Middle East Books

I believe nobody can deny the high quality of this book. It is not only about the history of Israel-Arab struggle but also about the history of European diplomacy toward Israel and Arab nations. Professor Sachar classified European political leaders (Adenauer, Erhard, Brandt, Schmidt, Kohl, de Gaulle, Pompidou, Giscard d'Estaing, Mitterand, Chirac, Kreisky, Eden, Wilson et el) into pro-Israel and pro-Arab, and showed how some of them (for example Willy Brandt) had to shift their stances according to situations. But this book also contains some factual errors most of which are trivial. I'd like to point out one thing which seemed to me more than trivial. In page 226 and 227, the author said,"In 1967 a cabal of army colonels seized power (in Cyprus), and held it for the next 7 years in an effort to press through enosis, a union of Cyprus with the Greek mainland. Yet all the colonels achieved for their effort was international isolation and a Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974." But according to 'Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History,' (see page 154-155, 384) the coup occurred in 1974 instead of 1967. Despite this error, this book is too good for only 4 stars.

Howard Sachar has done it again! Like his previous works, he has weaved another great tale. The book goes into detail about Israel's diplomatic efforts vis-a-vis the Europeans. The book deals with such as issues as German Reparations to Israel, European aid or lack of aid in Israel's quest for survival, the furtive German arms sales to Israel of the sixties, as well as relations with the various other European powers. Granted, much of the book is a "cut and paste" from his other books, but still a great effort. Finally, the book shows the "relevance" of German-Israeli relations. During the Gulf War, Hans Dietrich Genscher gave the Israeli's aid in the form of three submarines. One of them, the Dolphin, was just launched. These vessels are armed with nuclear missles. Given that the EU is moving towards forming a separate military command from NATO, and that the EU may become a new superpower, this book's importance should not be underestimated in understanding the future of European-Israeli relations. Undoubtedly, it will be the defining work for years to come on the subject; a masterpiece!

For anyone who is interested in the field largely known as 'holocaust studies', as well as in the middle-eastern conflict, this is a must read. Zertal explores aspects of Israeli nationalism and national identity, tracing it to events in the past (Tel Hai, the death of Y. Trumpledor etc) but also, more centrally to the book's theme, tracing it to more recent historical events such as the second world war and the holocaust.

Her main argument has to do with the close, entangled relation between considerations of the holocaust and the state of Israel. She shows, with a lot of interesting and thought provoking documentation, how this relation manifests itself. The holocaust, she believes, not only informs but actively shapes israeli national identity, and is negotiated constantly within Israeli society, often in the justification of military actions.

A large part of her book has to do with Hannah Arendt's work and the way it has been received (especially in the past, around the time of Eichmann's trial) in Israel. According to Zertal, Arendt has been greatly misunderstood in Israeli society, and her work has been unfairly treated, possibly because it does not 'fit' into the religiously-inspired schema of absolute evil vs. absolute good that is an important construction, serving as a framework to understand the holocaust (and, Zertal argues, Israeli society itself sometimes). Arendt's work moves away from a monodimensional, religious understanding of the Jewish people as eternally doomed to be victims, and this is not, it seems, an easily acceptable argument for parts of Israeli society.

For me, the most interesting part of Zertal's book had to do with the way she thinks about the identity of the victim that seems to be a constant shadow within Israeli nationhood, and the implications of such an identity for Israeli life. Her book, all in all, is an excellent and provocative read, and very imporant in light of recent events.

This is a fantastic book -- it actually starts before the Holocaust with the battle of Tel-Hai and the death of Yosef Trumpledor and touches also on the ghetto fighters, the Exodus affair, the Kastner trial, the Eichmann trial, the 1967 war, and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin -- focused on exploring the treatment of the Holocaust and related issues by the Israeli political elite (especially Ben-Gurion) in their quest to craft an "Israeli national identity." As mentioned, the book touches on a number of different incidents and issues, but the keystone is the Eichmann trial and Hannah Arendt's book "Eichmann in Jerusalem" and the controversy that accompanied it. It is quite clear that Zertal is an admirer of Arendt, and has published on Arendt and her work before. It is well footnoted and very accessable (that is, you don't have to be an academic to really get a lot out of this book).

