Middle East Books

David Rubin's God, Israel, and Shiloh tells the often painful, yet at times heroic saga of the Jewish People's return to its ancestral land, despite the bullets of Islamic terrorism and Israel's internal struggles. David's personal story of return to his roots was fascinating to read about, as was his breathtaking, frightening description of the terror attack in which he and his young son were wounded. He tells the story of the return to Israel's heartland through the eyes of Shiloh, Israel's ancient capital that has come to life again in our times, but much of his very human and perceptive analysis of that idealistic process of return could very well have been written about the Zionist movement as a whole. I especially enjoyed the sharp political commentary in the last two chapters, which clearly sets before us the challenges for Israel and Western civilization in the age of Islamic terrorism. This book is absolutely required reading for those who want to know the truth behind the headlines and distorted news reports.It's the best book I've ever read about Israel!

While in Israel May of 2006, I was privileged to meet David Rubin in Shiloh. This book embodies his passionate ideologies, his hopes and his heart for exactly what the title states: "God, Israel and Shiloh!"
You will finish it with out the confusion gleaned from the tainted media perspective. Instead, you will be informed concerning many things regarding the history of Israel and the present day settling of Jews from around the world as well as why bombs fall while so-called peace agreements are made. You will understand the geographical names of the places spoken of in the press. Your heart will be touched by the effects on the children in an area riddled with terrorists and their activities. David Rubin is a man to be trusted in all that he writes. He will personally introduce you to his very real world where all of the above is part of his day to day experiences. Next to meeting him and standing with him on the hills of Shiloh, this is the next best thing for he will take you on a journey that will leave you thinking you have been there....or....cause you to want to go!

"God, Israel and Shiloh" is by far the finest work that I have ever read that encapsulates the story of Israel and her people, from the Biblical to the modern. The author does a phenomenal job of explaining the history without making it "dry", the face of Islamic terrorism, including him and his son being shot yet done without sounding "biased", as well as explaining a great deal about Jewish beliefs and customs. Numerous books have been written on all of these topics and somehow the author has managed to roll them all into one amazing read! A must for anyone that desires to know more about any of the three subjects!

Given that I am a verteran guitarist and a recent student of the oud I was thrilled to see someone put out a book that looked at middle eastern music from a traditional context while applying it to the guitar! This certainly has made it easier to understand some of the techniquest around the music and how they are applied to both instruments. This gendre of music is quite technical and has its challenges when played on the oud, but for the guitar it becomes even more of a task to transcribe! It was a task that was accomplished here! The CD is excellent and the book's notation and coverage of the material is superb! I Highly recommend it!!!!

"At first I was skeptical but after reading the book and playing the examples I must say this is a must have for guitar players looking to get exposure to arabic music."

I couldn't agree more. This book has just the right amount of theory and musical examples to present the flavour of middle eastern music. In fact, it is much more comprehensive than you'd expect from it's slim size (48 pages). I was particularly delighted to find several full musical pieces - I had feared that the book would just be a catalogue of scales, modes and "licks". There's very little to complain about here - though I would have liked to see more examples of the use of microtones (not emphasized because of the difficulties of adapting these to the modern guitar).

Being an oud player as well as a guitar player I was exited to see a book on playing maqam on the guitar. At first I was skeptical but after reading the book and playing the examples I must say this is a must have for guitar players looking to get exposure to arabic music. The cd that comes with it is made up of all the examples in the book but it also is great to listen to for pleasure. I dug Jeff Peretz' other book "Zen and the Art of Guitar". I look forward to his next.

An essential feature of any historical work is the selection ofsources one wishes to present as an argument. The role of memory and access to history, that is public access to 'other' histories, is an area of much contention in the contemporary world. What I most enjoyed about this book is the authors have not shied away from commenting on earlier critiques of the proposed Smithsonian display, involving the restored fuselage of the Enola Gay. What was shameful about the ensuing debacle, I believe, was the attempt to discredit the further development of an alternate memory given 50 years had passed since the atomisation of Hiroshima. After all, was it not possible to show an American and Japanese view of the closing months of the Pacific War, regardless of who the victor was? It is critical to understand that Australians, let alone Japanese, cut a different slant on the way we interpret history, particularly that of Pacific War history. I believe we are richer for the experience.

