
He went back to Procter and Gamble and became the products manager of the new foods division in 1955. Disillusioned with commerce, he took to journalism and joined the Paris bureau of United Press International in 1956, and became the news editor in Rome in the following year, and later the MidEast bureau chief in Beirut.
In 1959, he joined Newsweek as Middle East editor, based in New York. He became the Paris bureau chief in 1961, where he would work until 1964, until he switched to writing books.
In 1965, Collins and Lapierre published their first joint work, Is Paris Burning? (in French Paris brûle-t-il?), a tale of Nazi occupation of the French capital during World War II and Hitler's plans to destroy Paris should it fall into the hands of the Allies. The book was an instant success and was made into a movie in 1966 by director René Clément, starring Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford and Alain Delon.
In 1967, they co-authored Or I'll Dress you in Mourning about the Spanish bullfighter Manuel Benítez El Cordobés.
In 1972, after five years' research and interviews, they published O Jerusalem! about the birth of Israel in 1948, turned into a movie by Elie Chouraqui.
In 1975, they published Freedom at Midnight, a story of the Indian Independence in 1947, and the subsequent assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It is said they spent $300,000 researching and still emerged wealthy.
The duo published their first fictional work, The Fifth Horseman, in 1980. It describes a terrorist attack on New York masterminded by Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. The book had such a shocking effect that the French President cancelled the sale of nuclear reactors to Libya, even though it was meant for peaceful purposes. Paramount Pictures, which was planning a film based on the book, dropped the idea in fear that fanatics would emulate the scenario in real life.
In 1985, Collins authored Fall From Grace (without Lapierre) about a woman agent sent into occupied France who realizes she may be betrayed by her British masters if necessary. He also wrote Maze: A Novel (1989), Black Eagles (1995), Le Jour Du Miracle: D-Day Paris (1994) and Tomorrow Belongs To Us (1998). Shortly before his death, he collaborated with Lapierre on Is New York Burning? (2005), a novel mixing fictional characters and real-life figures that speculates about a terrorist attack on New York City.
In 2005, while working from his home in the south of France on a book on the Middle East, Collins died of a sudden cerebral haemorrhage.
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May 9, 2024
This book documents the Jewish struggle to create the tiny state of Israel and the struggle of the Arabs and British to crush it, with particular focus on Jerusalem. It contains some interesting accounts and much interesting information, but it is not without its flaws.
Beginning with the decision at the United Nations at Flushing Meadow to accept the re-partition of the Land of Israel into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, and the violent Arab reaction, it leaves out the fact the Britain's Palestine Mandate of 1920, included what is now the State of Israel, the disputed territories (the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza) and Jordan.
In 1922 Transjordan (later Jordan) set up on three-fourths of Palestine, leaving one-fourth of Palestine for the Jewish national home. Therefore the partition plan accepted in 1947 left the Jews with only 13% of the original Palestine Mandate.
O Jerusalem partially covers the biography of Hitler's ally, and founder of the "Palestinian" Arab movement, Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini. Husseini stirred up the bloody Arab pogrom against the Jews, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1920. Two years later, at the instigation of the British Mandates political secretary, the rabidly anti-Jewish E.T Robinson, he was appointed "Mufti of Jerusalem", the equivalent of Bishop of a city, with Jewish and not Moslem routes, and a Jewish, not Moslem plurality.
Haj Amin El Husseini manipulated his way to becoming President of the Moslem Supreme Council, and in the following years, he set himself up as an unchallenged dictator of all the Moslems in the Holy Land, through a combination of patronage and terror, in which thousands of Arab opponents and potential or suspected opponents where murdered on the orders of the Mufti, in a bloody purge.
In 1929, the Mufti orchestrated more violent of Jews in Palestine, covering the Land of Israel in the blood of Jewish men, women and children.
When the British finally decided to arrest him, he fled to Beirut and later to Baghdad, where in 1941, he aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honoured guest.
He did everything in his power to achieve an Axis victory. He recruited Arab agents to drop behind the British lines as saboteurs and raised two divisions of Bosnian Moslems for the SS. He facilitated the German entry into Tunisia and Libya. He personally visited the Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up the Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish State, and who is a much-admired uncle of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
We also learn that Haj Amin was not the only Arab terrorist to be trained in Nazi Germany, as part of the Axis war effort. The commander of the Arab Liberation Army , Fawzi el Kaujki was a noted celebrity in Berlin during World War II , where he was furnished with every luxury he needed by Hitler's Nazi regime, including his blonde German wife.
The book covers the role in the war effort of the War of Independence of the likes of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, David Shaltiel, Yitzhac Rabin, Yigal Allon, Yigal Yadin and millions of ordinary Jewish men and women. Unfortunately the Revisionist freedom fighters -Irgun and Lehi -do not get fair treatment and are unjustly maligned in the book. The account given of the alleged massacre of Arabs during the Battle of Deir Yassin is based on the lies of the Arabs and their British allies. Unfortunately the Hagannah, the military wing of the Labour Zionists added to these lies to malign their political opponents in the Irgun and Lehi.
A heroic account is given of the struggle of the Jews of Jerusalem, to survive Arab attacks and starvation.
Merged review:
This book documents the Jewish struggle to create the tiny state of Israel and the struggle of the Arabs and Whitehall and British Colonial authorities to crush it, with particular focus on Jerusalem. It contains some interesting accounts and much interesting information, but it is not without its flaws.
Beginning with the decision at the United Nations at Flushing Meadow to accept the re-partition of the Land of Israel into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, and the violent Arab reaction, it leaves out the fact the Britain's Palestine Mandate of 1920, included what is now the State of Israel, the disputed territories (the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza) and Jordan.
In 1922 Transjordan (later Jordan) set up on three-fourths of Palestine, leaving one-fourth of Palestine for the Jewish national home. Therefore the partition plan accepted in 1947 left the Jews with only 13% of the original Palestine Mandate.
O Jerusalem partially covers the biography of Hitler's ally, and founder of the "Palestinian" Arab movement, Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini. Husseini stirred up the bloody Arab pogrom against the Jews, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1920. Two years later, at the instigation of the British Mandates political secretary, the rabidly anti-Jewish E.T Robinson, he was appointed "Mufti of Jerusalem", the equivalent of Bishop of a city, with Jewish and not Moslem roots, and a Jewish, not Moslem plurality.
Haj Amin El Husseini manipulated his way to becoming President of the Moslem Supreme Council, and in the following years, he set himself up as an unchallenged dictator of all the Moslems in the Holy Land, through a combination of patronage and terror, in which thousands of Arab opponents and potential or suspected opponents where murdered on the orders of the Mufti, in a bloody purge.
In 1929, the Mufti orchestrated more violent of Jews in Palestine, covering the Land of Israel in the blood of Jewish men, women and children.
When the British finally decided to arrest him, he fled to Beirut and later to Baghdad, where in 1941, he aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honoured guest.
He did everything in his power to achieve an Axis victory. He recruited Arab agents to drop behind the British lines as saboteurs and raised two divisions of Bosnian Moslems for the SS. He facilitated the German entry into Tunisia and Libya. He personally visited the Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up the Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish State, and who is a much-admired uncle of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
We also learn that Haj Amin was not the only Arab terrorist to be trained in Nazi Germany, as part of the Axis war effort. The commander of the Arab Liberation Army , Fawzi el Kaujki was a noted celebrity in Berlin during World War II , where he was furnished with every luxury he needed by Hitler's Nazi regime, including his blonde German wife.
The book covers the role in the war effort of the War of Independence of the likes of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, David Shaltiel, Yitzhac Rabin, Yigal Allon, Yigal Yadin and millions of ordinary Jewish men and women. Unfortunately the Revisionist freedom fighters -Irgun and Lehi -do not get fair treatment and are unjustly maligned in the book. The account given of the alleged massacre of Arabs during the Battle of Deir Yassin is based on the lies of the Arabs and their British allies. Unfortunately the Hagannah, the military wing of the Labour Zionists added to these lies to malign their political opponents in the Irgun and Lehi.
A heroic account is given of the struggle of the Jews of Jerusalem, to survive Arab attacks and starvation
Beginning with the decision at the United Nations at Flushing Meadow to accept the re-partition of the Land of Israel into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, and the violent Arab reaction, it leaves out the fact the Britain's Palestine Mandate of 1920, included what is now the State of Israel, the disputed territories (the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza) and Jordan.
In 1922 Transjordan (later Jordan) set up on three-fourths of Palestine, leaving one-fourth of Palestine for the Jewish national home. Therefore the partition plan accepted in 1947 left the Jews with only 13% of the original Palestine Mandate.
O Jerusalem partially covers the biography of Hitler's ally, and founder of the "Palestinian" Arab movement, Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini. Husseini stirred up the bloody Arab pogrom against the Jews, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1920. Two years later, at the instigation of the British Mandates political secretary, the rabidly anti-Jewish E.T Robinson, he was appointed "Mufti of Jerusalem", the equivalent of Bishop of a city, with Jewish and not Moslem routes, and a Jewish, not Moslem plurality.
Haj Amin El Husseini manipulated his way to becoming President of the Moslem Supreme Council, and in the following years, he set himself up as an unchallenged dictator of all the Moslems in the Holy Land, through a combination of patronage and terror, in which thousands of Arab opponents and potential or suspected opponents where murdered on the orders of the Mufti, in a bloody purge.
In 1929, the Mufti orchestrated more violent of Jews in Palestine, covering the Land of Israel in the blood of Jewish men, women and children.
When the British finally decided to arrest him, he fled to Beirut and later to Baghdad, where in 1941, he aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honoured guest.
He did everything in his power to achieve an Axis victory. He recruited Arab agents to drop behind the British lines as saboteurs and raised two divisions of Bosnian Moslems for the SS. He facilitated the German entry into Tunisia and Libya. He personally visited the Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up the Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish State, and who is a much-admired uncle of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
We also learn that Haj Amin was not the only Arab terrorist to be trained in Nazi Germany, as part of the Axis war effort. The commander of the Arab Liberation Army , Fawzi el Kaujki was a noted celebrity in Berlin during World War II , where he was furnished with every luxury he needed by Hitler's Nazi regime, including his blonde German wife.
The book covers the role in the war effort of the War of Independence of the likes of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, David Shaltiel, Yitzhac Rabin, Yigal Allon, Yigal Yadin and millions of ordinary Jewish men and women. Unfortunately the Revisionist freedom fighters -Irgun and Lehi -do not get fair treatment and are unjustly maligned in the book. The account given of the alleged massacre of Arabs during the Battle of Deir Yassin is based on the lies of the Arabs and their British allies. Unfortunately the Hagannah, the military wing of the Labour Zionists added to these lies to malign their political opponents in the Irgun and Lehi.
A heroic account is given of the struggle of the Jews of Jerusalem, to survive Arab attacks and starvation.
Merged review:
This book documents the Jewish struggle to create the tiny state of Israel and the struggle of the Arabs and Whitehall and British Colonial authorities to crush it, with particular focus on Jerusalem. It contains some interesting accounts and much interesting information, but it is not without its flaws.
Beginning with the decision at the United Nations at Flushing Meadow to accept the re-partition of the Land of Israel into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, and the violent Arab reaction, it leaves out the fact the Britain's Palestine Mandate of 1920, included what is now the State of Israel, the disputed territories (the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza) and Jordan.
In 1922 Transjordan (later Jordan) set up on three-fourths of Palestine, leaving one-fourth of Palestine for the Jewish national home. Therefore the partition plan accepted in 1947 left the Jews with only 13% of the original Palestine Mandate.
O Jerusalem partially covers the biography of Hitler's ally, and founder of the "Palestinian" Arab movement, Mufti Haj Amin El Husseini. Husseini stirred up the bloody Arab pogrom against the Jews, in the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1920. Two years later, at the instigation of the British Mandates political secretary, the rabidly anti-Jewish E.T Robinson, he was appointed "Mufti of Jerusalem", the equivalent of Bishop of a city, with Jewish and not Moslem roots, and a Jewish, not Moslem plurality.
Haj Amin El Husseini manipulated his way to becoming President of the Moslem Supreme Council, and in the following years, he set himself up as an unchallenged dictator of all the Moslems in the Holy Land, through a combination of patronage and terror, in which thousands of Arab opponents and potential or suspected opponents where murdered on the orders of the Mufti, in a bloody purge.
In 1929, the Mufti orchestrated more violent of Jews in Palestine, covering the Land of Israel in the blood of Jewish men, women and children.
When the British finally decided to arrest him, he fled to Beirut and later to Baghdad, where in 1941, he aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honoured guest.
He did everything in his power to achieve an Axis victory. He recruited Arab agents to drop behind the British lines as saboteurs and raised two divisions of Bosnian Moslems for the SS. He facilitated the German entry into Tunisia and Libya. He personally visited the Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up the Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish State, and who is a much-admired uncle of PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
We also learn that Haj Amin was not the only Arab terrorist to be trained in Nazi Germany, as part of the Axis war effort. The commander of the Arab Liberation Army , Fawzi el Kaujki was a noted celebrity in Berlin during World War II , where he was furnished with every luxury he needed by Hitler's Nazi regime, including his blonde German wife.
The book covers the role in the war effort of the War of Independence of the likes of David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, David Shaltiel, Yitzhac Rabin, Yigal Allon, Yigal Yadin and millions of ordinary Jewish men and women. Unfortunately the Revisionist freedom fighters -Irgun and Lehi -do not get fair treatment and are unjustly maligned in the book. The account given of the alleged massacre of Arabs during the Battle of Deir Yassin is based on the lies of the Arabs and their British allies. Unfortunately the Hagannah, the military wing of the Labour Zionists added to these lies to malign their political opponents in the Irgun and Lehi.
A heroic account is given of the struggle of the Jews of Jerusalem, to survive Arab attacks and starvation
January 2, 2015
One of the most beautifully written book on Israel Palestine conflict ever!
This book won my heart!It was so comprehensive and surprisingly very very neutral!
It is so detailed and meticulous: It can be a textbook for any class on this subject any given day!
This book details the foundation of the great state of Israel and unlike many books written on the subject:Remains as objective and neutral as possible,the flow is very smooth,it feels like you're reading a thriller novel when you read it:)
I could not put it down once I started reading it,and to my surprise it was over in less than 2 days despite its massive size,many books on the issue of Israel vs Palestine are either too partisan,too biased,one sided or even if they are neutral,they tend to be boring when neutral in my experience!(And I have read over 200 books on Israel and Palestine encompassing both point of views to this date!)
I highly recommend this book,reading this book made me really happy and informed on the issue.
Please read:)
This book won my heart!It was so comprehensive and surprisingly very very neutral!
It is so detailed and meticulous: It can be a textbook for any class on this subject any given day!
This book details the foundation of the great state of Israel and unlike many books written on the subject:Remains as objective and neutral as possible,the flow is very smooth,it feels like you're reading a thriller novel when you read it:)
I could not put it down once I started reading it,and to my surprise it was over in less than 2 days despite its massive size,many books on the issue of Israel vs Palestine are either too partisan,too biased,one sided or even if they are neutral,they tend to be boring when neutral in my experience!(And I have read over 200 books on Israel and Palestine encompassing both point of views to this date!)
I highly recommend this book,reading this book made me really happy and informed on the issue.
Please read:)
April 4, 2021
Most people who know me, know how much I love Israel. This is a book about the formation of Israel, during a short time period, right before its Independence and in the first several months after. I didn’t care for the writing and felt bogged down by too many details. I guess it comes with the territory. After all, a book with this subject matter needs details. It’s probably just me, or it could have been my timing. Most likely, it’s the fact that I’ve read several books that are similar, and this one just wasn’t my favorite. To be fair, of all the books that I have read about Israel, this one was the most unbiased.
Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Arab Neighbors
“The Arabs' refusal to allow the survivors of Hitler's death camps into Palestine had led to world backing for a Jewish state.”
“The Arab states displayed no haste to succor their suffering brothers. The Lebanese, afraid that the predominantly Moslem refugees would upset their nation's delicate balance between Christian and Moslem, persistently refused them. The Egyptians kept them crowded into the Gaza Strip. Syria and Iraq, whose resources made them the countries best equipped to receive the refugees, turned their backs on them. Only Jordan, poorest of the Arab states, made a genuine effort to welcome them into its ranks. An element of political propaganda for the Arabs, a grating embarrassment for Israel, the refugees were left to fester in squalid refugee camps, the wards of international charity administered by the United Nations.”
Number of Arabs who Fled
“The Arabs claimed that up to a million people had left. More conservative estimates set the figures at between 500,000 and 700,000. According to a note in his diary, Ben-Gurion was informed on June 5, 1948, that 335,000 Arabs had fled.”
On Meeting Golda Meir (whom I love)
“Golda has read ‘Is Paris Burning?’ in Hebrew and greets us with a compliment that goes straight to our hearts. ‘That's how history must be told,’ she declares outright. Such an introduction will help us get long interviews out of her busy schedule.”
Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Arab Neighbors
“The Arabs' refusal to allow the survivors of Hitler's death camps into Palestine had led to world backing for a Jewish state.”
“The Arab states displayed no haste to succor their suffering brothers. The Lebanese, afraid that the predominantly Moslem refugees would upset their nation's delicate balance between Christian and Moslem, persistently refused them. The Egyptians kept them crowded into the Gaza Strip. Syria and Iraq, whose resources made them the countries best equipped to receive the refugees, turned their backs on them. Only Jordan, poorest of the Arab states, made a genuine effort to welcome them into its ranks. An element of political propaganda for the Arabs, a grating embarrassment for Israel, the refugees were left to fester in squalid refugee camps, the wards of international charity administered by the United Nations.”
Number of Arabs who Fled
“The Arabs claimed that up to a million people had left. More conservative estimates set the figures at between 500,000 and 700,000. According to a note in his diary, Ben-Gurion was informed on June 5, 1948, that 335,000 Arabs had fled.”
On Meeting Golda Meir (whom I love)
“Golda has read ‘Is Paris Burning?’ in Hebrew and greets us with a compliment that goes straight to our hearts. ‘That's how history must be told,’ she declares outright. Such an introduction will help us get long interviews out of her busy schedule.”
October 5, 2015
Wow! Just completed this long book!!
O Jerusalem deals with the Arab-Israeli war for Jerusalem during 1947-48, or also called as, the "War of Independence" by Israel. The book's narrative begins (apart from a Prologue) with the successful passing of the UN Partition Plan, of the Palestinian region under the British Mandate at that time, to form two separate States, on November 29, 1947. The book ends with the region's history as on July 17, 1948; along with an Epilogue.
I so much loved the narrative style in which the writers have made of describing history. Within the preface to the book's second edition, Dominique Lapierre says that when Golda Meir had read their other book Is Paris Burning?, her response as she welcomed the writers before the writing of this book, was with "That's how history must be told," which is exactly what I too felt about this book. :) It took the writers two years to interview more than a thousand people that included the Arabs, the Jews, The Americans, and the Brits; and another three years to research and write this work.
The book mainly deals with events that happen in Jerusalem. But other areas that are relevant or in connection with Jerusalem are also focussed upon whenever necessary.
Personally I found the book to include a lot of violence, but at the same time I understand that it could not be helped, because that was the main content of the things that happened at the time. With violence, are given high amount of details of arms and ammunition procurement, and smuggling them in; outlines of Jewish History and Zionism; information about the Hagganah, the Irgun, and the Stern Gang; the Arab's views of the Jews; life in Jerusalem, and also especially in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, etc. Although these things are enough mentioned, a lot of violence has been depicted and described within the book, and in wholesome detail. And personally I do not favour reading on so much violence, continuously.
As far as ratings go, I feel many a readers may choose giving this book a 5-star, based upon the emotions and sympathies generated by the reader upon reading certain sequences in the book. And believe me, my eyes were sodden with tears as well at certain times too. However I have refrained from giving this book a 5-star, because somewhere I felt the contents of the book did not "amaze" me, but the writing style did! Violence does not amaze me by itself, but paradoxically it still does when I perceive it within the grander scheme of things happening through Earth's history or of the Universe in its entirety.
Still, I would certainly recommend this book, for its superb way of narrating history, a very engaging style; for knowing the history of the region that led to the proclamation of the State of Israel and its fight for the land; of the sufferings of the Arabs in the region; and for its authentic contents, and unbiased views of the writers.
P.S.: The revised edition (2007) from which I read, contains 23 pages of (New) Preface, and 16 plates of images in black and white of the writers with people at the time of writing this book (1967-71) and during the making of its 2006 movie.
O Jerusalem deals with the Arab-Israeli war for Jerusalem during 1947-48, or also called as, the "War of Independence" by Israel. The book's narrative begins (apart from a Prologue) with the successful passing of the UN Partition Plan, of the Palestinian region under the British Mandate at that time, to form two separate States, on November 29, 1947. The book ends with the region's history as on July 17, 1948; along with an Epilogue.
I so much loved the narrative style in which the writers have made of describing history. Within the preface to the book's second edition, Dominique Lapierre says that when Golda Meir had read their other book Is Paris Burning?, her response as she welcomed the writers before the writing of this book, was with "That's how history must be told," which is exactly what I too felt about this book. :) It took the writers two years to interview more than a thousand people that included the Arabs, the Jews, The Americans, and the Brits; and another three years to research and write this work.
The book mainly deals with events that happen in Jerusalem. But other areas that are relevant or in connection with Jerusalem are also focussed upon whenever necessary.
Personally I found the book to include a lot of violence, but at the same time I understand that it could not be helped, because that was the main content of the things that happened at the time. With violence, are given high amount of details of arms and ammunition procurement, and smuggling them in; outlines of Jewish History and Zionism; information about the Hagganah, the Irgun, and the Stern Gang; the Arab's views of the Jews; life in Jerusalem, and also especially in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, etc. Although these things are enough mentioned, a lot of violence has been depicted and described within the book, and in wholesome detail. And personally I do not favour reading on so much violence, continuously.
