A Brief History of Israel (Brief History)
by Bernard Reich
List Price:
Our Price: $21.95
You Save: $27.55 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $20.86 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Bernard ReichEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-30
ISBN: 0816071268
Number of pages: 382
Publisher: Facts on File
Book Reviews of A Brief History of Israel (Brief History)
Book Review: Not bad
Summary: 5 Stars
This book could be considerably better. But it gives me a chance to show that I can be generous, and give five stars to any book that makes a serious effort to inform its readers. This book does that.
Sure, it made me gulp when it claimed that both the Jews and Arabs believed that they "had the right to the entire territory." Um, really? Anyone can see that the Jews saw it as their right to buy land and live on it, not to expel Arabs, while many Arabs appear to have fought for the right to ban, expel, rob, slander, oppress, and murder the Jews. There is a big asymmetry here! And that asymmetry is even greater when one considers the fact that Jews were indeed banned from Saudi Arabia and even Jordan (actually the bulk of the original Mandate!) but still did not consider returning the favor by banning Arabs from their fifth of the Mandate.
The book often misses a chance to show just how greedy many of the Arabs were being in demanding rights to all Jewish land. But it does report on the bulk of Israel's history in a reasonably accurate manner.
One problem one has in discussing the history of Israel is that there are a great many highly dubious Arab complaints about Israel. These complaints are manifested in absurd UN resolutions and in statements to the media. What does one do about it? If one dismisses the most ridiculous accusations, one appears to be taking sides. If one does not dismiss them, one is being misleading, and making it appear that the more outrageous UN resolutions against Israel reflect badly not on the UN but on Israel.
I think the book could have been much better in addressing all this, but it did report the reaction of both sides as soberly as it could, and it did let us readers draw our own conclusions.
One last comment. I know it is a tiny point, far less important than any other, but I simply have to make it. Israel is the only Jewish state. Were the Temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva still in Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), I would have been surprised to see it adorn the cover of this book. If there is a book about France, I expect to see something French on the cover. If it is about Hungary, I expect to see something Hungarian. This book is about Israel, and the Dome of the Rock is not really the most Israeli thing, and certainly not the most Jewish thing that I can think of. Quite the contrary.
I can imagine the reaction that I would have were a book about my country to show some edifice that was not merely of a different people but of a people that were at war with my nation and were bullying my nation. I'd feel provoked. I'd be asking myself if it might be a good idea to tear that edifice down, so I wouldn't be seeing my country pictured this way. And that's a really bad idea.
If I were an Arab, I would still feel provoked. But now, I'd be wondering why, instead of showing that Israel is sovereign over something Jewish, it implied that Israel was sovereign over an Arab edifice! And I'd be asking myself if it might be a good idea to get total sovereignty over the place, so nobody would show it as part of Israel any more. And that is a really bad idea too.
I think this book (and a few others) ought to be faulted not so much for showing this picture, but for showing only this picture on its cover.
History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Will an ethnically Jewish Israel survive the demographic time bomb?
Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on Americaby Yossef Bodansky
Prima Lifestyles; Published: 2001-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops:
Memoirs: David Ben-Gurionby David Ben-Gurion, Thomas R. Bransten
The World Publishing Company; Published: 1970; Hardcover; Book
A land of our own: An oral autobiography,by Golda Meir
Putnam; Published: 1973; Unknown Binding; Book
War Against the Jews, 1933-1945by Lucy C. Dawidowicz
Seth Press; Published: 1986-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Tortureby John Conroy
University of California Press; Published: 2001-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.94
Price in other shops:
A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoplesby Ilan Pappe
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2006-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict Over Palestine, Second Edition (Dilemmas in World Politics)by Deborah J Gerner
Westview Press; Published: 1994-09-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
A Brief History of Israelby Bernard Reich
Facts on File; Published: 2008-06-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.95
Price in other shops:
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peaceby Dennis Ross
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 2005-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaustby Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Vintage; Published: 1997-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The AmericansHoughton Mifflin Company; Published: 2006-01-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $72.00
Price in other shops:
Israel & the Palestinian Territories (Country Guide)by Michael Kohn
Lonely Planet; Published: 2007-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.95
Price in other shops:
Advanced Mathematics: Precalculus With Discrete Mathematics and Data Analysisby Richard G. Brown
McDougal Littell; Published: 2003-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $69.99
Price in other shops:
History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, A (5th Edition)by Ian J. Bickerton, Carla L. Klausner
Prentice Hall; Published: 2006-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $37.09
Price in other shops:
Israel/ Palestineby Alan Dowty
Polity; Published: 2008-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.80
Price in other shops:
The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and ReaderJewish Publication Society of America; Published: 1997-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.18
Price in other shops:
Securing the Covenant: United States-Israel Relations After the Cold War (Contributions in Political Science, No 351)by Bernard Reich
Praeger Paperback; Published: 1995-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.95
A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Timeby Howard M. Sachar
Alfred A. Knopf; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
The Israel-Arab Reader : Documentary hist Middle East Conflict 6TH rev Updated Editionby Walter Laqueur, Barry Rubin
Published: 2001-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.30
Price in other shops:
The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land, Updated in 2008 for the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of Israelby Donna Rosenthal
Free Press; Published: 2008-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.11
Price in other shops: