Customer Reviews

A History of Israel

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What a magnificent work of scholarship. For people such as myself, who are only remotely familiar with the circumstances leading to the rise of the Zionist movement and to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, this is such rewarding book. Sachar's approach to his subject is quite astounding. Not only does he trace the political and social evolution of the country in a sober and even-handed way, but he provides a lucid exposition of the military conflicts and turbulent irruptions that have plagued the country since the early twentieth century. The duplicity and nervous diplomacy of the superpowers in dealing with Israel are also brought to light. Moreover, the rise of the PLO and PFLP are discussed, along with some of the other popular Arab movements, in a very incisive and fair manner. The writing style is quite eloquent, and the topics discussed are so diverse and interesting that the prose doesn't drag along, as one might expect from such a thick and heavy tome. The book is provided with a vast array of military, demographic and municipal maps, which make some of the historical incidents easier to follow. My only suggestion for any subsequent editions is that the book be provided with an insert of illustrations, depicting some of visual arts and archaeological sites that Sachar discusses, along with photographs of some of the important political figures mentioned in the text.

An exhaustive volume covering from the first aliyah in the 1880s through the murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. Sachar adopts a moderate to liberal Israeli stance, admiring early Maipai and Labor leaders Ben-Gurion, Peres, and Rabin. On the other hand, he is unremittingly critical of Likud leadership as well as the influence of the Orthodox and charedim in Israeli society.

Readers should keep in mind that this tome is a history of Israel, and not of the conflict with the Arab States and Palestinians; while it does an excellent job revealing Israeli ideology regarding the conflict, it spends far less time discussing Arab thinking and motivation. Even so, it does not mince words in criticism of Israeli militarism, particularly that of current prime minister Ariel Sharon. An outstanding, extremely readable history of the Jewish state.

This book does a fine job of supplying a detailed history of Israel. It is over 1000 pages, not even counting the index or the huge bibliography.

Sachar's idea is to tell us what happened and why. That does not mean taking sides. It does not mean saying if the people involved were reasonable or moral in choosing the sides they did.

I can understand this approach. We all wish that we could always view relatively current events from the perspective of those who could see which side was being greedy, which side was simply immoral, or which side was being impractical. But we can't, so Sachar simply reports what happened as best he can. And I don't see how I can ask for more than this.

In addition, the simple retelling of what happened and why tells us plenty about how wise or moral decision-makers were. Let me give one example. Sachar has a hefty section on the response to the UN Partition Resolution of November, 1947. Britain refused to gradually transfer authority to a United Nations commission, explaining that this would result in "confusion and disorder." Britain did everything possible to avoid cooperating with those in the UN or the Jewish Agency. The six UN commission members were made unwelcome. They "were soon reduced to foraging for food and drink. They accomplished nothing."

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, simply regarded the Jews as enemies. As Sachar writes, Bevin claimed "that the whole Jewish 'pressure' was a gigantic racket run from America," that the Jews had stolen "half the place" (that is, half of the Mandate territory), and that "he would not be surprised if the Germans had learned their worst atrocities from the Jews." I think this ought to tell any perceptive reader plenty about Bevin.

On top of this, Sachar explains that Bevin and some important British officers were predicting an Arab military victory, and that the Arabs would have no difficulty taking over the whole country. Nowadays, some people appear to have forgotten all this and are pretending that everyone knew that the Arabs would be no match for the Jews, which is yet one more reason why we ought to read this book!

Sachar also tells us about the British swiping the entire contents of the Mandate treasury, to make sure the Jews got none of the money. At the same time, the British gave 300,000 pounds to the Supreme Moslem Council, an indirect subsidy of the Arab war effort. The British strictly enforced an embargo on Jewish immigration and Jewish weapons acquisition. Meanwhile, the British happily sold weapons to Iraq and Transjordan.