But, of course, an alternate memory has developed, yet it is often dismissed by the euphemistic expression, 'historical revisionism'. This appears to be some sort of code for 'this sort of history is not acceptable to the conservative elements in contemporary American society, certainly much less to those who actually witnessed combat in the Pacific'. By virtue of fact, it has no legitimate place among orthodox histories. All history is subject to revision, for the simple reason new facts become available and each generation chooses to impose it's own standards. This is certainly the case with Hiroshima. But this shouldn't be construed as 'wrong' or a 'threat', rather it adds to the debate and formation of ideas which underpin the importance of Hiroshima and historiography. Context retains an essential place.

However, for those of you interested in the importance of historicity, of debate, and value the idea of an education as opposed to acccess to information, I cannot recommend this book enough. It has it all. Needless to say Hiroshima touches a raw nerve both in Japan and America. It also has much currency in Australia. So I do not in any way set out to discredit the efforts of those men and women who gave their services to the state during WW2. I do, however, recommend that prospective readers keep an open mind and try avoid getting caught up in the limited rhetoric of the conservative right and the emotional left.

The bombing of Hiroshima was one of many horrific events that occurred in World War II and in human history. World War II was a pivotal time, and only in the present are we able to look back and reflect on the event with a critical eye. Michael J. Hogan's HIROSHIMA IN HISTORY AND MEMORY provides a collection of essays by cultural and diplomatic historians who analyzed the bombing of Hiroshima based on unclassified documents and past commentary that emphasized the how and why the bomb was dropped. Although this historiographical collection is considered revisionist scholarship, it is by all means essential in order to understand the complicated decision that President Truman had to make in dropping the bomb, and the effects it has had decades after.

Several essays reflect on how the bombing has affected commemoration of the event. Without a clear understanding of Hiroshima from both Americans and Japanese, one cannot equally or fully commemorate or represent the bombing of Hiroshima. The essays in HIROSHIMA AND HISTORY AND MEMORY attempts to present the facts within each essay, and each historian, such as J. Samuel Walker, John W. Dower, Barton J. Bernstein, and a host of others emphasize that the decision to drop the bomb and end the war did not only involve justifying saving military casualties, but the fear of an imminent power on the rise -- the Soviet Union (despite their position as an allie at the time, their possible invasion would have helped the Japanese surrender).

HIROSHIMA IN HISTORY AND MEMORY examines basic history as it pertains to the bombing of Hiroshima. The essays are readable and understandable. The events that occurred in August 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are two major historical events that continue to be a discussion of debate.

as far as hiroshima books go. this was the best one i found. i was writting a piece of history coursework on this travesty and this book not only gave me historians views but in the essays they mentioned other historians and their views!! it looked at this event from many different angles and managed to be interesting, factual and collectively unbiased throughout. very thought provoking.

Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan gives a panoramic view of Turkmenistan's past and kaleidoscopic vista of its present. It provides valuable information on important personalities, dynasties, institutions and events. It also gives a clear perception of the Turkmenistan culture, economy, geography and politics. The introduction, chronology and bibliography of selected publications on Turkmen state and society will definitely help researchers, students and general-public.

While other Central Asian countries opened themselves to the world with the end of the Cold War - and the War on Terror even brought them to the center of international attention - in many respects Turkmenistan still remains the terra incognita. Abazov's Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan starts unleashing the country's mystery and potential.

Trained as historian in the Soviet universities and with solid exposure to Western scholarly methods, Dr. Abazov brings best of the two worlds to this concise yet comprehensive volume. Beyond the dictionary's 300+ entries is the portrait of vibrant society, which - due to a combination of internal weaknesses and external rivalries - felt victim of tyranny and international neglect. Very informative and equally well written are historical entries covering various (pre-Russian, Russian & Soviet, and present) periods of Turkmenistan's history. It helps that the dictionary is accompanied by detailed chronology of events in the country's history, as well very useful reader's notes.

One could argue about the choice of extensive biographical entries of the appointed officials of today, while omitting or offering scant references about individuals, whose lifetime contributions to Turkmen culture and society are much better known and proven. Among the latter is the preeminent duo of Kayghisiz Atabaev and Nedirbay Aytakov, who have led Turkmenistan's political consolidation, as well as Shaja Batyrov and Balysh Ovezov - the `architects' of the country's industrial modernization. Just as transformative were contributions to the Turkmen culture by such larger than life figures as composer Veli Muhatov, artist Izzat Klychev, film producer Alty Karliev, writer Kerim Kurbannepesov and many others.

Nevertheless, Dr. Abazov deserves full credit for embarking on and successfully completing such challenging scholarly mission. As the West have learned the hard way not to discount strategic importance of even the farthest and most obscure nations, his dictionary is a must-have reference for anyone interested not only in the region, but in the history to come.

I highly recommend this first historical dictionary available in English, on Turkmenistan. This dictionary offers a concise overview of the Turkmen history, including an impressive chronology of its major political, social, historical and cultural events. The book is a must read for students interested in Turkmenistan and Central Asia, researchers and development practitioners that are planning to go to this country. The book also contains a wealth of statistical data on Turkmenistan, and the most comprehensive bibliography available on this country. I highly commend Prof. Abazov's book for his pioneering contribution to development of the Eurasian studies.

Ayatollah Rouhallah Khomeini and Vladimir I. Lenin were on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding religion. Khomeini demanded that the masses live by it and Lenin considered it an opiate for the masses. And yet, these two men had much in common. Both were revolutionaries, dedicated to the overthrow of a monarchy they despised and were successful in doing so. After they rose to power, each tried to export their revolution, causing their country to be diplomatically and economically isolated. Khomeini and Lenin both possessed a single-minded devotion to their cause, and they were ruthless in maneuvering to have anyone who could oppose their leadership eliminated.
The last third of the book is devoted to the revolution in Iran that brought Khomeini to power and the aftermath and I was riveted as I read through the pages. I watched the revolution on television as it unfolded so most of the names and events were familiar to me. Like so many political figures who are reviled outside their nation, Khomeini was a political genius, very much under appreciated for his ability to garner and maintain support, even in the wake of disasters.
The incompetence of almost every other force in the Iranian revolution is also described in great detail. The Carter administration was positively schizophrenic in dealing with the Shah, one section strongly trying to prop him up and others criticizing him for the massive human rights violations under his rule. However, I cannot put all of the blame on Carter. The American intelligence community was a pathetic failure. It appears that no one anywhere in the American government considered the revolution any threat to the Shah until the very end. This same community stated without qualification that Saddam Hussein possessed massive amounts of weapons of mass destruction before the second gulf war and failed to anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union. At least in those cases they could make a plausible argument that those were closed societies so that it was hard to obtain any information one the ground. However, given the enormous American involvement in Iran under the Shah, their lack of real knowledge about the country is inexcusable. I consider this to be the greatest American intelligence failure of the last half-century.
The Shah himself proved to be very weak, quite likely due to his illness. At the time, he was suffering from the cancer that took his life a few years later. Therefore, as Daniel emphasizes, this illness may have been the root cause of his vacillation when only strong actions could prevent chaos. In the end, he simply could not bring himself to order his army and secret police to kill the tens of thousands of people that would have had to die to put down the revolution.
While Iran/Persia has a history going back thousands of years and the early events are important in learning why Iran is the way it is, the really interesting events occurred in the last one hundred years. Slightly less than half of the book is devoted to the history of Iran before the twentieth century and Daniel does a good job in setting the historical, ethnic, religious and geographical background of Iran and the neighboring countries. The rise of Shah Mohammad Pahlavi from the ashes of his father's being forced by the Soviet Union and Britain to abdicate when they occupied the country in the Second World War are the beginnings of one of the most amazing historical events of the twentieth century.
When he regained the throne after the war, the Shah was faced with enormous problems, the worst of which was a country severely fragmented. There are many different ethnic groups in Iran and at the time, the primary loyalty that most had was to their tribe rather than to the central government. The Soviet Union had occupied the northern regions and as they were active in promoting the Tudeh or Iranian communist party. Therefore, the Shah not only had to assert the authority of the central government, but he also had to deal with the Soviet Union and Britain, convincing them to withdraw their troops and adopt a policy of minimal interference. I was impressed with Daniel's descriptions of these events. In navigating around all of these potential problems, the Shah showed a level of geopolitical acumen that few people give him credit for. At a time when Joseph Stalin was ruthlessly taking control of the Eastern half of Europe, China had fallen under communist control, and North Korea was preparing to invade South Korea it is amazing that the Soviet Union largely left Iran alone. Unlike so many other Islamic areas, the Tudeh was strong in Iran, probably strong enough to have taken power with a small amount of Soviet assistance. Given that access to a warm water port had been a strategic goal of the Russians from the days when they first entered the Caucasus region, and control of Iran would have given them that goal, I will never understand why Stalin didn't orchestrate a communist coup in Iran.
However, the price that the Shah had to pay in order to maintain independence was very high. The British oil concession was one of the most one-sided in the history of the planet; it is unbelievable to read the numbers on how little was actually paid to the Iranians for their oil in 1950. Since the Shah also could not unilaterally keep the Soviets out, he relied heavily on Western help, which allowed the opposition to paint him as a puppet. All this led to the assumption of power by Mohammad Mosaddeq, who reduced the power of the Shah and embarked on a policy of nationalizing the Iranian oil fields. This is another area where Daniel is excellent in his descriptions of the events and their causes. A counter-coup, supported by the American CIA and British agents, overthrew Mosaddeq and restored the Shah to power. In the intervening years, Mosaddeq has been rehabilitated into a man who led a popular coup and was cynically deposed by the CIA. That is false, Mosaddeq did a lot of stupid things while in power, showing none of the Shah's innate understanding of political realities. In the end, the coup that removed him from power was a popular one and the CIA had to do very little to aid the forces that restored the Shah. It was gratifying to read the truth about Mosaddeq.
In closing, this is a book that should be read by anyone who wants to learn about Iran. It has been stated that it is a rogue state and one of the three members of the "Axis of Evil." While that is a debatable point, Iran is one of the most complex countries in the world, and there are no easy answers to any approach to interacting with their leadership. This book does not have all the answers, but it has enough of them to make it a very valuable resource.

Elton Daniel's brief history of Iran may be the most sober, realistic analysis of contemporary Iranian history in print. His sober assessment of the Islamic Republic's present and near future bears close scrutiny, and is far less optimistic than Robin Wright's. Yet it is also a fine introduction to Iranian history from prehistory to the present. Among its finest chapters are those devoted to the ancient Persian Empire of Cyrus and Darius I, the Parthians, medieval Persian history, and the early modern history of Iran through the rise of the Qajar Dynasty. Yet, as I pointed out earlier, it is most noteworthy for its coverage of recent Iranian history. Students of Iranian history and of the Middle East may find this essential reading.

This books excels in its intention: to provide a useful history of Iran. It guides without browbeating, informs the reader without opining the reader with extra epithets, and just generally equips the reader to understand the context of modern developments in Iran. Now I understand what it means when I read that Aminejad is an unknown but conservative backer of the Islamic Revolution, and that is something that I would not have without this book. If you want to understand Iran, this is an excellent tool.

I read an old edition of this years ago. It's nice now to have my own copy.

I wish this book will soon available in your bookshelves coz I really look for this book for ages and none bookstores yet sell the books. I've read some about Thomas Stamford Raffles and really adore the way he rules, and how he could be a Governor General in Java while he was still young, a great leader should not always come from a noble family! I have similarities to his life story.

It is doubtful that any contemporary official could write such an elegant and comprehensive work. Raffles not only left his post as Governor of Java, with the routine reports, but an analysis of the culture and languages. In his dedication to the Prince Regent he stated: "To uphold the weak, to put down lawless force, to lighten the chain of the slave, to sustain the honour of the British arms and British good faith; to promote the arts, sciences and literature, to establish humane institutions, are duties of government... I have had the honour, as a servant of the East India Company, to preside over a mild and simple people ... and by doing everything in my power to make them happy."
This is an artifact of the British Empire at its finest.

Runciman gives a comprehensive, panoramic account of the Crusades, from the unlikely success of the First Crusade to the final, inevitable defeat of the Crusading movement. He analyzes the reasons for the success and the causes of the ultimate failure of the Crusades, and therein lies a lesson for modern times.

Runciman speaks of the many causes of initial victory and ultimate defeat, and catalogs the grievous injuries to all concerned resulting from the Crusades. His analysis is sobering, and some of it is not inapplicable to the current state of affairs in the Middle East. The Crusader States were looked on by the native Moslems as interlopers to be driven into the sea. That final victory was achieved, but at what cost? Given the fiat accompli of the First Crusade, and the centuries of existence of the Crusader States, couldn't they have achieved a modus vivendi which, if not completely satisfactory to either side, at least allowed the parties to live in harmony without doing further mischief to each other. If all sides of the current conflict in the Middle East would read this book, it might expedite the peace process.

Runciman was a genius. A brilliant writer in English, whose grand ambitions never lead him astray from the most meticulous separation of fact from speculation, he was also an extraordinary polyglot. He read not only the Latin, Old French and Greek among the contemporary accounts of the Crusades, but the Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Hebrew, Gergian, Ethiopic, Slavonic, Norse and Mongolian as well, not to mention modern secondary works in many more languages still. If he shows any favoritism at all among the warring factions of the Crusades, then it is towards the Byzantine Greeks, although what looks like favoritism to me may only be due to my own ignorance. Even if I'm right about his favoring the Greeks, Runciman is still by far the most impartial historian of the Crusades known to me. He's certainly the only one who took the trouble and had the talent to read all the sources in the original. (Most people who've read widely in more than one language can probably appreciate how much tends to be lost in translation, not to mention how much is never translated at all.) As if his reading weren't enough, he often walked through the cities and over the battlefields which he describes in his works, in order to discover things which no one had yet written.