Here is it July 2006, and Israel is bombing Lebanon "back to the Stone Age" and "respectable" academics are writing anti-Semitic tomes...what a good time to read this small but important and well-documented pamphlet!
In these two serious articles re-printed from other periodicals, Reissner and Frankel take up the critical questions of the very existence of the state of Israel and why it is a deathtrap for Jews.
Reissner, in particular, gives an excellent history of the creation and purpose of Israel as a bastion of European, and later, U.S. imperialism against the Arab states. Frankel's article emphasizes the role of the PLO and the Palestinian resistance in the 1980s. Both articles are extremely helpful in understanding where and why things are the way they are today. If you can't get this pamphlet from Amazon, try books from Pathfinder at the "new and used" button above.

While every minor injury to an Israeli is magnified and exaggerated all over the world, the relentless war that the Israeli colonialists have wages for nearly one-hundred years against the Palestinian people is rarely documented by the dominant media. This pamphlet documents the attacks and harassment, the gestapo-style tactics, that the Israelis used to attempt to crush the uprising of Palestinian youth in the 1980s. That failed, as will any attempt to stop the struggle of the Palestinians until a democratic state with equal rights for Palestinians and Israeli jews replaces the Israeli settler colony.

While this book may not be able on Amazon at times, it is always available from booksfrompathfinder, a vendor you can reach by clicking on new and used higher up this page.

The author provides the reader with an extremely informative and insightful explanation of why we have been unable to achieve peace in the middle east. The book's discussion of both blatant and subtle propoganda is clearly referenced with bibliographies. The years of research and the effort which went into writing this book is readily apparent. The author's style and analytical abilities are indeed commendable.

The book is hard-hitting but readable. The author makes the case that when we assume that those from the Middle East see things as we do, we make a grievous error. Although apparently written before 9/11, he predicts these awful events precisely because we fail to understand the "honor shame" codes of our adversaries. There is a particularly well written chapter (a post-script) about the 9/11 tragedy.

The book is wrenching, in one sense, because when we no longer assume that we have rational negotiating partners in the Middle East, then at least initially, we can expect much continued violence--at least until the various and sundry dictators are removed from office and genuine democratic reform occur in the Arab and Middle Eastern worlds.

This is a beautiful book, but is likely to prove too technical for the average reader. A more accessible, though more expensive, alternative is Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics. Its photographs are just as fine, and its content more extensive and readily understandable.

I love the history details and ceramic ideas that this book provides.

Levine does an excellent job in portraying Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. More than that, he gives the reader a feel for what life was like in the city during that time.

The book is well-written and packed with information. While it is not an exciting read, the 416 pages of text move along at a good pace. The author discusses issues over which scholars disagree, but he never allows his summary of the debates to become bogged down in needless detail.

As a Christian, I found his description of Jerusalem in the first century A.D. to be particularly valuable. The book provided small but valuable insights into the life of the first Christians in Jerusalem.

For background information about the Old Testament post-exilic period and the New Testament era, this book is a gem.

I can't recommend this highly enough to readers interested in the in-depth results of scholarly work on Jerusalem that the average person can understand. Rarely am I so impressed with a book. It is logical, easy to follow and isn't wordy.

It is organized first by date -
Part I is 536 BC to 63 BC (Chapters The Persian Era, the Hellenistic Era, the Hasmonean Era, )

Part II is the Herodian era (to 6 AD, Chapters The Historical Dimension, The Urban Landscape, the Temple and Temple Mount, Jerusalem in the Greco-Roman Orbit: The Extent and Limitations of Cultural Fusion)

Part III is the first century through the Jewish Revolt in AD 70 (Chapters The Historical Dimension, Urban Configuration, Social stratification, Religious Ambience and the Destruction of Jerusalem.