It is true that on April 1, 1948, the Jews decided to stop responding to Arab attacks in a purely defensive manner. With Jerusalem threatened, they did decide to take action to relieve the siege. But Sachar has already shown us that one reason the Jews were unable to try such a plan before then was that the British would have stopped them by force.

There is an enormous amount of information in this book. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in the topic, no matter what political views they may have.

America has become increasingly involved in the tensions in the Middle East and American military and civilians are increasingly at risk of retaliation. I felt it important to understand the history of the region and the issues that led to the deadly conflict. The information provided these last 25 years by the American media seemed biased and I wanted to know both sides of the story. Although history books can be biased too, I found Howard Sachar's account to be thorough, verifiable and straightforward to read. In addition to providing historical information, he painted a clear picture of the people involved in the conflict and the role of the US in building and supporting Israel. Although by the end of the book it is possible to discern his dovish opinion, I feel that he succeeded in presenting a fair account of the events. Since our country has taken such an active role in the Middle East, it is our duty as Americans to understand the conflict, form educated opinions, and make our opinions known to our elected officials. Howard Sachar's book is a must read.

Sachar's tome A History of Israel is both complete and a great read. Not being a formal teacher or student of history (this is just a hobby), I wanted a complete book that presented the issues of the Middle East objectively and completely. Sachar's book does that very well.

Although some parts of it can be difficult to get through, particularly the economic issues, the book is simple to read and not overly convoluted. It presents the history of this important country in a very thorough manner, barely missing any important issues.

Perhaps my only criticism is that it is somewhat one-sided. It deals with Arab issues well, but since it is a history of Israel, it focuses more on the Israeli side of things. It certainly is not a book about the emotional trials of the refugees -- instead it is meant as an objective documentation of fact. People looking for an op/ed piece will not find it hear. It does, however, manage to present the major mistakes Israel has made as well as many of the shocking atrocities committed in the name of the Jewish state.

I was looking for a book to answer the question -- where did this conflict start? Where did Arabs and Jews go wrong in their relations that has led us to this point? A History of Israel answered this question and many, many more. It is by far the best book about Israel that I have read and I recommend it highly!

To be precise, this is not "a history of Israel;" it is, rather, a history of the Jewish people during their attempts to found, and then maintain, the State of Israel. This is an important distinction, because certain aspects of Israeli history are not covered, or are covered only in brief. The Christian community in Israel, for instance, is almost completely ignored. The Arab population is only mentioned when the conflicts between Jew and Arab are too great to ignore. There is an essential bias, therefore, that Israel should be a Jewish state, and that some of the lesser atrocities committed by the Jews to establish and hold the State are justified because they upheld that aim. That is a perfectly valid opinion, of course, and a reasonably moderate one as opinions go. It means, though, that a few of the darker moments in early Jewish history, such as the forced resettlement of several Arab cities, are air-brushed. Later on, the Jews treatment of the Arab population is viewed in a more critical light. This is a huge tome, clearly and entertainingly written, and is invaluable for anyone who wants a broad background in Jewish history.

This book is required reading in the Near Eastern and Judaic studies department at Brandeis University which has one of the best Israel/Judaic studies programs in the country.
This is the only book that extensively examines the Jewish State entirely in its modern political context, while simultaneously covering world Jewry and the Middle East conflict. Howard Sachar is a renowned scholor who has written much on the topic.
As someone who has traveled to Israel several times, WORKED on a kibbutz for a long period and studied both the country, the region and the interaction between the two; I can tell any critic that this book is highly critical of the Likud party and Israeli irridentism. The West Bank settlers are NOT treated kindly by Sachar and anyone who finds this book unbalanced did not read beyond the first few hundred pages.
This book made me re-evaluate my political position and recognize the many shortcomings of a place I adore.

Some the reviewers here have called this book "one-sided", or too sympathetic to Israel. Maybe they stopped reading after the first three hundred or so of more than a thousand pages, which recount the roots of Zionism in the European persections of Jews in past centuries, and the struggle of the early settlers to keep the land they had paid for and cultivated.

As a historian Sachar abstaines from moralizing judgements, but nobody comes away with clean hands in the tale he tells; not the "world powers" using Isreal and the Arab countries in their grand schemes, not the early Israeli goverments that denied Palestinian refugees the right to return, not later governments who pursued policies of disenfranchisement on the West Bank, not military leaders like Ariel Sharon who were responsible for atrocities against civilians, not ultra-Orthodox settlers unwilling to live in peace with non-Jews (in a rare slip Sachar calls them "God-intoxicated").

The one thing curiously missing from this book describing an essentially religious conflict, though, is an analysis of just what it is in the two religions involved that makes it so difficult for the two sides to find a way to live, if not together, then at least side by side in peace. Not a single paragraph of the book addresses such questions, so interested readers may decide to read the Old Testament as well as the Koran if they have not already done so - even if neither of the two scriptures gives much reason for hope that the conflict can be solved as long as religious thought dominates the Middle East.

For those seeking to understand Israeli history there is no better place to turn. While numerous books deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict, few deal with the internal development of Israel. This book explains the processes that led to the rise of Zionism, the building of the pre-state infrastructure, and the growth of the Israeli republic. But foreign affairs are not in the least overlooked, and occupy a great deal of space. In this latest version, Sachar has corrected some of his earlier errors, and deals with the Arabs and Palestinians in a more even-handed manner. While not the easiest book to read, or most concise, it is still the best book available for those seeking to understand Israel, inside and out.

This review comments on the 2007 edition of this history and follows almost a year of intermittent reading to get through it all. I had previously used the shorter first edition almost 30 years ago in a college course and was very pleased to revisit much of the information in this third, very comprehensive and much expanded edition. As it stands today, this volume could form the primary textbook for an undergraduate two-semester course in Israeli history, as I'm sure it already does in any number of campuses. Like any thorough historian, Dr. Sachar lays the foundation for the story of modern Israel where it rightfully belongs--in the burgeoning Zionist movements that sprang up in Russia, Germany and Austria, to name just the principal countries whose historical subordination (for want of a better term) of their Jewish citizens propelled such an exodus. He then documents the fledgling movements in then Palestine that provided the agricultural, security and political framework of today's modern Israeli society.

At this point, I'll leave it to prior reviewers who describe the book in far more detail than I care to. I would like to highlight, however, the excellent coverage he provides for the wars of Israel with their Arab neighbors. As a retired military officer, with extensive peacekeeping experience in the Sinai peninsula, I found his excellent narratives of the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War to be historically accurate and consistent with other scholarly accounts of those conflicts.

Overall, to facilitate the journey through such a long treatise on the subject matter, I would suggest the following: for someone new to the topic, I think a Hebrew-English glossary of terms would be helpful--for example, the differences between "yishuv", "yeshiva" and "moshav" could well be confusing to the neophyte. Additionally,a chart or annexed description of the multitude of Israeli political parties that burst unto the scene and changed their names several times as well as their own evolving emphases on the issues of the day, would tend to alleviate some amount of confusion. I would also advise the casual reader to buttress his/her readings with external sources from the internet and other media, as Dr. Sachar will sometime open a topic and then leave it in mid development, relying on the reader to pick up the thread 100 pages hence.

From a personal standpoint, other topics, such as the development of the Hebrew language and literature and their effects on modern Israeli society, receive far too few pages, but in a work of this scope, I understand that some aspects will receive less coverage than others. In summary, as someone who has worked, studied and lived the Middle East experience for several decades, I found this to be a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive, yet politically impartial (see, in particular, Chapter 28), account of Israel's birth, growth and maturity in a tumultuous region of the world. I have searched in vain for a companion work delineating the parallel Arab experience either in a specific country or the Arab world in general. Perhaps someone can suggest one?