O Jerusalem!

Critics have called O Jerusalem! "massive" and "epic" in regards to its number of pages, but the scope of its topic O Jerusalem is singular: the year 1948. The year in which British rule ceased in Jerusalem and Arabs and Jews picked up their generations-long battle over the region. Written in four parts beginning with November 29th, 1947 to December 20th, 1947, O Jerusalem opens with the General Assembly of the United Nations voting in favor of partitioning Palestine. Joy and dismay alike reverberate through the ancient land. For this is a fate Jewish Jerusalem had prayed for for over two thousand years. That fact alone is staggering. Think of how many generations have lived through this struggle! Their joy reminded me of the Red Sox show more winning the pennant after 84 years, "Uri Cohen, a biology student at Hebrew University, happily kissed his way from his home to the city center" (p 42).
This reads like a adventure novel. You get to know people (Uri Cohen will come back again, not as happily). As a reader, you will crawl into their lives and almost get inside their heads. This may be massive and epic but you'll hang on every word. show less

L’articolo 15 della Carta dei Diritti dell’Uomo recita: «Ogni individuo ha diritto ad una cittadinanza.» Sembra scontato, banale: il solo nascere in un Paese, ci dà diritto alla cittadinanza, e, bè, tutti nasciamo da qualche parte!
Eppure non sempre è così, a volte la cittadinanza viene scelta da qualcun altro che, seduto intorno ad un tavolo, prende una decisione sul destino di milioni di persone.
Il 29 novembre 1947 i rappresentanti di 56 paesi membri delle Nazioni Unite si riunirono nei pressi di New York per disporre della sorte della Palestina. All’indomani delle atrocità della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, si avvertiva l’esigenza di trovare una ”sistemazione” agli ebrei, che da 2000 anni vivevano dispersi nel mondo, show more impossibilitati ad integrarsi davvero.
E così si scelse per loro la Palestina, la Terra Santa, la terra che Jahwè aveva dato in dono al popolo eletto. La terra che da secoli, ormai, era abitata dagli arabi, che la consideravano casa loro.
Gerusalemme, Gerusalemme! di Dominique Lapierre e Larry Collins racconta le sanguinose vicende che hanno accompagnato la nascita dello Stato di Israele, che oggi vive ancora un presente di guerra e dolore.
E le vicende più drammatiche si concentrano naturalmente nella sua capitale, Gerusalemme, i cui abitanti, che non sono santi, devono scontare il fatto che invece la città lo è.
Per loro, allora come adesso, è necessaria l’invocazione del salmo di David: «Domandate pace per Gerusalemme: sia pace a coloro che ti amano, sia pace sulle tue mura, sicurezza nei tuoi baluardi.» (Sal 121,6-7)

http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileggere/145 show less

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: O Jerusalem!
Series: ----------
Author: Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 745
Format: Paperback Edition

Synopsis:

A brief history of the events leading up to Britain's departure from the Holy Land in 1948 and the war for survival that Israel then fought against 5 Arab countries.

Taken from newspapers, private journal entries, interviews, government documents, Collins and Lapierre weave a narrative of show more courage, horror, bravery, cowardice, ingenuity and turn what could have been a dry recounting by the numbers of the birth of a modern nation into something that had a face of its peoples.

My Thoughts:

My, my, what a good start to my first dedicated foray into non-fiction. I'd read this back in 2000 and just remembered that I'd really enjoyed it then. I thoroughly enjoyed it again.

I also enjoyed reading about events from both sides, both Israeli and Arab. Getting accounts from both sides allowed the authors to delve a lot deeper and to make connections that wouldn't be possible without that knowledge. They also don't fall into the trap of worshiping one side and demonizing the other.

That being said, they also don't pull any punches. The Moslem Brotherhood is shown for the terrorist group it is. Anyone who watched the events of the Arab Spring in Egypt a couple of years ago will know their name. They're as “moderate” as Hillary Clinton and President Obama. The authors also show how a splinter group of the Israeli military (the Stern Gang I think?) tried to pull a coup and caused the official army to have to fire on its own people, WHILE THE WAR WAS GOING ON.

It is amazing how politics played such a huge part. For all that the Arab leaders were talking publicly about wiping Israel off the face of the earth, privately they were dead set against such a war. But they wouldn't keep their mouths shut and their people were ignorant savages and when you get that kind of combination, well, you get war.

There were very few footnotes or anything, but at the end of the book were almost 30 pages of sources and each chapter had its own little heading showing what sources were used to substantiate the chapter. Made me feel much better and that the authors weren't pulling rabbits out of hats.

★★★★½ show less

An extraordinarily well-made and well-written history of the 1948 Arab-Israel war. Thoroughly researched, the book describes in detail both sides of the conflict; what was happening behind the Israeli lines as well as that which was occurring behind the Arab lines with startlingly little bias. Like an Ambrose book, the large-scale stories of cities and countries are intermixed with personal stories of the individuals who populate them. While the book's size and weight may be intimidating, it remains fascinating from start to finish. "O Jerusalem!" is a must read for anyone interested in the modern history of the Israelis or the Arabs.

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.

Our present is the projection of the past and our future shall be determined by our actions of today. We all are disturbed by the conflicts of Israel and Philistine and wonder why they can't stop fighting and start living peacefully. If you wish to know why that is not possible, read this book to know how the modern Israel was born. O Jerusalem is a wonderful book written after years of research in totally unbiased manner. I believe that history should be read with the view to know the psychology and culture of a nation or a race. Read this book to know the Jews and Arabs mindset and the challenges of their peaceful coexistence.

Covering the first half of the twentieth century sketchily and then the first thirty years of the Israel as a nation this book is exciting informative and reasonably balanced.
Much of what is written here has been eclipsed by the subsequent thirty years yet the death of Rabin and the intifada, the rise of Hamas cannot be appreciated unless the earlier history is known.
Sadly, this is not an uplifting story and it is hard not to be pessimistic about peace in the Middle East.
James Pope