IF YOU ARE PLANNING A TRIP TO ISRAEL OR JUST WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IT THIS BOOK IS A MUST. IT IS EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN WITH MANY ANECDOTES, FOLK TALES, AND LEGENDS. YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE WALKING THE LANES AND ROADS THAT ARE DESCRIBED. THE AUTHOR TAKES YOU INTO THE JEWISH QUARTER'S SYNAGOGUES. SHE ALSO COVERS FAMILY OUTINGS TO PARKS, GARDENS, MUSEUMS, AND THE JERUSALEM ZOO. THE BOOK HAS OVER A DOZEN EASY TO USE MAPS. IT LISTS THE WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE SITES AND RESTROOM LOCATIONS. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT FEATURE FOR A TRAVEL RELATED BOOK. IT WOULD MAKE AN EXCELLENT GIFT FOR ANYONE YOU KNOW THAT IS INTERESTED IN ISRAEL.

This book is an excellent guide to walks in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a city of such intricacy and layers of meaning that it can only be appreciated on foot, but it is so complex that you could walk around on your own forever wihtout really seeing it . Rosovsky takes you by the hand and shows you the courtyards, the buildings made out of pieces of other buildings, the ordinary-looking spots where history happened. Of course, Jerusalem is a prosperous city and the constant construction sometimes throws a wall across your path. Don't let that stop you, just circumvent the obstacle and pick up the tour at the next point of interest.

Jerusalem Walks is a fantastic book for those who are traveling to Jerusalem. Having lived and studied in Jerusalem myself, I am confident in saying that you will have a hard time finding a book that has this much information in a guide book format. The 6 walking tours offer something for everybody, and I can think of no more enjoyable way to get to know the city. The focus of the walks is of course the Old City, but she also offers a couple of walks in Western Jerusalem. I have taken tours all over Israel and Jerusalem, but I have not seen another source offer such a variety and depth of historical and fun information about the turbulent history of Jerusalem. From the Patriarchs to the Romans to the founding of Israel, if it happened in Jerusalem, it is probably in this book.

The city of Jerusalem means so much to so many people. "Jerusalem: A Neighborhood Street Guide" is a closely personal look at the city in its modern state, studying its rich history street by street. The 2,500 streets of the city are listed in alphabetical order; none are left out, and at the end is a full color road map of the city. "Jerusalem: A Neighborhood Street Guide" is highly recommended for community library travel collections and to anyone wishing to visit the holy city.

This is a work of art and love--the author has walked every street in Jerusalem and describes the neighborhoods in detail with maps and photos-
a must for every tourist and resident who wants to tour Jerusalem in depth--the book is now out in English and hopefully will be available on Amazon in paperback--I have a copy--

ps the author is my cousin--American born but emigrated to Jerusalem. Our family was born in Mea Shearim
Jerusalem is a unique historic city--a mix of the old and new--every time I travel there my skin tingles.

The "Kirkus Review" description (quoted as part of the Amazon listing) seems to miss the point. Although historians of both Alchemy and Judaism have been in agreement that the Jewish role in the development and spread of alchemy was either non-existent or tiny, the alchemical texts themselves insist otherwise. The main lines of development have been traced from Hellenistic Egypt, through the Islamic world, and into Christian Europe, with little or no need for Jewish sources or transmitters, and most Jewish historians have been satisfied (or delighted) to agree.

Indeed, in influential writings on the psychological meanings of alchemical symbolism, C. G. Jung went so far as to reclassify the several Jewish alchemists cited and quoted in Alexandrian Greek documents as really Jewish Christians. (He had a theory that transmutation was a material metaphor for transubstantiation, which required a Christian origin before alchemy reached Islam.)

