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City of Oranges

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OK if the title is too cryptic for you...for something to begin something else has to end or it would just be continuation. Zionism and the establishment of a "Jewish State" in the Middle East would by definition be the signal for the end of the Ottoman Province of Palestine (including parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt). The new state by definition would be a 'western' style democracy with socialist overtones. So there would have to be a drastic change in how and who ran things.

This book by Adam LeBor does a remarkable job of looking at the changes to Jaffa and Tel Aviv as a microcosm for the who Middle East problem. By looking at the long term (beginning at the end of the nineteenth century) effect of Zionist immigration to the 'Holy Land' (HL, has less of a stigma or side to it). After having lived in relative harmony (as long as the Moslems were the top of the pyramid) for many centuries the influx of European Jews and their European ways would have to upset the balance. Of the three groups, the Christians were put in the most desperate of positions since they were never in charge or control of their destinies.

LeBor does a good job of following the participant families as they go from rulers to ruled, rich to poor, immigrant to ruler, and ruler to emigrant. The best part of the narrative is LeBor's concentration on the effects more than the causes. Causes can be ambiguous but effects are usually straight forward.

Needless to say this is as objective a story as can be written by anyone of the history of the HL over the last one hundred years, and that it will takes decades if not centuries until there is anything like a final settlement of the issues. Just like the scars that remain from the Partition of India, or the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans (from the Czech lands) after WW2; it will take more than the changing of the names of the towns and cities to heal up the wounds and for the scars to fade.

If you are interested in Jaffa, or planning a trip to Israel, I recommend "A City of Oranges" as your bed-time read. It's well worth taking the time to delve into this well-written and interesting book.

Jaffa is a fascinating place, and not just because of the restaurants, art galleries and port that draw the tourists in, but because it still lives and breathes its history. Despite all the renovation and rebuilding that is going on, the streets are still narrow, the trees ancient, the people an interesting vibrant mix of Arabs and Jews.

I live in Israel and the book "A City of Oranges" was a revelation for me because as I wander around Jaffa, the names and stories from the book now resound in my mind. I have a much better understanding now of the history, how the Jews and Arabs living in Jaffa and environs interacted. In Jaffa there's a sense of the layers of people, events, times, and as I gaze at crumbling walls of once-elegant mansions I feel a new intensity, a glow of enlightenment, because I can now almost hear the voices from the book in my mind, and imagine the families who once lived there.

The book tells both sides of the story, while elaborating on the background, and historical events taking place at the time. It's not a light easy read because it's a detailed tapestry of stories, background and history. It's a book to be savored, not devoured. It's a book to read and reread. That's what I'm doing.

City of Oranges is a refreshingly balanced account of the modern history of Jaffa and the birth of the Jewish state.
LeBor's eye for detail and the rich family accounts bring the story to life, turning a historical account into a thoroughly enjoyable read. Reading about the lives of the six families and their truly amazing experiences manages to personalize the Isreali-Palestinian conflict.
It's an innovative approach that makes this book worth reading for anyone interested in Israel/Palestine.

In this vividly written book the tale of the lives of 6 families from Jaffa is told through the events in Palestine and Israel from 1920 to 2000. The families include Christian Arab notables, Muslim aristocracy, a large Sephardi clan and Ashkenazi refugees from Europe. This is the tale of Israel in microcosm as told through this community and its sister city of Tel Aviv. The book is strong on understanding the inner workings of the Arab and Jewish communities, the many cleavages and changes coming about in this period. Here we see Muslim and Christian Arab women shedding the veils and housework to become independent, we see Arab notables visiting Jewish prostitutes in Tel Aviv, we see the unending struggle for land and political supremacy and then we see the great folly of 1948, the Arab aggression and subsequent flight. The tale examines the lives of Arabs who became refugees, those who fled and returned and those who refused to flee. We see the inter-Arab infighting and accusation of collaboration. We see the Jewish ambivalence to the flight of their neighbors, but we also see poignant stories of Arabs and Jews helping each other down through generations.
This book captures well many of the aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It also captures the spirit of the times and changes in society. It shows how the rich Arabs of Jaffa were defeated in their nationalist rhetoric by the proletarian Jews of Tel Aviv. It shows how mob violence drove these communities apart. It shows how the post war era in Israel shaped up, how poor immigrant refugee Jews were driven from the Arab countries and housed in the former lands of Arabs who themselves became refugees. The author does a great job of interweaving history with the simple events of everyday life.

The greatest drawback of this book is that it is a tad popular and journalistic in its historical telling. However it means at times the explanations for events are biased or inconsistent. However it appears the author is as unbiased as he could be given the circumstances and does not get bogged down in the Arab-Israel endless debate/rhetoric as is common in many publication on the subject. The book tries its best to understand with minimal judgment. A class A read, very insightful and well written.