Runciman makes sweeping judgements and expresses strong opinions, although these are often decently hidden between the lines of his polite Cambridge prose. But all of his judgements and opinions have the support of the most solid scholarship.

I recommend the three-volume 'History of the Crusades'. The book 'The First Crusade' is an abridgement of the first volume, without footnotes or appendices or bibliography. In addition to the the three-volume history, I also have a copy of the abridgement 'The First Crusade', but it's the illustrated hardcover edition, ISBN 0521232554. I got it just for the pictures, many in color. The three volumes of the 'History of the Crusades' have a few black-and-white illustrations, and the paperback edition of 'The First Crusade' has no illustrations.

In the first instalment, it was all Christian uphill; in the second, there was the Arab renaissance. If Runciman were a novelist the Christians might do better in this one; as he is not, it is virtually downhill all the way for the Crusaders: indeed, apart from a brief growth spurt under Richard the Lionheart they suffer humiliation and worse. Humiliation in the sense of total expulsion from the Holy Land; "worse" in that the Fourth Crusade degenerates into the Sack of Constantinople - which Runciman condemns as one of the greatest crimes in history.

On another level, this is the "Celebrity Crusaders'" edition - not only does this feature Coeur de Lion, we also meet Saladin, Edward I of England (Braveheart's villain), Emperor Frederick II (Stupor Mundi) and Saint Louis (Louis IX) of France - plus a cameo from Ghengkis Khan. But, at the close of two centuries' worth of defeats, the verdict is delivered in the closing chapter, where Runciman denounces the entire crusades as a colossal "fiasco." Maybe so, but a terrific story.

If you must read only one book on Zionism, let this be it. Walter Laqueur, internationally renowned historian, has created a masterpiece that has stood the test of time (it was originally written over 30 years ago!), and has become one of the standard works on the subject, alongside Shlomo Avineri's The Making of Modern Zionism and Hertzberg's The Zionist Idea.

The book is exactly what it says it is-a history of Zionism from the French Revolution to the establishment of the State of Israel, making use of a wide range of primary and secondary sources in various languages.

Laqueur gives a rich and penetrating description of the Jewish communities in both Western and Eastern Europe, describing the various forces that tugged at the Jews during this period - anti-semitism, an increased desire to assimilate on the one hand and a growing sense of self-pride in Jewish heritage on the other. It was against this background that Zionism burst onto the scene in the late 19th century.

Laqueur gives an interesting, at times funny and at times tragic, of the Zionist movement and its members as they struggled to achieve their goals of Jewish self-determination in the former Land of Israel against great odds, sometimes achieving great success (the Balfour Declaration), and sometimes facing disasterous crises (the Holocaust and the destruction of European Jewry). Laqueur demonstrates that all this was done while the Zionists were a minority, with a largely indifferent and even hostile Jewish community in some countries (especially in Britain and Germany, although they enjoyed widespread support in Eastern Europe), refusing to foot the bill for what seemed a fantastic project at the time.

The book is divided into three sections-the first describing the background to the appearance of the Zionist movement and its activities until between the two World Wars.

The second section gives a description of both the various trends in the Zionist movement (Revisionist and Socialist), as well as the obstacles they faced, such as Arab opposition to Zionism (in the chapter 'The Unseen Question') as well as those who objected to Zionism in principle, and forsaw a different future for the Jews and saw Zionism as hampering it.

The third section covers the rest of the story, as it were, until the establishment of the state.

In sum, this book is an informative, well-written and fair-minded work on a sensitive subject, written by a master scholar.

I highly recommend it.

Laquer's History of Zionism is an indispensable work about the origins of the Jewish state. Wherever you stand on Israel, here is a thought provoking and well-researched text that is definitive on the subject. If you are someone who dislikes Israel, you should at least read it to understand how Israel developed and learn about Zionist self-perception.

As one of the century's great historians, how fortunate we are that the German-born Laqueur spent his formative scholarly years in Eretz Israel as a journalist and researcher. This landmark work is very sympathetic to religious Orthodoxy and its significant relationship in the evolution of modern political Zionism. Its strength is in the study of religious and political Zionism within the European milieu.

Hollow Land is very throughly researched and Eyal Weizman is clearly passionate about his topic. The book provides an interesting perspective on a widely discussed topic.

The author is an Israeli, which gives him access and a through knowledge of the issues that many other authors lack. He is an activist and artist working on Israel-Palestine issues. He is also an architect, all of which gives him a unique perspective on the whole Israel-Palestine conflict. His descriptions of Israel's architecture of occupation shows his deep familiarity with the facts on the ground.

His interest in architecture some times took the book in directions I was not interested in, such as the history of the selection of the architect for Ma'ale Adumim. However in general this provided a fresh perspective, and new information.

The author clearly has strong opinions about his subject, but that does not interfere with the narrative. Hollow Land will interest anyone who cares about Israel-Palestine issues, as well as anyone interested in modern occupation. Hollow Land is also an example of a well written, throughly researched book that should server as a model for other authors.

Weizman begins his introduction by telling the story of the founding of Migron, a Jewish settlement built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Convincing the Israeli military to build a cellular antenna, settlers first hire a single 24-hour guard. The guard is followed by his family, followed by five more families, and "by mid-2006 it comprised around 60 trailers and containers housing more than 42 families: approximately 150 people perched on the hilltop around a cellular antenna" (p. 2).

But Weizman is not content to recite the facts of Israeli occupation. His analysis draws heavily on post-structuralist thinkers like Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari. Covering everything from Israeli architectural aesthetics, checkpoints and border terminals, to the Wall, Ariel Sharon's conception of depth security, Israeli urban warfare doctrine and targeted assassinations, he repeatedly penetrates the surface of his extensive empirical research, locating the social narratives which give birth to these phenomena.

He is primarily concerned with charting what he calls the "elastic geographies" of the occupied territories (p. 5), a continually modifying frontier in which architecture and space become both a form of power and a conceptual way of understanding the political issues at stake.

Some issues he tackles are well worn, but by combining his extensive fieldwork as a consultant for B'Tselem with a robust theoretical approach, he still brings interesting insight. In a series of chapters covering Israeli settlements, checkpoints and the construction of the wall, he exposes not just the extensive control of Palestinian society, but also the way in which Israel's sense of security has come to depend on a conception of the territories as a malleable and vulnerable space. The spread of these control mechanisms in Israeli society, he claims, constitutes a "cognitive and practical system that sees the physical separation of Jews and Arabs, and the total control of Palestinian movement, as an important component of Jewish collective security" (p. 155).

Some of the issues, however, are less well known, such as his analysis of Israeli archaeology, architecture and landscape. He shows how city planning and architectural policies have attempted to make Jerusalem "an exhibition-piece of living biblical archaeology" (p. 29), drawing on Palestinians as "fossilized forms of biblical authenticity" (p. 43) while simultaneously seeking to reduce their contemporary presence.

Weizman's strength is in the way he hits on two registers at once. His section on Jerusalem connects in a straightforward way with Israel's sustained attempts to minimize the Palestinian population in the city, and to visually and ideologically "unite" the Jewish suburbs with the historic city. But it also taps into the enduring manifestations of the contradiction between Zionism's secular modernism and its ancient biblical promise.

Above all, "Hollow Land" doesn't just explain Israel's spatial practices of occupation. It explores the way in which Israelis' and Palestinians' self-understandings are deeply embedded in these structures. This is Weizman's contribution. While some may feel his work is too abstract, this is where the "cycle" that so often takes the blame for this conflict is found. Weizman is painting a picture of how we have lost ourselves within the conflict, and what it might mean to find a way out.

Weizman's analysis of the articulation (division, consolidation, dimensionality, etc.) of space as a primary expression of political power is highly original in approach, full of extraordinary insights, and provides a powerful moral argument against the occupation of Palestine. While some writers theorize about this sort of thing, Weizman's application of highly refined ideas to concrete practices demonstrates a kind of eloquence and courage that is rare in discussions of Israel and Palestine.

I think Hollow Land is an intellectual masterpiece.

Rabbi Leibel Reznick blends archeology, biblical and talmudic sources, stunning drawings, rare photographs, and keen scholarship in search of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. An exciting read, couldn't put it down all night.

A fantastic synthesis of archaelogical finds and ancient rabbinic literature.

The author has done a brilliant job of researching and presenting to the lay public the history and archeology of the Temple Mount. This book is a definite must read for those interested in the subject. -Prof. Albert Bressnan, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland