Customer Reviews

Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Make no mistake, reading "Genesis 1948 - the First Arab-Israeli" is no small undertaking. The book's 830 pages (without the preface) consist of some 793 pages with the text and accompanying maps while the remaining pages consist of extensive notes, a bibliography of more than 500 sources and a large and comprehensive index. The book is simply put, an epic of modern history and I highly recommend it as such.

The story is told in one of the best ways possible... from the vantage points of the participants. Much like the much-acclaimed best seller "O Jerusalem" by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Dan Kurzman. The author of "Genesis 1948," conducted extensive research into the history of the 1948 War for Israeli Independence consulting over 500 books, newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, diaries and documents (written in a number of languages including French, English, Arabic and Hebrew) in addition to conducting a large number of interviews with participants from every side in the war (Egyptians, British, Israelis, Transjordanians, Americans, UN personnel, etc.). He ranged from the Arab League Library in Cairo to Government Press Department Library in Tel Aviv. He took all that information and cobbled it together into a dramatic human-interest story full of facts and referenced detail.

Some have called the work biased and "home team" coverage, but I strongly disagree since you can look up any of the author's facts and read them for yourself. Having said that, I do feel that the author had more sympathy for the Israeli side, but it's also clear that he had considerable sympathy for the poor Arab farmers (fellaheen) forced to fight a war in Israel in which most didn't believe. I have been reading the history of the modern Middle East for many years (from both the perspective of the Arabs and the Israelis) and I don't feel that the author left out significant details of the history especially considering the work was originally written in 1970 before the climactic 1973 Yom Kippur War. Contrary to other reviews, Kurzman has no problem talking about Jewish terrorism during the pre-1948 period and also heavily criticizes the Israeli side throughout the book. On a likewise note, Kurzman was lucky to make contacts and conduct research in the Arab world before the 1973 Yom Kippur War after which the Arab world largely closed up foreign access to Arab libraries, media sources and interview possibilities.

------------------------

Dan Kurzman wrote the following of his book (on page xi of the preface):

"I have checked every fact to the extent possible, and discarded any questionable information that could not be verified. In the case of conflicting and irreconcilable accounts of events, I generally present them with all of their sources. Quotations and reflections are taken from diaries, memoirs, and other documentary material or from personal interviews. I rarely use dialogue, the accuracy of which has not been confirmed by at least two of the participants in the exchange. Thus the language is as authentic as any that might be used in an autobiography of the person quoted"

"Using the techniques of the novelist and biographer, I have tried to bring the history alive. To a large degree, history, is the story of people; and this book describes their role in one of the most poignant and important stories of our time."

------------------------

What really makes the book work is its' honest and endearing first-person perspectives of the participants of the 1948 War for Israeli Independence. It's hard to not to find some admiration and respect for people like Abdullah Tel of Transjordan, Sayed Taha of Egypt, the enigmatic David Ben Gurion of Israel, or even Gammal Nasser, future dictator of Egypt. Their stories are told making full use of their own biographies, diaries and such. Lesser-known figures also have their stories told and it was the stories of some of these "minor players" that really endeared "Genesis 1948" to me.

I highly recommend this extensively referenced history of the 1948 War for Israeli Independence.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

I have read and re-read this book many times. I always get new insights each time. It has the feel of a "you are there" historical account - a veritable time machine. This is a fascinating book. Any library, public or private, that does not have it is incomplete.

If you want to know what went on, what *really* went on in the 1948 war for Israel, then this book is a must!

Not only is this a historical reference to be used and re-used, but Kurzman writes true stories within the historical facts which makes the book almost like a historical novel.

I can't give enough praise for this book and it is definitely my top 10 book of all time.

This book, although purely popular history, is one of the best books and perhaps the most complete detailed account of the 1948 war. The authors prose moves from describing the key parts of Israel to a massive cast of characters who took part in the hostilities from weapons purchasers in California, to Trumans advisors, down to the soliders on the ground, Jewish and Arab, including the wives of many and the survivors of such key clashes as the Etsion bloc and the Haddassah convoy. Those reading about 1948 for the first time will be enthralled, veteran students of the 1948 war and Israeli history will find hundreds of new facts that one never knew existed. The authors sources are beyond reproach, ebing key individuals on both sides, and including such interesting personalities as Abdullah Tel to Mordechai Raaanan. The book does not read as a biased text, rather the author puts himself into the midnset of each actor so that one comes away with a deeper understanding then one finds in a dry historical commentary.

This is a wonderful book, a good introduction to Israeli history, as well as a classic text and a needed addition to anyones book shelf who specializes or enjoys Israeli, middle east history. There is a story for everyone in this book, from Ben-Gurions planning sessions to the woman whose family, half arab, half Jewish, was divided by the war.

Seth J. Frantzman

This is the story of an unusual war, between Arabs and Jews in the Levant in 1948. While the war lasted from November, 1947 until March, 1949, the bulk of it was from the first big Arab operation against the Jews on January 14, 1948 until the final significant Israeli action (shooting down five British planes that invaded Israeli airspace on January 7, 1949).

One curious aspect of this war is that prior to it, no Jewish army had ever taken, occupied, and held an Arab Muslim city, town, or village in the Levant. Not in the entire 1300-year history of Islam. That's why many people were surprised to see the Jews actually fight, and there were comments about it that were absurdly insulting to both sides, such as "Man bites dog." Kurzman explicitly makes the point that the fighting on both sides was quite amateurish.

This history may explain the shock it caused when the Jews broke their 1300-year losing streak by taking and holding Deir Yassin, on April 9, 1948. Many Arabs would have considered that an unforgivable affront even had there been no Arab casualties. But it was even worse when over 100 Arabs died in the battle, including quite a few civilians. This helped spur exaggerations of what had occurred, and this in turn contributed to the decision of a huge number of Arabs, including 40,000 in Haifa, to flee their homes in the ensuing weeks.

These are some of the reasons why a few history books about this war are very strange, making it appear as if only one side fought in the war. And it is why a comprehensive, detailed, well-referenced, and well-researched book such as this one is so valuable.

There's an enormous amount of fascinating material in this book, but I was especially intrigued by one small portion which listed seven Arab arguments against permitting a Jewish state to exist in the region, as well as the Jewish replies. To me, this truly showed the extreme weakness of the Arab cause. I agreed with the Jews on a couple of the points and with the Arabs on none of them. Here are the seven Arab points and my assessment of them, so you can see for yourselves:

1) The Balfour Declaration had no legal basis, broke British promises to the Arabs, and could be fulfilled without a Jewish state. In addition, no international organization had a right to define territorial rearrangements.

I disagree. While the Balfour Declaration had no legal basis, the League of Nations version did. And while a Jewish home could exist without a state, the British 1939 White Paper had rendered that impossible. International organizations were not defining borders by recommending a state.

2) The Arabs, a majority in the region, were entitled to do what they pleased.

Even the majority needs to allow for minority rights. And the Jews were the majority in the partitioned area earmarked for the Jews, even before any Arabs fled. In addition, one reason the Jews were a minority in the region was that so many of them had been kept out of the Levant by force. A Jewish state would permit many of them to enter.

3) The Jews were descendants of Khazars, not Hebrews.

Most Jews were actually descendants of Hebrews, not Khazars. But even had no Jew been a descendant of a Hebrew, the question should have been whether the Jews had purchased their land honestly, with a sincere desire to live on it. And they had.

4) The proposed partition boundaries were idiotic and would start a war.

Yes, the recommended boundaries were idiotic. But they were not unfair to the Arabs. And the Arabs were the ones demanding a war, not the Jews.

5) Jews ought not be permitted to intrude into land that belongs to Arabs.

It doesn't belong to Arabs when they sell it to the Jews.

6) The Jewish state and Arab state recommended in the partition would not be able to cooperate economically.

That could be true, but so what?

7) Zionism was artificial and European and would corrupt Arab culture and tradition.

This takes the cake. Arab aggressors were complaining that it is a crime against nature to change the status quo. But the Arabs were changing the status quo by demanding to reduce Jewish rights. Besides, it can't always be a crime to change the status quo, or it would be a crime any time anyone was born, anywhere. Or died, or moved.

This is an excellent work, and I highly recommend it.

In this volume Dan Kurzman produces a comprehensive step-by-step, detailed account of Israel's 1948 War of Independence. Based on secret documents, and over 1000 interviews with participants, the study is scrupulously unbiased.
If the Jewish side comes off better, it is because of the Jewish respect for life which any objective observer will attest to, as opposed to the disregard of life by the Arab powers that be.
What is clearly and unavoidably revealed is the perfidious role of the British occupying forces who frequently arrested Jews they found with arms, but usually looked the other way when Arabs attacked Jews.
What I cannot understand is how the author is critical of the policy of the Lehi (the so-called Stern group) to resist the ruthless British occupation and the British alliance with the Arabs to prevent the rebirth of the Jewish State, as well as the British atrocities against Jews in the Palestine Mandate. The Lehi only killed British soldiers after the British had hung Jewish activists and often handed Jews over to bloodthirsty Arab mobs.
British deserters took part in the bloody Arab bombings of the Palestine Post and the Ben Yehuda Street terrorist attacks of 1947.
After the war had started the British attempted to drive the Jews out of Jaffa, leading to a battle between British tanks and Jewish soldiers.
The War of Independence was effectively a war by the fledgling state of Israel against 7 Arab armies AND Britain.
The United Nations, while voting for partition, refused to actually enforce partition after the Arabs attacked the fledgling Jewish State, and only intervened after Israel was en route to victory, exactly shat would happen 20 years later during the Six Day War.
Bevin had been determined that the Jews did not control the vast, desolate Negev, which he wanted for British bases.

After Israel was actually winning the war, the British, who had done so much to stop partition, suddenly thundered that unless the original United Nations terms were enforced, the UN should lift the embargo on the Arabs, isolate Israel economically and even blockade her.
Attlee and Bevin also put considerable pressure on Washington to act against Israel.
The diplomatic struggle is also covered, including the attempts by the American State Department for President Truman to reverse his support of partition, and how the revised plans by count Bernadotte essentially amounted to the strangling of Israel.


The book shows the reluctance of Transjordan to enter the war, but both Transjordan and Egypt were pushed into war with Israel by Britain.
The massacre by the Arabs of Jewish women and children in Kfar Etzion is detailed, making it very strange how Deir Yassin is always cited by anti-Israel polemicists while Kfar Etzion is forgotten.

It is quite astounding how the Arabs have been waging a war for decades to physically eliminate the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, but continually howl about their own casualties.
Those who truly want peace and human rights should pressure the Arabs (and Iran) to live and let live and oppose the leftist-supported and Islamic-led global agenda that demonizes and wants ultimately to remove the Jewish state from the Middle East.

The book outlines the role of the key players in both the war and the diplomatic struggle such as David Ben-Gurion, Yigal Yadin, Yigal Allon, David Shaltiel, Count Bernadotte, Ralph Bunche, Clement Attlee, Harry Truman, Ernst Bevin, Mufti Haj amin Al-Husseini, King Abdullah, General Mohammed Neguib, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Abdullah Tel and Glubb Pasha.
This book is an extremely objective and non-ideological study, and is particulalrly important to read as it was written in 1970, before events were distorted by Leftist propagandists to fit in with the revisionist agenda of reversing the events of the history of the conflict.

Kurzman has written a historical treasure filled with details and personal experiences of the first Arab/Israeli war. Anyone who has an interest in the Middle East would be well advised to read it, reread it, and reread it again.

In style and detail, this book is a good read. Its views are somewhat outdated now and Kurzman's suppression of the more unsavory side of the anti-civilian violence from the Zionist/ Israeli side now seems quaint. (Example: he refers in one place to a killing of Jewish workers as raising Arab fighting morale in Haifa, ignoring the fact that this had no effect on morale as it resulted from a worker riot following a random terror bombing of Arab workers by Jewish extermists and was followed by an unmentioned murderous retaliatory night raid by Jewish militia into a peaceful village.) Modern Israeli press accounts reveal that Kurzman deliberately downplayed the massacres of Arab civilians he discovered in his researches in the Israeli archives. This is "home team" coverage and ot an unbiased account. But for useful information and good storytelling, it passes muster. Just don't take it as the final word.