Seth J. Frantzman

In this vividly written book the tale of the lives of 6 families from Jaffa is told through the events in Palestine and Israel from 1920 to 2000. The families include Christian Arab notables, Muslim aristocracy, a large Sephardi clan and Ashkenazi refugees from Europe. This is the tale of Israel in microcosm as told through this community and its sister city of Tel Aviv. The book is strong on understanding the inner workings of the Arab and Jewish communities, the many cleavages and changes coming about in this period. Here we see Muslim and Christian Arab women shedding the veils and housework to become independent, we see Arab notables visiting Jewish prostitutes in Tel Aviv, we see the unending struggle for land and political supremacy and then we see the great folly of 1948, the Arab aggression and subsequent flight. The tale examines the lives of Arabs who became refugees, those who fled and returned and those who refused to flee. We see the inter-Arab infighting and accusation of collaboration. We see the Jewish ambivalence to the flight of their neighbors, but we also see poignant stories of Arabs and Jews helping each other down through generations.
This book captures well many of the aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It also captures the spirit of the times and changes in society. It shows how the rich Arabs of Jaffa were defeated in their nationalist rhetoric by the proletarian Jews of Tel Aviv. It shows how mob violence drove these communities apart. It shows how the post war era in Israel shaped up, how poor immigrant refugee Jews were driven from the Arab countries and housed in the former lands of Arabs who themselves became refugees. The author does a great job of interweaving history with the simple events of everyday life.

The greatest drawback of this book is that it is a tad popular and journalistic in its historical telling. However it means at times the explanations for events are wildly biased or inconsistent. However it appears the author is as unbiased as he could be given the circumstances and does not get bogged down in the Arab-Israel endless debate/rhetoric as is common in many publication on the subject. The book tries its best to understand with minimal judgment. A class A read, very insightful and well written.

Seth J. Frantzman

Despite the honest attempt of LeBor to write a balanced micro-history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it's obvious where his heart belongs. He repeatedly calls the founding of the State of Israel the "Nakba", disregarding the one-sided meaning of the term. His dislike of the old "Ashkenazi" institution ignores the fact that that it was the driving force behind Israeli statehood, and played a major part in Israel's successes, as well as it's failures.
Never the less, he has written a well informed, highly readable book, that should probably be a mandatory part of the Jewish and Arab curriculum. I'm waiting for his take on the Cast Lead/Gaza war.

City of Oranges'' is a book that probably all
> sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could read
> profitably. By taking as its subject the
> interweaving
> histories of several families _ Jewish, Christian,
> Muslim _ over more than a century in what was once
> the vibrant port of Jaffa, now an adjunct of Tel
> Aviv,
> it reminds us that the struggle, whether a triumph
> for one party or a tragedy for another, had a human
> cost for all. The book is not only the story of a
> longing for home and homeland amid changing fortune,
> but also the chronicle of an ancient, multi-ethnic
> city and how it was forever altered by the tremors
> that shook the Middle East in the 20th century. The
> author, Adam LeBor, understands the desperate need
> for
> the Jews to found a secure state and the tragic
> consequences this had for some of their Arab
> neighbors. There are no heros or villains in his
> narrative. Only ordinary people trying to find their
> way through extraordinary circumstances. "City of
> Oranges'' refuses to be a book of lamentation or
> triumphalism. Rather, it celebrates the human
> capacity
> for endurance and the simple small ways that people
> make peace with themselves, if not with each other.
>
>
>

This is a book where the people living in the eye of the storm do the talking. The big causes are in the background - much more the holocaust than wacky American preachers - but centre stage are the citizens of Jaffa, the city of oranges, and their usually sad stories. LeBor has a large cast, helpfully credited at the start in case you get mixed up. He starts us off with a wedding where Jews and Arabs attended, and then we are straight into the 1921 Jaffa riots when Arabs lashed out against Jews after their betrayal at Versailles. The violence never stops. We're soon onto the birth of Zionism, the extraordinary Theodore Herzl and the slogan - `A land without a people for a people without a land'. Another brilliant proposition - but of course it wasn't true. There were people there. And in the midst of the tit for tat killings, the rumbling of tanks in old and narrow streets, the forced marriage of old Arab Jaffa with new European Tel Aviv, they tell their stories. LeBor brilliantly also works in family histories that not only stretch from the 1920's till today, but also across the racial divide. The one that stands out is that of the Jewish Chelouches with the Arab Samarra family. The relationship began in the late 19th C with an act of kindness when Aharon Chelouche gave some money to a young boy of the Samarra family who had been robbed. After the Second World War the Chelouches family were in dire straights, and help comes from the boy, now a successful business man. He sends camels loaded with food. And more - he gave the Chelouches enough money to pay his debts, start a business - and for years the loaded camels arrived. The friendship was lost as the violence increased in the 1930's, but we stay with the Chelouche family, and hear much of the Jewish side of the story from them. After the brutal war of 47-48 the great grand son of the kind patriarch who helped the Arab boy, Aharon Chelouche is the military governor of Jaffa. In 1949 the Jewish policy is to expel all Arabs who are not official residents of the new Israel. As the governor, Aharon was the man who could give the all important exception to the thousands who faced deportation. One day his officials failed to turn away a stubborn supplicant who insisted on seeing the top man. When Aharon opened the file he was stunned. It was a Samarra, and after a few questions he knew it was the Samarras who had helped his family so much. He phoned Tel Aviv and made sure the man was allowed to stay. And this is the brilliance of the book. In the midst of all the brutality, we are never allowed to forget that there are many Jews nor Arabs who have not allowed the demons of tribalism to erase human kindness from their hearts. It would be good reading for Tim LeHaye and John Hagee. They would also find out that the first would be Christian end of the world settlers to the area in the late 19th C were led by an out of work actor, George Washington Adams, who ended up a drunk on the streets of Jaffa.

This represents an interesting and effective approach to a difficult topic. Part two is especially good.