So near and yet… (left to right) Arafat, Hussein, Clinton and Netanyahu By Ahron Bregman Allen Lane, £25 Ahron Bregman’s new book is an intelligent, critical account of contemporary Israeli history after the 1967 Six-Day War. The conquered territories, occupied and then colonised, became an ideological albatross that has hung around Israel’s neck ever since. … Read more
Surrounded and confounded – Vladimir Jabotinsky (centre) shortly before his death in 1940 By Hillel Halkin Yale University Press, £18.99 This is a revelatory exploration of Vladimir Jabotinsky, “father of the Israeli right”. He has been projected as a colossus by Menachem Begin and succeeding generations of Likud leaders. The Zionist left, aided and abetted … Read more
Menachem Begin: A Life, by Avi Shilon, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2012, xii þ 546 pp., ISBN 978-0-300-16235-6 This book is an English translation of Avi Shilon’s biography of Menachem Begin that first appeared in Hebrew in 2007. Although the author is a journalist with academic interests, this popular work is informed and comprehensive … Read more
P a t r i c k B i s h o p T H E R E C K O N I N G How the killing of one man changed the fate of the Promised Land 320pp. Collins. £20. Avraham Stern was the leader of the “Stern Gang”, or Lehi, and one of … Read more
The October 1973 War Politics, Diplomacy, Legacy Asaf Siniver (ed.) Hurst and Co 331pp £30 DURING THE EARLY afternoon of October 6th, 1973 the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and overran the Israeli Bar-Lev line on the eastern bank. This assault on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, was designed to … Read more
Ari Shavit, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel Published by Scribe Publications, pp. 445. Nearly half a century ago, I chaired a meeting at university in which the speaker was Norman Bentwich. He had been Attorney-General in Palestine during the British Mandate. A passionate Zionist, yet a loyal servant of the … Read more
Stephan E. C. Wendehorst: British Jewry, Zionism and the Jewish State 1936–1956 Stephan E. C. Wendehorst: British Jewry, Zionism and the Jewish State 1936–1956, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, 422 p., ISBN 9780199265305, USD 110,00. This interesting book is an excellent repository of facts and analysis not only about British Jewry’s relation to Zionism … Read more
Herzl Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State Shlomo Avineri Weidenfeld and Nicolson 274pp £20 The Idea of Israel A History of Power and Knowledge Ilan Pappe Verso 288pp £16.99 The founder of the modern Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, was politically active for less than nine years before his death at 44 in … Read more
Author: Simon Schama Publisher: The Bodley Head Reviewed by: Colin Shindler Price (RRP): £25 In his new book, Simon Schama traces the remarkable odyssey of the Jews through the records of ordinary people of the time – from the papyri of the Jewish garrison at Elephantine near Egypt in the sixth-century BC to the collection … Read more
Like Dreamers By Yossi Klein Halevi Published by Harper Collins (New York 2013) pp.584 Everyone’s life is interesting. Excerpts can easily be turned into a soap or a tabloid saga. Like Dreamers follows the lives of several paratroopers, belonging to the 55th Reserve Brigade, who participated in the conquest of Jerusalem during the Six … Read more