The late Raphael Patai amassed a huge amount of information, including alchemical manuscripts in Hebrew (translated with commentaries herein), and set about to consider the cases of supposed alchemists described as Jewish, and real alchemists supposed by someone to be Jewish, in detail. While many particular instances are unconvincing, the interplay he demonstrates between medicine and alchemy on the one hand, and alchemical and mystical circles on the other, does suggest that at least a minor theme in Jewish intellectual life has been ignored by modern scholarship.

The main problem with the book is that it really requires backgrounds in both Jewish and alchemical studies to follow and judge Patai's arguments. However, to be fair, it does not offer itself as a primer in either subject. You will have to look elsewhere, and there is ample bibliographic information.

A few examples of what it offers:

Harry Potter fans will here encounter the real Nicholas Flamel of Paris (a real man, if not necessarily really an alchemist), and his supposed Jewish source-book for the philosopher's stone. Patai does not seem to me to advance the argument much, but he does demonstrate that the legend is part of a larger body of material about Jewish books falling into Christian hands. He also has some useful comments on the obliviousness of English and European scholars to each other's writings on Flamel, and some deeply embedded errors of translation in English-language treatments.

Patai's argument for a genuine Hebrew original of the "autobiography" of the magician and alchemist "Abramelin" is interesting, but he manages to misrepresent Gershom Scholem's changes of mind on the subject. Scholem, in a note in "On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead" (German edition 1962, English translation 1991; pages 314-315, note 24 to "Tselem: The Concept of the Astral Body"), which Patai does not cite, explains that since first treating it as Jewish in 1925 he had found Renaissance Christian sources for the book's Jewish concepts and post-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. However, it is worthwhile to have Patai's citations of the German version, in addition to that translated from French into English by MacGregor Mathers in 1898 (reprinted some years ago by Dover). (Also, some of A.E. Waite's reasons for rejecting the Jewish origin of the text, in his "Ceremonial Magic," such as the paternal blessing of children and the concept of guardian angels, are actually minor evidences for it!)

There is an interesting, and to my mind inconclusive, reconsideration of some the works formerly attributed to the Christian mystic Ramon Lull (various spellings), and their possible Jewish background.

Working notes of actual alchemists, including a multi-lingual dictionary of instruments and materials which is valuable evidence of cross-cultural influences in several directions.

All in all, a useful book for anyone already familiar with basic works on the history of alchemy, or with an interest in Jewish studies, and a good addition to a library with at least basic collections in both these subjects.

I was very pleased to find that, like Patai's HEBREW GODDESS, this book combines thorough and excellent scholarship with translations of rare sources that are otherwise impossible to find. Patai does not claim the Jewish Patriarchs were alchemists, but in his broad chronological exploration of the topic begins with the historical development of later attributions of the Alexandrian alchemist Miriam by Arabic and other alchemists to one of the biblical Miriams of the New Testament or to Miriam, wife of Moses. The Alexandrian alchemist Mirian, like Cleopatra, was considered by Zosimos and others to be one of the great founders. As one would expect, her identity was eventually attributed to legendary times by medieval practitioners. Her Jewish name implies to Patai and other scholars that the earliest historical Jewish practice of alchemy developed in the heterodox Hermetic and Gnostic schools of Alexandria during the second to fourth centuries of the Common Era. Patai's voluminous research thoroughly explores the Jewish-Islamic stream of alchemy through early and late medieval periods. It provides, for the first time, a basis for students of the Western mystery tradition to understand the Jewish-Egyptian-Spanish esoteric stream that derived from the Pythagorean and Gnostic school of Akhmim near Nag Hammadi and Thebes in Upper Egypt, which indirectly produced such mysterious literary figures as "Abramelim the Mage." A good supplement for Patai's absolutely essential work would be Peter Kingsley's research on the survival of Neo-Pythagroean and Hermetic tradition in Akhmim, from which the Arabic Hermetic scientists, philosophers, and alchemists derived their knowledge.