Customer Reviews

By Blood and Fire: Attack on the King David Hotel

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Today we often hear snippets in the media such as "Israel is the real terrorist". THese quotes are anti-semetic and sensationalistic in nature since we all know that only one Jewish act of terror has taken place in the last ten years(Mr. Baruch Goldstien). yet during the struggle for independence Jewish Terror organizations romed Palistine striking fear into the hearts of arab fascists and British administrators.

On July 22nd, 1946 an explosion rocked Palistines best hotel, the King David, killing 91 people. It was the most profound act of terror during the British madnate. this bloody incident helped convince the British of the hopelessness of palistine and helped strengthen Jewish resolve.

This is the riveting, page turning, story of the Jewish underground organizations who struck back, first at the Arabs in revenge and then at the British to achieve independence. This book details essential characters like Manachem Begin and Ezer Wiezman as well as telling other terror stories like the assasination of Lord Moyne.

A wonderful book that illuminates Palistine in the mandate period and shows us varied characters from Arab princes to British officers.

I have heard of the King David 'terrorist attack' but I had little knowledge of what actually occurred and how it was pulled off. This book is an excellent description of those events and interweaves stories of those involved in the attack, including the attackers, those who would be wounded/killed, and those who would be witnesses. The planning that went off into pulling this operation off, why the King David was chosen, who was picked for the mission and why, etc, all of this is covered in more than enough detail and the story moves along at quite a quick pace.

One will have to rethink the idea of 'Jewish terrorism' when they read this book. I have never thought of 'Jewish terrorists' to be the equivalent of the terrorists the world has encountered in the past few decades. As the author points out, though, there are differences and quite a few similarities between the two.

But, it should be remembered that the men and women involved in the King David operation telephoned, three times, to warn those in the King David of what would happen. They were ignored and some consider the end result no longer their fault. The bottom line will remain that they targeted the building and what it stood for, rather than the innocent human beings inside it, and tried to minimize lives lost, unlike the terrorism of today. This will forever separate them, in my mind, from the Islamic terrorists the world over who choose to target innocent civilians, and the more the better.

The book was represented as being in very good condition and the dust cover was ripped in multiple places. I felt that this was quite misrepresented, and would hesitate from buying from Amazon again. I have bought many books in the past through your organization.

Jerrold M. Stempel