As far as ratings go, I feel many a readers may choose giving this book a 5-star, based upon the emotions and sympathies generated by the reader upon reading certain sequences in the book. And believe me, my eyes were sodden with tears as well at certain times too. However I have refrained from giving this book a 5-star, because somewhere I felt the contents of the book did not "amaze" me, but the writing style did! Violence does not amaze me by itself, but paradoxically it still does when I perceive it within the grander scheme of things happening through Earth's history or of the Universe in its entirety.
Still, I would certainly recommend this book, for its superb way of narrating history, a very engaging style; for knowing the history of the region that led to the proclamation of the State of Israel and its fight for the land; of the sufferings of the Arabs in the region; and for its authentic contents, and unbiased views of the writers.
P.S.: The revised edition (2007) from which I read, contains 23 pages of (New) Preface, and 16 plates of images in black and white of the writers with people at the time of writing this book (1967-71) and during the making of its 2006 movie.
January 4, 2010
Well, coming to the Middle East, I can safely say I knew nothing of the history of the Israeli State beyond the fact that it existed and mostly Jewish people ran it. Staying here in Bethlehem for over a month meant we got a great deal of the Palestinian perspective on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but as far as the events that led to the creation of the State of Israel and the circumstances under which the Israeli Army eventually occupied those territories, no one was able to fill me in. This book happened to be on the shelf in the retreat center, and so I sank my teeth into it--and it's a fun book to read, that's for sure. Less a plodding chronicle than a look at what happened from the perspective of eyewitnesses on the ground and in positions of diplomatic and political responsibility, the authors manage to craft a narrative that is quite gripping.
It is most definitely written from the Jewish perspective, though a great deal of the research comes from Arab sources from within the city during the years and months leading up to the outbreak of armed warfare in 1947-8 and the creation of the State of Israel by a U.N. Mandate (known among the Palestinians as "the catastrophe"). There is no doubt that there were acts of tremendous bravery and outrageous barbarity on both sides, especially in the months leading up to the withdrawal of British forces. The siege of Jerusalem put the 1,500 residents of the Jewish quarter of the Old City through starvation and the prospect of instant death at the hands of Arab artillery shelling the skyline for over a month. An estimated 750,000 Arabs fled their villages before the advancement of the Israeli army and were confined to refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, many of which exist to this day. Atrocities on both sides fed the righteous fury of disciplined soldiers and terrorists alike, and reading about the mutual slaughter carried out in a city revered by three world religions is one of the most frustrating and sickening accounts of armed conflict I've ever come across. Yet pinning the contradictions and insanity of these conflicts on religion alone would be inaccurate, as it would be more appropriate to assign them to religion taken captive by political ends.
The book concludes with the armistice of 1948 and the assassination of 4 of the 5 Arab leaders involved in the conflict (presumably by other Arabs indignant at their failure to follow through with their intention to resist any peace plan that included the UN Partition plan that allowed an Israeli State). Much has intervened since then to create the state of affairs that now obtains in this region, but I'm a little better equipped to understand what drives the passionate struggle for independence and statehood on both sides of the wall.
It is most definitely written from the Jewish perspective, though a great deal of the research comes from Arab sources from within the city during the years and months leading up to the outbreak of armed warfare in 1947-8 and the creation of the State of Israel by a U.N. Mandate (known among the Palestinians as "the catastrophe"). There is no doubt that there were acts of tremendous bravery and outrageous barbarity on both sides, especially in the months leading up to the withdrawal of British forces. The siege of Jerusalem put the 1,500 residents of the Jewish quarter of the Old City through starvation and the prospect of instant death at the hands of Arab artillery shelling the skyline for over a month. An estimated 750,000 Arabs fled their villages before the advancement of the Israeli army and were confined to refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, many of which exist to this day. Atrocities on both sides fed the righteous fury of disciplined soldiers and terrorists alike, and reading about the mutual slaughter carried out in a city revered by three world religions is one of the most frustrating and sickening accounts of armed conflict I've ever come across. Yet pinning the contradictions and insanity of these conflicts on religion alone would be inaccurate, as it would be more appropriate to assign them to religion taken captive by political ends.
The book concludes with the armistice of 1948 and the assassination of 4 of the 5 Arab leaders involved in the conflict (presumably by other Arabs indignant at their failure to follow through with their intention to resist any peace plan that included the UN Partition plan that allowed an Israeli State). Much has intervened since then to create the state of affairs that now obtains in this region, but I'm a little better equipped to understand what drives the passionate struggle for independence and statehood on both sides of the wall.
February 5, 2013
In the wake of the unrest in Syria and that part of the world and my growing interest in understanding the history behind this age old struggle, I picked up this book. This is an account of the war for the independence of Israel which focuses on the struggle between the British and the various Jewish and Moslem armies for Jerusalem.
It is a very engaging narrative with a fairly unbiased viewpoint. The war has been described in very graphic detail- brace yourself. The small yet tenacious community of jews' struggle against the determined yet discorganized Arabs with a generous dose of interference from the western powers - of course it made for a dramatic story. I had to remind myself that this is not fiction at times.
If you've always wanted to read/learn more about bethlehem, palestine, gaza, Israel and everything that led to what created the complex yet influential state of Isreal, I highly recommend it.
It is a very engaging narrative with a fairly unbiased viewpoint. The war has been described in very graphic detail- brace yourself. The small yet tenacious community of jews' struggle against the determined yet discorganized Arabs with a generous dose of interference from the western powers - of course it made for a dramatic story. I had to remind myself that this is not fiction at times.
If you've always wanted to read/learn more about bethlehem, palestine, gaza, Israel and everything that led to what created the complex yet influential state of Isreal, I highly recommend it.
November 18, 2020
This is an account of the war for the independence of Israel which focuses on the struggle between the British and the various Jewish and Moslem armies for Jerusalem. I was impressed by the effort made by the authors to be balanced, not painting any side as being totally good or bad.
A older friend of mine, Andre, was involved in the events following this war, becoming himself an officer in the Israeli army during the war of independence. Polish and a communist, he fought in the southern army, accepting the surrender of another middling officer, Gamal Abdel Nasser, with whom he became friends, later serving, until the disgracefully engineered Lavon Affair, as one of the covert military attaches to the Egyptian government. For him, the goal was a multiethnic state, the common enemy European imperialism. This, too, was the perspective of many who fought for Israeli independence, of the Mapam (United Workers' Party) and of many in neighboring Muslim states. Sadly, all were betrayed, the wars continue and no end is in sight so long as the United States plays favorites.
A older friend of mine, Andre, was involved in the events following this war, becoming himself an officer in the Israeli army during the war of independence. Polish and a communist, he fought in the southern army, accepting the surrender of another middling officer, Gamal Abdel Nasser, with whom he became friends, later serving, until the disgracefully engineered Lavon Affair, as one of the covert military attaches to the Egyptian government. For him, the goal was a multiethnic state, the common enemy European imperialism. This, too, was the perspective of many who fought for Israeli independence, of the Mapam (United Workers' Party) and of many in neighboring Muslim states. Sadly, all were betrayed, the wars continue and no end is in sight so long as the United States plays favorites.
May 26, 2017
The story of modern Israel's birth is so innately fascinating that it would be hard to tell in a boring way. The authors of this book, however, go above and beyond to make their account as riveting as any novel. I can only imagine the hundreds of hours spent gathering interviews for the countless personal portraits that make this history come to life.
Israel in general, and Zionism in particular, is a fairly polarizing topic. To their credit, however, the authors exhibit little discernible bias toward Jew or Arab. Their story helps the reader understand both sides, without imposing a ruling on the rights and wrongs of a highly controversial and complex situation.
Content warnings include some bad language (not as much as I was expecting), and atrocity descriptions suitable for adult eyes only.
Israel in general, and Zionism in particular, is a fairly polarizing topic. To their credit, however, the authors exhibit little discernible bias toward Jew or Arab. Their story helps the reader understand both sides, without imposing a ruling on the rights and wrongs of a highly controversial and complex situation.
Content warnings include some bad language (not as much as I was expecting), and atrocity descriptions suitable for adult eyes only.
June 24, 2017
Wonderfully written account of Israel's war for independence 1947 -48. What I particularly liked about it is the objective view of the conflict from all sides. Having just returned from Jerusalem, where I stayed right inside Jaffa's Gate, the descriptions of the fighting were very real to me.
October 21, 2021
This book is so heart-rending and extremely emotional. This is the history of the formation of the state of Israel told literally day by day in 1947-1948. First you will read stories of what the Jewish people are doing, then you will read behind the scenes what the Arab countries and peoples are doing. The story converges when the UN votes for partition, carries you through Arab and Jewish attacks, the announcement of the formation of the Jewish state, and the fight for the land. It is rather shocking in many instances. And when the UN voted for partition, why didn't they have a plan to implement it?
In this day-by-day format there is some but not a lot of back story. The British mandate is summarized, but not detailed. What are brilliant are the stories of individual lives and the part they played in the drama. We have the story of the Jewish man who was sent to Europe to buy illegal arms, the story of the man in charge of supplying food for the starving Jews of Jerusalem, the story of Golda Meir who raised money in the US for a Jewish state, Ben-Gurion's leadership, etc. Then we have the stories of the Arab leaders, King of Egypt, forces from Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, etc. Particularly fascinating is the story of John Glubb former British soldier who became the commanding general of the Transjordan's Arab Legion. He essentially became a Bedouin. Also discussed are the personal interests of each of the Arab leaders.
There are many disturbing stories as well. The slaughter of the people of an Arab town by the Jewish Irgun, the retaliation by the Arabs on a Jewish Kibbutz, the Arab refugee situation, the terrible attacks on convoys bringing food to Jerusalem to feed the starving people. There were several instances where I could only read so much and had to set the book down because of the carnage. The destruction of centuries old synagogues, etc. was also distressing.
Recommended.
In this day-by-day format there is some but not a lot of back story. The British mandate is summarized, but not detailed. What are brilliant are the stories of individual lives and the part they played in the drama. We have the story of the Jewish man who was sent to Europe to buy illegal arms, the story of the man in charge of supplying food for the starving Jews of Jerusalem, the story of Golda Meir who raised money in the US for a Jewish state, Ben-Gurion's leadership, etc. Then we have the stories of the Arab leaders, King of Egypt, forces from Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, etc. Particularly fascinating is the story of John Glubb former British soldier who became the commanding general of the Transjordan's Arab Legion. He essentially became a Bedouin. Also discussed are the personal interests of each of the Arab leaders.
There are many disturbing stories as well. The slaughter of the people of an Arab town by the Jewish Irgun, the retaliation by the Arabs on a Jewish Kibbutz, the Arab refugee situation, the terrible attacks on convoys bringing food to Jerusalem to feed the starving people. There were several instances where I could only read so much and had to set the book down because of the carnage. The destruction of centuries old synagogues, etc. was also distressing.
Recommended.
February 9, 2015
Golda Meir says it right. This is how history should be written.
My inspiration to pick this book up was primarily to read the history of which I have no intellectual or emotional connection. Everything I read in this book was new, and boy, by the end of it, I understand the modern world politics surrounding Israel much better. Ben-Gurion, Glub Pasha, Abdullah Tell, Shaltiel, Avriel and Golda have been perpetually added to the long list of historical figures who, in some way or the other, might influence me in time to come.
As with Freedom at Midnight, the books reads like rapidly changing scenes off the streets of Jerusalem, the library of Tel Aviv, the palace of Amman, the fields of intense battle, and underneath the slits of the armoured cars, and despite its mammoth size, it barely ceases to be unputdownable.
This is the second book from the same authors that I have read (the first being Freedom at Midnight, which happens to be my all time favourite book), and one can safely assume that these guys are bloody good at chronicling the rise of impossible nation states, India and Israel being the prime examples.
As much as the authors claim it to be unbiased, though, I have a distinct feeling that it was slightly biased towards the Israelis than the Arabs.
Next up, Paris Burning it is!
My inspiration to pick this book up was primarily to read the history of which I have no intellectual or emotional connection. Everything I read in this book was new, and boy, by the end of it, I understand the modern world politics surrounding Israel much better. Ben-Gurion, Glub Pasha, Abdullah Tell, Shaltiel, Avriel and Golda have been perpetually added to the long list of historical figures who, in some way or the other, might influence me in time to come.
As with Freedom at Midnight, the books reads like rapidly changing scenes off the streets of Jerusalem, the library of Tel Aviv, the palace of Amman, the fields of intense battle, and underneath the slits of the armoured cars, and despite its mammoth size, it barely ceases to be unputdownable.
This is the second book from the same authors that I have read (the first being Freedom at Midnight, which happens to be my all time favourite book), and one can safely assume that these guys are bloody good at chronicling the rise of impossible nation states, India and Israel being the prime examples.
As much as the authors claim it to be unbiased, though, I have a distinct feeling that it was slightly biased towards the Israelis than the Arabs.
Next up, Paris Burning it is!
May 4, 2008
What a tremendous read at this 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. This book brings to life the tragedies and triumphs of the 1948 War in Palestine/Israel, depending on your point of view. A terrorist bomb of 55 gal drum filled with rusty nails, bolts and explosive set off amid shoppers and workers catching the bus back home...the work of a Jewish terrorist group. Protecting the defeated fighters of an outpost from the crazed crowds...the task of soldiers of the Arab Legion. This book tells the good and bad on both sides pretty evenly. Personal stories of heroism and sacrifice on both sides work to put you in their place, and to have sympathy and understanding with both sides, as well as anger and disgust. Ethnic cleansing works as a strategy for both antagonists and yet, there are many examples where Arabs and Jews live together and want to remain friends. Still, in the end, the courage of the Israelis against a vastly better equipped foe brings the results hoped for.
October 30, 2014
Donated to CCU 30/10/2014
An utterly fascinating, minutely detailed and accurate definite history of the Israeli War of Independence 1948. Hundreds of vignettes make this book a thriller, with heartbreak and joy in rapid succession. Although it is history it reads like a who-done-it, and you turn page after page to see what happens next.
Contains, maps, illustrations, b/w photographs, Chapter notes, Bibliography and index.
An utterly fascinating, minutely detailed and accurate definite history of the Israeli War of Independence 1948. Hundreds of vignettes make this book a thriller, with heartbreak and joy in rapid succession. Although it is history it reads like a who-done-it, and you turn page after page to see what happens next.
Contains, maps, illustrations, b/w photographs, Chapter notes, Bibliography and index.
May 26, 2020
I really liked this book because it highlighted pretty much every development in the middle east that led to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine or that hindered it's progress. I did not know basically anything about this topic, and it showed why there are conflicts in the middle east to this day.
August 9, 2020
Explica de forma muy sencilla lo que pasó en esos años y en mi opinión lo hace de forma bastante neutral
March 10, 2018
You can also find this review on-
https://wp.me/p7GC6G-27z
“None of the men in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry really meant to be taken literally in threatening to ‘drive the Jews into the sea’. But they failed to remember that their foes had just seen six million of their kind driven into Hitler’s oven.”
– (O Jerusalem!)
Some countries fight for their freedom while some, like Israel, for their birth.
I cannot even begin to tell you the gem this book, O Jerusalem!, is. With more than three years of it lying in my to-read section of the closet, it is now, in 2018, that I picked it up, only to finish it with a sigh, a sigh not of relief or soreness, but of admiration, of wonderment.
Not many of us realize the struggle, the sacrifice, the rigor that goes behind building up a nation. You might not realize it, I might not realize it, but, I reckon, there won’t be a single Jew who wouldn’t know what took their nation, their Israel, to come into existence. Why is that? Read “O Jerusalem!”.
History-lovers would love this book, and if you’re not one, mind you, this book might turn you into one.
Israel is a country that came into its being in 1948. But it was at the expense of thousands of lives, months of struggle and loads and loads of passion. What a daunting task it is to own even a small part of land; imagine the struggle that must have gone into owning the land for a full-fledged country. For me, it’s beyond my comprehension.
Now, if the book is about the birth of Israel, why is it named “O Jerusalem”, not “O Israel” or simply “Israel”? A valid question. If Israel was the girl-child, who was intended to be killed by everybody right in the womb of her mother, Jerusalem was its heart; a body cannot survive without its heart, right?
Jerusalem, due to many religious reasons, is considered one of the holiest cities not only by Jews, but by Moslems and Christians too. And therefore, it still is an ongoing debate and, perhaps, an unending struggle to decide who owns Jerusalem, that who has deeper roots in the city, that who can finally claim Jerusalem as their own city – Jewish, Muslims or Christians.
Even though the book doesn’t answer this question, it seems the only and an apt choice to name “O Jerusalem” as “O Jerusalem”.
Now, like “Freedom at Midnight”, this book too spans over the period of a year, here, from November 29th, 1947 to July 17th, 1948.
It all started on 29th November, 1947, when UN declared the partition of Palestine among Arabs and Jews, allowing Jews, who have been struggling for centuries to have their own country, to have their own nation in their part of Palestine, after English rule would end in 1948. This proposal was considered the only wise resolution to the thirty years of struggle between Jews and Arabs for the control of Palestine.
Arabs, with hatred and abhorrence for Jews (feelings were mutual though), couldn’t even stand the thought of giving up their land to Jews, to allow them to make their nation. Jews, on the other hand, couldn’t have wished and hoped for a better proposal. But Jews knew it was the time between this declaration and Britishers’ departure that would decide if the UN’s resolution will be realized, if Jews will get their own country. And thus started the preparations for an inevitable war between Arabs and Jews.
Not what the future of Palestine’s impending days held appeared in the streets soon after UN’s declaration. Jews rejoicing the promise of their nation in the streets of Palestine, Britishers joining them, even some Arabs who have been living with their neighboring Jews for years joined the celebration. It was an illusion for some eyes, to witness all the existing communities in Palestine dancing, enjoying and rejoicing at the same place, at the same time and for the same news. But it wasn’t. It undoubtedly was a rare sight but, certainly, not an illusion.
Soon, it all came to an end, never to appear again, ever, on the Palestine’s streets, which soon would be doomed to months of rubble, debris, wounded bodies and stench of deads.
David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, soon after the UN’s declaration, knew what they were heading to. It was a do or die situation, which either will mark the culmination of a community’s two-thousand-years old hope or the death of a community itself.
What the community of Jews wanted was a reasonable wish; to own one’s own country in the world where almost every community has its own. But, since centuries, Jewish are the people who have been the victims of oppression and cruelty. Be it Germany, where millions of them were killed in the horrendous way possible by infamous Hitler, or any other country like Poland and Russia, Jews have suffered, yet, somehow, always survived what could have led to the extinction of a community. And now was the time, Gurion knew, to own what they deserve.
Not that Gurion was unaware of their community’s shortcomings; there were not enough people to combat, not enough ammunition to fight with, not enough funds to buy some, not enough allies they could rely upon for any help, not enough food and water to sustain its civilians in the coming days of war. Everything was against Jews, expect one – their passion and desire to own a country. And today, there, amongst Arabic and Islamic nations, stands Israel, strong and fierce.
Where Jews had nothing in their favor, Arabs couldn’t ask for anything more. Possessor of enough people, enough ammunition, enough funds and enough support (from Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Egypt), Arabs had everything that could possibly be needed to win a war, except one thing – the passion and desire that Jews had. Which doesn’t seem amusing if looked at, as one community involved in the war had its existence and survival at stake and the other had its pride.
As soon as could have been possible, both – Jews and Arabs, got engaged in arranging what they would be needing the most in upcoming days, ammunitions and trained people.
Jew’s community, which wasn’t even half of Arab’s, turned their weakness into strength by not restricting their army to be inclusive of just boys and men. Jewish army had, more or less, as many girls and women as it had boys and men. A man as old as fifty and a girl as young as twelve, played significant roles during the war. There’s a reason why it is said that it took the sacrifice of an entire Jewish generation to bring a nation of theirs into existence.
Golda Meir, another significant figure in the history of Israel, took into her hands for arranging funds and if it weren’t for her, Jews would never have gotten enough of their artillery and ammunitions and, also, the food and water. It was those funds that got the Jewish soldiers their jackets to survive the cold months of Palestine.
But the greatest fear looming over Jews during 1947-1948 was even graver, that was of food and water. There neither were enough sources nor enough funds to get food for the entire Jewish community, including their soldiers, and be stored in warehouses. And those gravest of fears did come true. There was a phase when soldiers were surviving the whole day on a cup of tea and loaves of bread. Civilians were in poorer condition.
Once Britishers left Palestine in May of 1948, and the Zionist leadership announced Israel’s birth along with its independence, the hell broke loose in Palestine. It was not that life was any easier with Britishers’ presence but the situation steeped down to as low a point as possible.
Why is it that wherever English rule ended, it left the bloodshed and massacre behind? It was in India in 1947, then in Palestine in 1948.
The war, without any British intervention, started and so did the death toll. Both the communities used the tactics of threatening the other community of fleeing from their villages and evacuating them, which otherwise would be massacred; many of these produced the desired and required results too. What made evacuation tougher for Jewish civilians was the absence of any other place they could go to. Arabs had the neighboring countries but Jews had none, and thus, even if they wanted, they couldn’t leave.
Lives of civilians became hell living underground and in basements. Constant shelling by Arabs made it impossible for Jews to even move out on streets. Electricity of the Jewish villages was gone for entire nights, as any light would give Arabs the hint of their location, making it easier for them to shell the place. Water, which before was at least enough to sustain, had soon become meager and insufficient to meet even the least of the requirement levels. Children kept on crying of hunger and thirst. The wave of starvation was looming over Jews.
Insufficient meals weakened the Jewish army too. Many, deprived of food as well as sleep, fainted in the battles, which led to Jewish surrenders in many areas. But they fought; they fought, with their blood, sweat and lives, despite every possible hurdle and obstacle.
In fact, there was the mention of a fight in the book which took me by complete surprise. Refugees, who had just gotten away from a concentration camp, were shipped to Palestine. They were the people who had just escaped the tormenting camps in the hope of getting to their Promised Land, Jerusalem. But, to their dismay, they were to become the part of a Jewish force, which was to battle the Arabs. None of those refugees knew Hebrew, the only language the Jewish leader over there knew.
The only enemy that Jews couldn’t win against was time, and here too, time was what Jewish leader was short of. Yet, a resolution was reached upon. Those refugees, now the soldiers, were taught few Hebrew words that would help them to understand the orders of their leader during the battle.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this incident, like many others, as much as surprised me, inspired me too. And this was another element that Arabs lacked – unity. Even Glubb, the British soldier who lead and trained Transjordan’s Arab legion, had said, ‘It makes it terribly difficult to operate a war against an external enemy when you are under the constant menace of hysterical riots by your own people.’
Arabs suffered casualties too. Their civilians suffered too. There soldiers died too.
In spite of having the best of everything they lacked the drive, passion and unity, which eventually led to the loss of their people. If they had not underestimated the Jews, there was no chance that Jews could win and Israel could arise.
Jews were on the verge of surrender, when UN’s intervention saved them and offered them what they lacked the most – time. If it weren’t for a 30-day ceasefire in the June-July of 1948, Israel might not be standing there where it’s today. The moment the proposal was accepted by both the communities, Jews knew they could finally realize their centuries-old dream, and Arabs (some of the Arab leaders who were against accepting the ceasefire) knew they had given their enemy the opportunity of defeating them.
One of the Arab leaders noted – *‘If we could not defeat them when they lacked everything, how can we win when they will have everything.’
And as it turned out to be true, during the pause of those 30-days, Jews got everything they needed. Ammunitions reached Israel, untrained soldiers were trained, Israeli fighter-planes took their first flight, warehouses were filled with food that would last for a long one year. As deprived and weak Israel was before the pause, as stronger it turned into once the ceasefire ended.
And then it was just a matter of time that Jewish army’s organized and proper training got Israel its land. But what Israel wanted the most, Jerusalem, couldn’t be taken by its people. What Jews, mostly, had with them, a plan B in case of failure of plan A, they didn’t have one while fighting for Jerusalem. And absence of plan B made Jerusalem slip out of Jewish hands during the July of 1948.
Finally, UN’s ultimatum got issued to the warring parties in Middle East calling for an immediate and indefinite end to the fighting, which Arabs accepted, and fixed ceasefire in Jerusalem for 5 AM of July 17th, forty-eight hours before it’d take effect in the rest of the country.
And even though only for some time, but the raging fire (the undivided and then divided) Palestine was burning in ceased.
What other name was pondered over for the Jewish state, which other country’s area was considered to have Jewish state on, how and why a new road was created to Jerusalem by Jews amidst the war, were Arabs’ allies its foes, and many other such interesting stories and facts are hidden in this treasure. I was told that reading this book would be one of my biggest investments and I’m glad so was the case. It took me a month to finish it but, in the end, it was worth it.
Though, unlike in “Freedom at Midnight”, I found a few typos in this book. But such minor issues can be overlooked as the knowledge the book provides and the extreme extensive research that must have gone behind writing it surpasses, at least, my uptake.
Another element that I loved about the book was the heading of every chapter. Even though, in some cases, it gave out the crux of the subject matter of that particular chapter, the names of all the chapters were so precise and apt in context of the subsequent content, that they made me realize the significance of headings.
Below statement in the book says a lot,
“‘The Holy Places,’ said the Syrian, ‘are going to pass through long years of war, and peace will not prevail there for generations.’”
– (O Jerusalem!)
A highly recommended book.
https://wp.me/p7GC6G-27z
“None of the men in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry really meant to be taken literally in threatening to ‘drive the Jews into the sea’. But they failed to remember that their foes had just seen six million of their kind driven into Hitler’s oven.”
– (O Jerusalem!)
Some countries fight for their freedom while some, like Israel, for their birth.
I cannot even begin to tell you the gem this book, O Jerusalem!, is. With more than three years of it lying in my to-read section of the closet, it is now, in 2018, that I picked it up, only to finish it with a sigh, a sigh not of relief or soreness, but of admiration, of wonderment.
Not many of us realize the struggle, the sacrifice, the rigor that goes behind building up a nation. You might not realize it, I might not realize it, but, I reckon, there won’t be a single Jew who wouldn’t know what took their nation, their Israel, to come into existence. Why is that? Read “O Jerusalem!”.
History-lovers would love this book, and if you’re not one, mind you, this book might turn you into one.
Israel is a country that came into its being in 1948. But it was at the expense of thousands of lives, months of struggle and loads and loads of passion. What a daunting task it is to own even a small part of land; imagine the struggle that must have gone into owning the land for a full-fledged country. For me, it’s beyond my comprehension.
Now, if the book is about the birth of Israel, why is it named “O Jerusalem”, not “O Israel” or simply “Israel”? A valid question. If Israel was the girl-child, who was intended to be killed by everybody right in the womb of her mother, Jerusalem was its heart; a body cannot survive without its heart, right?
Jerusalem, due to many religious reasons, is considered one of the holiest cities not only by Jews, but by Moslems and Christians too. And therefore, it still is an ongoing debate and, perhaps, an unending struggle to decide who owns Jerusalem, that who has deeper roots in the city, that who can finally claim Jerusalem as their own city – Jewish, Muslims or Christians.
Even though the book doesn’t answer this question, it seems the only and an apt choice to name “O Jerusalem” as “O Jerusalem”.
Now, like “Freedom at Midnight”, this book too spans over the period of a year, here, from November 29th, 1947 to July 17th, 1948.
It all started on 29th November, 1947, when UN declared the partition of Palestine among Arabs and Jews, allowing Jews, who have been struggling for centuries to have their own country, to have their own nation in their part of Palestine, after English rule would end in 1948. This proposal was considered the only wise resolution to the thirty years of struggle between Jews and Arabs for the control of Palestine.
Arabs, with hatred and abhorrence for Jews (feelings were mutual though), couldn’t even stand the thought of giving up their land to Jews, to allow them to make their nation. Jews, on the other hand, couldn’t have wished and hoped for a better proposal. But Jews knew it was the time between this declaration and Britishers’ departure that would decide if the UN’s resolution will be realized, if Jews will get their own country. And thus started the preparations for an inevitable war between Arabs and Jews.
Not what the future of Palestine’s impending days held appeared in the streets soon after UN’s declaration. Jews rejoicing the promise of their nation in the streets of Palestine, Britishers joining them, even some Arabs who have been living with their neighboring Jews for years joined the celebration. It was an illusion for some eyes, to witness all the existing communities in Palestine dancing, enjoying and rejoicing at the same place, at the same time and for the same news. But it wasn’t. It undoubtedly was a rare sight but, certainly, not an illusion.
Soon, it all came to an end, never to appear again, ever, on the Palestine’s streets, which soon would be doomed to months of rubble, debris, wounded bodies and stench of deads.
David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, soon after the UN’s declaration, knew what they were heading to. It was a do or die situation, which either will mark the culmination of a community’s two-thousand-years old hope or the death of a community itself.
What the community of Jews wanted was a reasonable wish; to own one’s own country in the world where almost every community has its own. But, since centuries, Jewish are the people who have been the victims of oppression and cruelty. Be it Germany, where millions of them were killed in the horrendous way possible by infamous Hitler, or any other country like Poland and Russia, Jews have suffered, yet, somehow, always survived what could have led to the extinction of a community. And now was the time, Gurion knew, to own what they deserve.
Not that Gurion was unaware of their community’s shortcomings; there were not enough people to combat, not enough ammunition to fight with, not enough funds to buy some, not enough allies they could rely upon for any help, not enough food and water to sustain its civilians in the coming days of war. Everything was against Jews, expect one – their passion and desire to own a country. And today, there, amongst Arabic and Islamic nations, stands Israel, strong and fierce.
Where Jews had nothing in their favor, Arabs couldn’t ask for anything more. Possessor of enough people, enough ammunition, enough funds and enough support (from Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Egypt), Arabs had everything that could possibly be needed to win a war, except one thing – the passion and desire that Jews had. Which doesn’t seem amusing if looked at, as one community involved in the war had its existence and survival at stake and the other had its pride.
As soon as could have been possible, both – Jews and Arabs, got engaged in arranging what they would be needing the most in upcoming days, ammunitions and trained people.
Jew’s community, which wasn’t even half of Arab’s, turned their weakness into strength by not restricting their army to be inclusive of just boys and men. Jewish army had, more or less, as many girls and women as it had boys and men. A man as old as fifty and a girl as young as twelve, played significant roles during the war. There’s a reason why it is said that it took the sacrifice of an entire Jewish generation to bring a nation of theirs into existence.
Golda Meir, another significant figure in the history of Israel, took into her hands for arranging funds and if it weren’t for her, Jews would never have gotten enough of their artillery and ammunitions and, also, the food and water. It was those funds that got the Jewish soldiers their jackets to survive the cold months of Palestine.
But the greatest fear looming over Jews during 1947-1948 was even graver, that was of food and water. There neither were enough sources nor enough funds to get food for the entire Jewish community, including their soldiers, and be stored in warehouses. And those gravest of fears did come true. There was a phase when soldiers were surviving the whole day on a cup of tea and loaves of bread. Civilians were in poorer condition.
Once Britishers left Palestine in May of 1948, and the Zionist leadership announced Israel’s birth along with its independence, the hell broke loose in Palestine. It was not that life was any easier with Britishers’ presence but the situation steeped down to as low a point as possible.
Why is it that wherever English rule ended, it left the bloodshed and massacre behind? It was in India in 1947, then in Palestine in 1948.
The war, without any British intervention, started and so did the death toll. Both the communities used the tactics of threatening the other community of fleeing from their villages and evacuating them, which otherwise would be massacred; many of these produced the desired and required results too. What made evacuation tougher for Jewish civilians was the absence of any other place they could go to. Arabs had the neighboring countries but Jews had none, and thus, even if they wanted, they couldn’t leave.
Lives of civilians became hell living underground and in basements. Constant shelling by Arabs made it impossible for Jews to even move out on streets. Electricity of the Jewish villages was gone for entire nights, as any light would give Arabs the hint of their location, making it easier for them to shell the place. Water, which before was at least enough to sustain, had soon become meager and insufficient to meet even the least of the requirement levels. Children kept on crying of hunger and thirst. The wave of starvation was looming over Jews.
Insufficient meals weakened the Jewish army too. Many, deprived of food as well as sleep, fainted in the battles, which led to Jewish surrenders in many areas. But they fought; they fought, with their blood, sweat and lives, despite every possible hurdle and obstacle.
In fact, there was the mention of a fight in the book which took me by complete surprise. Refugees, who had just gotten away from a concentration camp, were shipped to Palestine. They were the people who had just escaped the tormenting camps in the hope of getting to their Promised Land, Jerusalem. But, to their dismay, they were to become the part of a Jewish force, which was to battle the Arabs. None of those refugees knew Hebrew, the only language the Jewish leader over there knew.
The only enemy that Jews couldn’t win against was time, and here too, time was what Jewish leader was short of. Yet, a resolution was reached upon. Those refugees, now the soldiers, were taught few Hebrew words that would help them to understand the orders of their leader during the battle.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this incident, like many others, as much as surprised me, inspired me too. And this was another element that Arabs lacked – unity. Even Glubb, the British soldier who lead and trained Transjordan’s Arab legion, had said, ‘It makes it terribly difficult to operate a war against an external enemy when you are under the constant menace of hysterical riots by your own people.’
Arabs suffered casualties too. Their civilians suffered too. There soldiers died too.
In spite of having the best of everything they lacked the drive, passion and unity, which eventually led to the loss of their people. If they had not underestimated the Jews, there was no chance that Jews could win and Israel could arise.
Jews were on the verge of surrender, when UN’s intervention saved them and offered them what they lacked the most – time. If it weren’t for a 30-day ceasefire in the June-July of 1948, Israel might not be standing there where it’s today. The moment the proposal was accepted by both the communities, Jews knew they could finally realize their centuries-old dream, and Arabs (some of the Arab leaders who were against accepting the ceasefire) knew they had given their enemy the opportunity of defeating them.
One of the Arab leaders noted – *‘If we could not defeat them when they lacked everything, how can we win when they will have everything.’
And as it turned out to be true, during the pause of those 30-days, Jews got everything they needed. Ammunitions reached Israel, untrained soldiers were trained, Israeli fighter-planes took their first flight, warehouses were filled with food that would last for a long one year. As deprived and weak Israel was before the pause, as stronger it turned into once the ceasefire ended.
And then it was just a matter of time that Jewish army’s organized and proper training got Israel its land. But what Israel wanted the most, Jerusalem, couldn’t be taken by its people. What Jews, mostly, had with them, a plan B in case of failure of plan A, they didn’t have one while fighting for Jerusalem. And absence of plan B made Jerusalem slip out of Jewish hands during the July of 1948.
Finally, UN’s ultimatum got issued to the warring parties in Middle East calling for an immediate and indefinite end to the fighting, which Arabs accepted, and fixed ceasefire in Jerusalem for 5 AM of July 17th, forty-eight hours before it’d take effect in the rest of the country.
And even though only for some time, but the raging fire (the undivided and then divided) Palestine was burning in ceased.
What other name was pondered over for the Jewish state, which other country’s area was considered to have Jewish state on, how and why a new road was created to Jerusalem by Jews amidst the war, were Arabs’ allies its foes, and many other such interesting stories and facts are hidden in this treasure. I was told that reading this book would be one of my biggest investments and I’m glad so was the case. It took me a month to finish it but, in the end, it was worth it.
Though, unlike in “Freedom at Midnight”, I found a few typos in this book. But such minor issues can be overlooked as the knowledge the book provides and the extreme extensive research that must have gone behind writing it surpasses, at least, my uptake.
Another element that I loved about the book was the heading of every chapter. Even though, in some cases, it gave out the crux of the subject matter of that particular chapter, the names of all the chapters were so precise and apt in context of the subsequent content, that they made me realize the significance of headings.
Below statement in the book says a lot,
“‘The Holy Places,’ said the Syrian, ‘are going to pass through long years of war, and peace will not prevail there for generations.’”
– (O Jerusalem!)
A highly recommended book.
April 16, 2019
Taha Kılınç'ın tavsiyesiyle okudum. Belki de biraz da bu yüzden metnin her tarafına sinmiş Siyonist yanlılığı beni ziyadesiyle şaşırttı. Yine de bilmediğim epey şey öğrendim, inkâr edemem.
Kitabın Türkçe versiyonunda "bakın" kelimesinin "balon" yazılması gibi, herhalde OCR'nin özensiz kullanımından kaynaklı çok sayıda hata mevcut. Ucuz bir kitap değil, merdiven altı yayınevinden de çıkmıyor, bu gibi özensizlikler pek şık durmamış.
Kitabın Türkçe versiyonunda "bakın" kelimesinin "balon" yazılması gibi, herhalde OCR'nin özensiz kullanımından kaynaklı çok sayıda hata mevcut. Ucuz bir kitap değil, merdiven altı yayınevinden de çıkmıyor, bu gibi özensizlikler pek şık durmamış.
May 28, 2020
Por fin me digne a terminar este libro que empecé en el 2016. Lo leí entrecortadamente que siempre creo que es un error. Los primeros capítulos son imperdibles. Esta muy bien escrito e investigado aunque se me hizo tediosa la parte militar y el no ubicarme muy bien geográficamente. Sin embargo el libro es excelente, un gran trabajo de investigación. Lo volvería a leer y aprendí un montón
November 30, 2021
Antes de leer este libro tenía una visión bastante equivocada de cómo sucedió todo, que creo que es la que tiene la mayor parte de la gente.
1º error. La tierra palestina. Se tiende a empatizar con los ¿palestinos? (palestinos son todos, porque esa tierra ya se llamaba así en la antigüedad), creyendo que los judíos les quitaron la mitad de su país. NO. Cuando la ONU hizo el Reparto, judíos y árabes ya vivían allí mezclados y en paz en una tierra ocupada por los ingleses, que antes ocuparon los otomanos (¡ojo! no confundir con los palestinos, que son árabes y se llevan fatal con los otomanos), que antes ocuparon los romanos, que antes ocuparon los judíos.
2º error. Recursos. Se cree que los palestinos tenían cuatro pistolas y los israelíes todo el armamento del mundo occidental. NO. Los palestinos empezaron la guerra con millones de dólares, armamento pesado, terrestre y aéreo y ejércitos regulares y profesionales de Egipto, Siria, Libano, Irán, Irak, Jordania… toda la Liga Árabe. Los judíos, eran agricultores y supervivientes del Holocausto que se formaron ellos solos como militares (hombres, mujeres y adolescentes), disponían de muy pocas armas ligeras (la mayoría fabricadas por ellos), tenían bloqueado el acceso a las armas que compraban con aportaciones de judíos de todo el mundo (los árabes no tenían bloqueo) y no les dejaban llevar armas por la calle (a los palestinos, sí).
3º error. Británicos. Inglaterra no estaba allí poniendo paz después de la 1ª Guerra Mundial. El papel repugnante que jugaron fue la causa del conflicto. Prometieron esa tierra a los israelíes y a los árabes, ayudaron a los israelíes a que la ONU les diera una parte del territorio y luego a los árabes en la guerra porque querían su petróleo. Oficiales británicos dirigían los ejércitos árabes. Permitían la entrada de armas árabes mientras bloqueaban los barcos de los judíos y dejaban a los palestinos llevarlas por la calle mientras detenían a los judíos; rescataban a los palestinos de las emboscadas judías, pero no a los judíos de las árabes; miraron a otro lado cuando el bloqueo de carreteras por parte de los palestinos dejó a la población de Jerusalén y pueblos del interior casi muerta de hambre…
4º error. Judíos y árabes se llevaban a matar. NO. La historia nos demuestra que desde la antigüedad han vivido en armonía (no como con los cristianos). La emigración a Palestina en masa de los judíos ya había empezado antes del Holocausto, habían sido bien recibidos y se llevaban muy bien con sus vecinos árabes, cristianos y de otras religiones. Todo podría haber sido muy diferente si los británicos no se hubieran apropiado de una tierra que no les pertenecía y la hubieran repartido a su antojo (Jordania también fue adjudicada por los británicos a los hachemistas porque les convenía).
El conflicto ha sido brutal para ambas partes, que todavía lo sufren, sobre todo la población civil que, como se cuenta en el libro “Crónicas de Jerusalem” de Guy Deslisle, en clave de humor, no se lleva tan mal como parece. Como siempre, los políticos son el problema.
El libro es bastante denso, la historia está muy bien pero sobran tantos datos de personas que sólo aparecen en un par de páginas y conversaciones textuales que se podrían haber resumido. Las historias personales, que son lo más interesante para ver el conflicto desde el lado de sus habitantes se quedan un poco cojas.
En conclusión, es un libro muy interesante para ver el conflicto desde otra perspectiva y abrir los ojos (el que quiera hacerlo).
1º error. La tierra palestina. Se tiende a empatizar con los ¿palestinos? (palestinos son todos, porque esa tierra ya se llamaba así en la antigüedad), creyendo que los judíos les quitaron la mitad de su país. NO. Cuando la ONU hizo el Reparto, judíos y árabes ya vivían allí mezclados y en paz en una tierra ocupada por los ingleses, que antes ocuparon los otomanos (¡ojo! no confundir con los palestinos, que son árabes y se llevan fatal con los otomanos), que antes ocuparon los romanos, que antes ocuparon los judíos.
2º error. Recursos. Se cree que los palestinos tenían cuatro pistolas y los israelíes todo el armamento del mundo occidental. NO. Los palestinos empezaron la guerra con millones de dólares, armamento pesado, terrestre y aéreo y ejércitos regulares y profesionales de Egipto, Siria, Libano, Irán, Irak, Jordania… toda la Liga Árabe. Los judíos, eran agricultores y supervivientes del Holocausto que se formaron ellos solos como militares (hombres, mujeres y adolescentes), disponían de muy pocas armas ligeras (la mayoría fabricadas por ellos), tenían bloqueado el acceso a las armas que compraban con aportaciones de judíos de todo el mundo (los árabes no tenían bloqueo) y no les dejaban llevar armas por la calle (a los palestinos, sí).
3º error. Británicos. Inglaterra no estaba allí poniendo paz después de la 1ª Guerra Mundial. El papel repugnante que jugaron fue la causa del conflicto. Prometieron esa tierra a los israelíes y a los árabes, ayudaron a los israelíes a que la ONU les diera una parte del territorio y luego a los árabes en la guerra porque querían su petróleo. Oficiales británicos dirigían los ejércitos árabes. Permitían la entrada de armas árabes mientras bloqueaban los barcos de los judíos y dejaban a los palestinos llevarlas por la calle mientras detenían a los judíos; rescataban a los palestinos de las emboscadas judías, pero no a los judíos de las árabes; miraron a otro lado cuando el bloqueo de carreteras por parte de los palestinos dejó a la población de Jerusalén y pueblos del interior casi muerta de hambre…
4º error. Judíos y árabes se llevaban a matar. NO. La historia nos demuestra que desde la antigüedad han vivido en armonía (no como con los cristianos). La emigración a Palestina en masa de los judíos ya había empezado antes del Holocausto, habían sido bien recibidos y se llevaban muy bien con sus vecinos árabes, cristianos y de otras religiones. Todo podría haber sido muy diferente si los británicos no se hubieran apropiado de una tierra que no les pertenecía y la hubieran repartido a su antojo (Jordania también fue adjudicada por los británicos a los hachemistas porque les convenía).
El conflicto ha sido brutal para ambas partes, que todavía lo sufren, sobre todo la población civil que, como se cuenta en el libro “Crónicas de Jerusalem” de Guy Deslisle, en clave de humor, no se lleva tan mal como parece. Como siempre, los políticos son el problema.
El libro es bastante denso, la historia está muy bien pero sobran tantos datos de personas que sólo aparecen en un par de páginas y conversaciones textuales que se podrían haber resumido. Las historias personales, que son lo más interesante para ver el conflicto desde el lado de sus habitantes se quedan un poco cojas.
En conclusión, es un libro muy interesante para ver el conflicto desde otra perspectiva y abrir los ojos (el que quiera hacerlo).
November 23, 2023
Neobyčejně čtivý popis událostí těsně před a po vyhlášení státu Izrael. Popisuje dění v obou táborech, jak Izraelském, tak Palestinském a Arabském. Historie před vyhlášením státu je jen ve stručnosti popsána. Osudy významých představitelů obou táborů se tu prolínají s osudy obyčejných lidí a hrůzy, které tento konflikt přinesl jsou v knize barvitě popsány. Celá toto čtení nastiňuje kořeny nesváru, který trvá dodnes a mnohé z něj napovídá o nekončícím konfliktu. Rozhodně se nejedná o suchopárné čtení, hltal jsem to jako detektivku. Mimochodem tehdejší Československo tu hraje významnou roli a to na obou stranách konfliktu. Knížkou se prolínají autentické černobílé fotografie a zajímavé jsou i stručně popsané další osudy vyznačných aktérů na konci knihy.
June 3, 2012
Classic, must read book, about the struggle and hope that eventually led to the birth of Israel. Rather than crying on who took whose land, it brings out the example of large unorganised & split group one one side and a small but fiercely determined group on the other..........and all the mechanism of pull & push by other western powers. It also brings out the apathy shown by the middle east and arab rulers in coming to the aid of their bretheren........a costly mistake which they can never undo. On the other hand, this book also describes the determination of the jews, who made their dream come true.
April 29, 2019
Primo approccio con Lapierre e con un libro luungo, un saggio sulla formazione dello stato ebraico e sul conflitto israelo-palestinese che, per fortuna, si legge come un romanzo.
Merito di Lapierre è raccontare questo pezzo di storia controverso senza prendere le parti di nessuno, accompagnando i grandi eventi e i grandi personaggi a storie di gente comune suo malgrado rimasta coinvolta nel conflitto.
Merito di Lapierre è raccontare questo pezzo di storia controverso senza prendere le parti di nessuno, accompagnando i grandi eventi e i grandi personaggi a storie di gente comune suo malgrado rimasta coinvolta nel conflitto.
November 9, 2021
About a year ago I read a novel set in partition-era Jerusalem that opened my eyes to this turbulent time period, and I wanted to learn more. That book's bibliography pointed me toward O Jerusalem!, a volume I had seen many times on one of my mom's overflowing bookshelves. It was originally published in 1971, so is obviously not "current," but in its 600 page exploration of a few fateful months in 1948, it feels so timely. It amazes me that we all have opinions on the Jewish/Palestinian problem in modern Israel, yet most of us have only the most pathetically limited understanding of the conflict and its causes and origins. One key piece of the story comes with T.H. Lawrence and the promises made to the Arabs during WWI, and another is the U.N.'s partition of Palestine and the end of the British Mandate in 1948.
Collins' O Jerusalem! is a very thorough iteration of each move on the chessboard by the Haganah, the Arab Legion, the British, the Egyptians, Abdullah of Transjordan, the Mufti of Jerusalem, the Irgun terrorists, and every other player. It pulls the reader in to the gradual strangulation of Jerusalem as the Arabs cut off the road from Tel Aviv, taking the city within days of starvation and the end of their ammunition. It draws you into the frantic effort to acquire arms for the nascent state - will they get there in time, will the rifles and bullets be found by British authorities, will the Jewish refugees from Europe be allowed into the country in time to fight for their new State...??? Much of the book reads like high drama.
What would have made it better? Please, oh please, authors of the world, if you are going to write a book with sooooo many characters with difficult names, have a list that we can refer to, letting us figure out who in the heck we're reading about now! I had the hardest time remembering which people were part of the Arab Legion, which were Haganah, which were Stern Gang, which were Palestinian Muslims, and so on and so forth.
I don't feel qualified to make a call on the objectivity and accuracy of Collins' book, because I am no expert on the time period. As I read the tome I wanted the Jews to have their state, and found myself relieved when the squabbling Arab leaders fumbled their opportunities to "drive every Jew into the sea," so that probably indicates the writer's bias (and mine? I'm not sure, because in general I am pretty sympathetic to the Palestinians). Still, he gave much credit to individual Arabs for daring, initiative, and political savvy.
I absolutely recommend this book for anyone with a persistent interest in Israel's role in the Middle East. There is no way to understand today's messy impasse without knowledge of the state's origins. 4 stars for Collins still-relevant study.
Collins' O Jerusalem! is a very thorough iteration of each move on the chessboard by the Haganah, the Arab Legion, the British, the Egyptians, Abdullah of Transjordan, the Mufti of Jerusalem, the Irgun terrorists, and every other player. It pulls the reader in to the gradual strangulation of Jerusalem as the Arabs cut off the road from Tel Aviv, taking the city within days of starvation and the end of their ammunition. It draws you into the frantic effort to acquire arms for the nascent state - will they get there in time, will the rifles and bullets be found by British authorities, will the Jewish refugees from Europe be allowed into the country in time to fight for their new State...??? Much of the book reads like high drama.
What would have made it better? Please, oh please, authors of the world, if you are going to write a book with sooooo many characters with difficult names, have a list that we can refer to, letting us figure out who in the heck we're reading about now! I had the hardest time remembering which people were part of the Arab Legion, which were Haganah, which were Stern Gang, which were Palestinian Muslims, and so on and so forth.
I don't feel qualified to make a call on the objectivity and accuracy of Collins' book, because I am no expert on the time period. As I read the tome I wanted the Jews to have their state, and found myself relieved when the squabbling Arab leaders fumbled their opportunities to "drive every Jew into the sea," so that probably indicates the writer's bias (and mine? I'm not sure, because in general I am pretty sympathetic to the Palestinians). Still, he gave much credit to individual Arabs for daring, initiative, and political savvy.
I absolutely recommend this book for anyone with a persistent interest in Israel's role in the Middle East. There is no way to understand today's messy impasse without knowledge of the state's origins. 4 stars for Collins still-relevant study.
May 27, 2024
While extremely informative and timely to read in the context of the ongoing war in Palestine / Israel, this is difficult to read. The text is dense with details, and the narrative is regularly bogged down with minutiae. I asked myself continually how the authors could have had information on some of the last thoughts or words of Jews and Arabs whose deaths are recounted and I can only assume poetic license, which undercuts the asserted historicity of the text … I suppose they may also be dramatic reconstructions from known facts.
The type of detail the authors give is also occasionally gruesome, making it even more difficult to read and likely upsetting to many readers.
Other reviewers here have noted a marked level of impartiality or lack of bias, and I would generally agree that the narrative feels balanced and avoids judgment of anyone’s actions except for those few whose motivations were clearly violence and terror for their own sake. However, this does read clearly as a product of its time, the 1970s, with some disfavored spellings and terms that heightened my sense that this is a little dated. I was also surprised somewhat, given my 2020s perspective, by the taking for granted as fact the historicity of Biblical events. Though I am a practicing Christian and also believe those events happened, it was oddly jarring to read in a scholarly work.
Finally, I had assumed this would be a comprehensive look at the conflict in Palestine from the UN-backed partition to at least the Six Days War, and so was surprised to find it covered just the few years immediately following the second World War and the nascence of Israel. Considering how many pages this filled just covering 1947–1948, I can only imagine that a longer book would be even tougher to read—but if the same word count covered both periods I’d be happier.
Extremely helpful to better understand our current global situation, but difficult to read emotionally and practically given the writing’s density.
The type of detail the authors give is also occasionally gruesome, making it even more difficult to read and likely upsetting to many readers.
Other reviewers here have noted a marked level of impartiality or lack of bias, and I would generally agree that the narrative feels balanced and avoids judgment of anyone’s actions except for those few whose motivations were clearly violence and terror for their own sake. However, this does read clearly as a product of its time, the 1970s, with some disfavored spellings and terms that heightened my sense that this is a little dated. I was also surprised somewhat, given my 2020s perspective, by the taking for granted as fact the historicity of Biblical events. Though I am a practicing Christian and also believe those events happened, it was oddly jarring to read in a scholarly work.
Finally, I had assumed this would be a comprehensive look at the conflict in Palestine from the UN-backed partition to at least the Six Days War, and so was surprised to find it covered just the few years immediately following the second World War and the nascence of Israel. Considering how many pages this filled just covering 1947–1948, I can only imagine that a longer book would be even tougher to read—but if the same word count covered both periods I’d be happier.
Extremely helpful to better understand our current global situation, but difficult to read emotionally and practically given the writing’s density.
August 20, 2020
The book is majorly focussing on the Israel war of independence . The struggles of food, ration, electricity and ammunition has been described minutely to give a clear idea of the shortages that Israel was facing in the army. The courage shown is unparalleled and encouraging.
The arab were winning the war till the first ceasefire under the leadership of Abdullah tell and John glubb and how this mistake costed them war and years later Jerusalem. How the ceasefire helped the Israelis and helped them win the war.
The book is majorly showing the Israel side of the story and there struggles with more focus and details. The book helps to understand the initial years of creation of state of Israel and the difficulties. It is complete guide to understand the nation and the controversy still relevant in Palestine
The arab were winning the war till the first ceasefire under the leadership of Abdullah tell and John glubb and how this mistake costed them war and years later Jerusalem. How the ceasefire helped the Israelis and helped them win the war.
The book is majorly showing the Israel side of the story and there struggles with more focus and details. The book helps to understand the initial years of creation of state of Israel and the difficulties. It is complete guide to understand the nation and the controversy still relevant in Palestine
March 25, 2022
Being now in my mid-30’s, I think it is difficult for my generation and those younger to believe that less than a century ago the Jews were still homeless as a people. Though found in many countries, they lacked a country of their own to call home. ‘O Jerusalem!’ by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre then is the story of how the Jews got their own country again.
From the Balfour Declaration in 1917 where the British government committed to a national home for the Jewish people until the official realization of that promise in the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 after the close of World War II and a failed but energetic effort on the part of Nazi Germany to exterminate their race, the simplest summary would be to say that this is a long and complicated story which the beginning of is difficult to precisely define.
When Israel declared herself an independent country again almost three-quarters of a century ago, images and stories from the liberation of concentration camps were still fresh and had shocked the conscience of the world as the Allies reclaimed territory which Hitler’s forces had seized and held for years. As details of what had happened in places like Auschwitz and Buchenwald were released, this undeniably contributed to a receptiveness regarding giving Palestine back to the Jews.
Who could deny that the Jews needed their own country now that the consequences of their perpetually living in foreign lands had now been painted in the starkest, direst possible terms?
The trouble, of course, was that Palestine was already occupied, and its residents and neighbors did not take kindly to the proposed custody transfer.
Resident Palestinian Arabs considered this their homeland. Most of them being Muslims, they objected on the grounds of religious as well as ethnic pride to the Jewish diaspora flooding in from all over the world to stake their claim.
There was then a lot of planning and preparation and maneuvering behind the scenes necessary for those Zionists to ultimately succeed in their bid for a country of their own again. And that planning as well as its execution are outlined here in vivid detail, written in brisk but engaging narrative fashion, conveying the complexity and confusion and tension of this period effectively and fairly so far as I can tell.
For instance, a significant part of Zionist planning and preparation had to do with the British who had effectively controlled Palestine from a governmental perspective since 1917 when they wrested it from the Ottoman Empire.
Winning a final British acquiescence to Jewish statehood therefore required Zionists to engage in a relentless campaign of politicking and appealing to the conscience of the world, culminating first in recognition of the cause at the United Nations in November 1947, with the fact of Israeli statehood being declared officially at midnight on May 14, 1948.
It would seem then that this task was completed decades ago. Yet in a certain sense it is also seemingly never finished.
What is done is done, and yet there is seemingly no end to disputes and disagreements about what has been done, is still done, or what still needs doing. Persuading the wider world that Israel is a legitimate country which has a right to exist and to defend herself has never stopped being a feature of Israel’s condition, even 74-years on.
Arabs for their part have remained largely committed to questioning when not outright denying the legitimacy of Israel, decrying her tireless efforts to establish herself against daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tests of her resolve.
At the same time, Western powers like the United States, Great Britain, and France have vacillated. Support for Israel has ebbed and flowed with the changing of administrations, and the ire of Israel’s neighbors has sometimes been raised, or other times placated, usually in direct proportion to dependence on trade and a keen desire to reduce random terrorist attacks from the most zealous and committed objectors.
Here then we see the Post-World War I and World War II vision and resolve of the global elites tested as fully as it has been tested anywhere.
Weening the people of the world from their fundamental commitments to tribe and nation and creed to the end of securing world peace has proven a thornier problem than was reckoned on the front-end. The standard approach has been to substitute economic interest and increasing secularism for divergent religious and ethnic convictions. Yet this is stubbornly denounced from all sides by those who like their religion and ethnos – and want to keep it, thank you very much.
The story told in ‘O Jerusalem!’ is an ongoing one, therefore. The events of 1948 which resulted in the formation of Israel are still playing out. Here is as an island of Jewish and Western thought in an ocean of non-Western civilization. So what will we do with it? And what do we make of it?
Answering this simple question is complicated by whether we are Jew or Arab or Gentile, and whether we hold the Tanakh, Bible, or Quran to be the true account of who God is and what He expects of us.
So also, how we answer the question for Israel is all wrapped up with how we answer for our own countries and ways of life.
We do well to study and consider, then, since the story of ‘O Jerusalem!’ just goes to show that decisions and plans can be made in an hour, day, week, month, and year which will reverberate for decades, even up to the present and foreseeable future, and often with great and terrible consequences.
For more assorted musings on 'O Jerusalem!' by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, check out this episode of The Garrett Ashley Mullet Show podcast.
https://thegarrettashleymulletshow.co...
From the Balfour Declaration in 1917 where the British government committed to a national home for the Jewish people until the official realization of that promise in the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948 after the close of World War II and a failed but energetic effort on the part of Nazi Germany to exterminate their race, the simplest summary would be to say that this is a long and complicated story which the beginning of is difficult to precisely define.
When Israel declared herself an independent country again almost three-quarters of a century ago, images and stories from the liberation of concentration camps were still fresh and had shocked the conscience of the world as the Allies reclaimed territory which Hitler’s forces had seized and held for years. As details of what had happened in places like Auschwitz and Buchenwald were released, this undeniably contributed to a receptiveness regarding giving Palestine back to the Jews.
Who could deny that the Jews needed their own country now that the consequences of their perpetually living in foreign lands had now been painted in the starkest, direst possible terms?
The trouble, of course, was that Palestine was already occupied, and its residents and neighbors did not take kindly to the proposed custody transfer.
Resident Palestinian Arabs considered this their homeland. Most of them being Muslims, they objected on the grounds of religious as well as ethnic pride to the Jewish diaspora flooding in from all over the world to stake their claim.
There was then a lot of planning and preparation and maneuvering behind the scenes necessary for those Zionists to ultimately succeed in their bid for a country of their own again. And that planning as well as its execution are outlined here in vivid detail, written in brisk but engaging narrative fashion, conveying the complexity and confusion and tension of this period effectively and fairly so far as I can tell.
For instance, a significant part of Zionist planning and preparation had to do with the British who had effectively controlled Palestine from a governmental perspective since 1917 when they wrested it from the Ottoman Empire.
Winning a final British acquiescence to Jewish statehood therefore required Zionists to engage in a relentless campaign of politicking and appealing to the conscience of the world, culminating first in recognition of the cause at the United Nations in November 1947, with the fact of Israeli statehood being declared officially at midnight on May 14, 1948.
It would seem then that this task was completed decades ago. Yet in a certain sense it is also seemingly never finished.
What is done is done, and yet there is seemingly no end to disputes and disagreements about what has been done, is still done, or what still needs doing. Persuading the wider world that Israel is a legitimate country which has a right to exist and to defend herself has never stopped being a feature of Israel’s condition, even 74-years on.
Arabs for their part have remained largely committed to questioning when not outright denying the legitimacy of Israel, decrying her tireless efforts to establish herself against daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tests of her resolve.
At the same time, Western powers like the United States, Great Britain, and France have vacillated. Support for Israel has ebbed and flowed with the changing of administrations, and the ire of Israel’s neighbors has sometimes been raised, or other times placated, usually in direct proportion to dependence on trade and a keen desire to reduce random terrorist attacks from the most zealous and committed objectors.
Here then we see the Post-World War I and World War II vision and resolve of the global elites tested as fully as it has been tested anywhere.
Weening the people of the world from their fundamental commitments to tribe and nation and creed to the end of securing world peace has proven a thornier problem than was reckoned on the front-end. The standard approach has been to substitute economic interest and increasing secularism for divergent religious and ethnic convictions. Yet this is stubbornly denounced from all sides by those who like their religion and ethnos – and want to keep it, thank you very much.
The story told in ‘O Jerusalem!’ is an ongoing one, therefore. The events of 1948 which resulted in the formation of Israel are still playing out. Here is as an island of Jewish and Western thought in an ocean of non-Western civilization. So what will we do with it? And what do we make of it?
Answering this simple question is complicated by whether we are Jew or Arab or Gentile, and whether we hold the Tanakh, Bible, or Quran to be the true account of who God is and what He expects of us.
So also, how we answer the question for Israel is all wrapped up with how we answer for our own countries and ways of life.
We do well to study and consider, then, since the story of ‘O Jerusalem!’ just goes to show that decisions and plans can be made in an hour, day, week, month, and year which will reverberate for decades, even up to the present and foreseeable future, and often with great and terrible consequences.
For more assorted musings on 'O Jerusalem!' by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, check out this episode of The Garrett Ashley Mullet Show podcast.
https://thegarrettashleymulletshow.co...
May 29, 2024
A good book, but man, what a slog. Not to diminish the lives of those men and women who lived through these events, but the book could have been half as long and twice as engaging for me. I read Exodus, by Leon Uris, a few years ago, and felt the same way. Maybe it’s the topic that fails to catch my imagination, or just the long-windedness of both the books I’ve read on the topic.
I did appreciate the balanced tone this book struck, giving what felt like fairly equal weight to both sides of the conflict. I definitely felt much more sympathetic toward the Arabs than I previously have, so I think the authors managed to accomplish theirs stated goals.
Our book club discussion should be interesting. If not heard of this book before it was chosen, and it wasn’t my first choice, but I’m glad I read it. I feel somewhat more informed on the current situation and its historical precedents.
I did appreciate the balanced tone this book struck, giving what felt like fairly equal weight to both sides of the conflict. I definitely felt much more sympathetic toward the Arabs than I previously have, so I think the authors managed to accomplish theirs stated goals.
Our book club discussion should be interesting. If not heard of this book before it was chosen, and it wasn’t my first choice, but I’m glad I read it. I feel somewhat more informed on the current situation and its historical precedents.
April 30, 2024
Describing the events following the meeting of UNSC which voted on division of Palestine into two countries and upto the eventual victory of the Israeli forces, the book provides an excellent primer to understand the passions which govern behaviour of Jews and Arabs in one of the most hotly contested pieces of land on earth — Palestine, and especially, Jerusalem.
War in Gaza today has a lot of history which is not covered in this book but it still helps to understand the foundation of things as well as perspectives of various parties. The unique style of the authors of narrating history like a story which can give fiction authors run for their money makes the book an easy and engaging read.
War in Gaza today has a lot of history which is not covered in this book but it still helps to understand the foundation of things as well as perspectives of various parties. The unique style of the authors of narrating history like a story which can give fiction authors run for their money makes the book an easy and engaging read.
February 28, 2018
Kudüs ve Filistin tarihi ile ilgili dilimizde kaynak eser yok denecek kadar az, bu yüzden bu kitap dünyada olduğu kadar ülkemizde de popüler.
Kitap İsrail'in kurulması ile başlayan dönemi cephe cephe, kahramanların ve olayların duygularını da içerecek şekilde detaylı olarak anlatmış. Bu yüzden benim gibi zor konsantre olanlar için takibi kolay değil.
Kitabın tarafsız bir gözle yazıldığı kanaatindeyim. Tarafsız bir gözle olanları anlamak için iyi bir kaynak eser. Kitap 1972'de yayınlanmış.
Kitaptan çıkarttığım bir sonuç da şu: "sistem" çalışmak ve gayret üzerine kurulu. Elbette ihsan, lütuf var, inkar edilemez. Ancak, ne derler, "istisnalar kaideleri güçlendirir."
Kitap İsrail'in kurulması ile başlayan dönemi cephe cephe, kahramanların ve olayların duygularını da içerecek şekilde detaylı olarak anlatmış. Bu yüzden benim gibi zor konsantre olanlar için takibi kolay değil.
Kitabın tarafsız bir gözle yazıldığı kanaatindeyim. Tarafsız bir gözle olanları anlamak için iyi bir kaynak eser. Kitap 1972'de yayınlanmış.
Kitaptan çıkarttığım bir sonuç da şu: "sistem" çalışmak ve gayret üzerine kurulu. Elbette ihsan, lütuf var, inkar edilemez. Ancak, ne derler, "istisnalar kaideleri güçlendirir."
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