Israel: A History

Overall, this was an interesting and informative read. The book throws a lot of details at you with almost no commentary, but a narrative does arise from the details - and even a biased one (the author is pro Israel and pro a two state solution). Another thing to note is that the book - and especially it's second half - focuses mainly on the Israeli-Palatinain confloct.

I enjoyed this book and felt it gave an honest assessment of what happened over the years in Israel’s quest to live in peace beside her Arab neighbors.

If you read only one history of Israel, this is a good choice. Dr. Gilbert is pro-Israel but he is a professional historian of the generation that took that label seriously. He notes Israel’s significant and numerous failings, but still carefully documents the almost continuous attacks against Jews in that region since before the First World War. Published in 2007, an update would be welcome.

A detailed history of Israel from the hand of the man who wrote one the definitive biography of Winston Churchill. It covers all the bases from the inception of Zionism to the latest conflicts between settlers and Palestinians. Gilbert is Jewish and pro-Israel, but is even-handed in his assessment. This is a work of history, not propaganda, and is the better for it. This book is excellent for those new to Israeli history, but has enough to content even the most astute. All Martin Gilbert's books are worth reading, particularly if one is interested in World War II.

You may have to tell yourself to stay with this one because it's tediously detailed. You'll be glad you did. It provides an important perspective on this unique country and the issues that surround it.

This thorough and thoughtful history of modern Israel manages to angle the highly emotional and often misunderstood regional conflict. We are in a highly polarized and polemecized era when everyone is expected to have an opinion about everything, no matter how I'll informed. No matter where you fall in political viewpoint, you owe it to yourself to situate your beliefs into the historical context that this book provides.

Martin Gilbert takes a complex subject and produces an easy to read overview of the entire history of the modern state of Israel from the events that led to the creation of the Zionist movement up till the 21st century. This book will help provide the essential background necessary for an understanding of the complex state of affairs of the Israel-Arab conflict. This necessary background is often missing in media discussions of this complex issue, making most of these discussions exercises in ignorance. This book turned a proud Jew into an even prouder one. The thought even occurred to me as I was reading this book that if I had not been born Jewish, reading this book would’ve made me wish I had been. Only two relatively small issues made me give this book four stars instead of five. 1. As the story approaches the 90s, the author’s clear bias in favor of Labor and opposition to Likud becomes palpable and makes one wonder if other portions of the book may have been similarly influenced by this point of view. 2. This revised and updated version adds two chapters and an epilogue to the original 1998 publication. However the new chapters begin in the year 2000 with Ehud Barak as Prime Minister while the preceding chapter had ended in 1997 with Netanyahu as Prime Minister. No explanation is given covering the events of this change in government. Even with these minor caveats I would wholeheartedly recommend this book and will seek another source to cover Israel’s history from the 80s till the present time.

I wanted to read the history of Israel because my knowledge as limited to the understanding that "the UN gave the territory to the Jews following WWII" This was completely wrong. The story is much more complicated. After reading this book, I now have a better understanding of the complexity of what created Israel and what maintains Israel. This book is very comprehensive. I cannot imagine another book that could be more detailed. As this book ends around 2008, there is much more about this history that needs to be written and I'm looking forward to an updated edition which goes into recent history of Israel. This book is non-biased. Nothing is sugar-coated. This book is not written to put Israel in a perfect light. Many flaws on all sides of this conflict are exposed. My understanding of Israel and it's neighbors is now much more complete. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to debate Israel and it's position in the world. Without understanding over 100 years of history, you cannot begin to form an opinion on Israel.

読み始めるとユダヤ民族のイスラエルに関する母国としての情熱がひしひしと伝わってくるのに感動した。旧ソ連、東欧での弾圧という理由があったにしろ、移民団は入植してはマラリアにより全滅、また周辺のアラブ人による襲撃にされされ撲殺され続けるが、その勢いが留まることはなかった。そのような記述が前半は延々と続く。 イスラエルが政治の所産と言われるように英国及び諸外国の態度にも入植は大きな影響を受け続ける。 国とは民族とはという大きな問題を考える好機になる対策だ。

A very detailed narrative - still only 3/4 of the way through but so so enlightening and informative - if only more people bothered to read and understand.

Something that most people don't know is how hard Jews worked and fought to legally buy, protect, and cultivate the land of Israel.

I didnt like the way book has been written

This is a very complete history of the modern Israel from the beginnings of the Zionist movement and the settlement among the Arabs, first by purchasing land in Ottoman "Syria" and continuing in the British Mandate from the League of Nations in what was then called Palestine. This latter settlement was confused by promises made by Lord Balfour of Britain to the Jews as a result of pressure and influence from the Rothschild family - that "there would be a home for the Jews in Palestine". At the same time the Mid-East chunk of the disintegrated Ottoman Empire was promised to several of the Hashemite Arabs for their help in defeating the Turks (Allenby, Lawrence and all that). So in this confusion was born a nascent homeland not only by purchase of what seemed useless swamps and desert but a land that kibbutzim cleared, drained and cultivated into a blooming and fruitful success. But it was at the cost of malaria and attacks from Arab Palestinians when they saw the Jews turn the deserts and swamps into a flowering garden of citrus, vegetables and fruits. For millenia the Arabs had created desert where there had been the 'Land of Milk and Honey'. Despite offers to settle the European Jews variously in Madagascar or Mid Africa, nothing would do but Palestine, the cradle of the original Israel and Judah. As they say the rest is history. Despite boasting by the Arabs that they would throw the Jews into the sea, Palestine was partitioned among Jew and Arab and at from that point the Jews had to fight for their survival - and they did, successfully and successively with effect - through the original battle to establish Israel, despite the British turning over most of the forts and equipment to the Arabs, through the 1967 war when, despite all the neighboring Arab States ganging up on Israel, intelligence helped the Jews launch a pre-emptive strike which destroyed the Mig 15s and other arms that the Soviets had provided Egypt. Gaza, large chunks of the Sinai desert, the Negev, the Golan Heights, and most importantly, the West Bank were taken from the Arabs. To this day they form the basis of the Arab threat to destroy Israel. The original Jewish settlers were secular Jews from Germany, Poland and Russia. Ben-Gurion was the outstanding political leader while Moshe Dyan was the outstanding general. The emerging State of Israel has had massive transfusions of cash from the Diaspora, particularly those in America, Britain and Canada. Although Israel has developed a reasonable manufacturing and agricultural economy, its defence could probably not be possible without this external help. Over the years, promises where made that all Jews could find a home in Israel and this promise, in my opinion has led to a serious division between the secular Jews and ultra orthodox groups such as the Hasidic Jews and Sephardic Jews who have religious rigidities that all of Palestine must be part of Israel. In other words, no Arab Palestine State. Further, the voting laws encourage splinter parties and coalition forming, lately a right-wing Likud government depending on ultra orthodox splinters. In other words it is a political mess which does not jibe with attempts at peace agreements, whether international or on Israel initiative. This is a very thorough account of the why and wherefore of Israel. To say the least, it is a thorn in the Arab side, many of whom will not accept its presence and threaten to remove it by terrorism, what is called the 'Initifada' and by groups such as Hamas and the Hezbollah funded from outside Islamic sources, the greatest of which is Iran, which although not Arab, is militantly Muslim and anti-Israel. Retaliation by Israel has sometime4s been unwise from the view of public relations. Because of this public relations battle, Young Westerns often see the damaged hospitals and wounded and killed but do not give adequate credence that the initiation of the terrorism is by Palestinians. As a non Jew, I have nothing but admiration for their courage and tenacity and I fully support the Canadian Conservative positive stance on Israel. .