Customer Reviews

Sabra - The Story of the Men and Women behind the guns of Israel

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Ted Berkman is best known for his novel "Cast a Giant Shadow," which later culminated in a 1966 film by the same name with an all-star cast including Kirk Douglas, Yul Brenner, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and many others. Mr. Berkman is also known for his careers as a newspaperman, screenplay writer, composer, and United Nations official.

This novel is part of Mr. Berkman's interest in Israel and how this little country has managed to militarily overcome the numerically superior armies of several Arab states so many times. This book, in particular, focusses on revealing the human stories of several Israelis before and during the Six Day War of 1967 (In the Arab world this conflict is often called the June War).

He tells the stories of:
1. Major Avihu: A sabra (native-born) Israeli pilot in the Israeli Air Force (IAF) who played an important part of the preemptive strike that destroyed the Arab air forces.
2. David "Dudu" Sela: Another sabra and a world-class celloist and mechanized infantry commander.
3. Robert Szereszevski: A PhD professor with an interest in African economics and development born in Warsaw, Poland who survived the Holocaust. Robert was physically unable to join the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) but, none-the-less, managed to join an Israeli infantry force that helped retake the city of Jerusulem.
4. Colonel Mordecai "Motta" Gur: A sabra farmer, family man, and kibbutznik who led the armies that retook Jerusalem.
5. Naftali Cohen: A Jewish exhile from the Arab countries who became an infantryman famed for his bravery at the militarily significant battle at Ammunition Hill.
6. Esther Arditi Zalinger: An Italian-born Jewish nurse whose journey to Israel and fearless dedication to saving lives led her to venture into live fire. She managed to save many lives including those of several of the enemy Arab's soldiers (and a few friendly Arabs as well).
7. Yaacov Basil: A Yemeni Jew tankist and an example of perserverance in the face of difficulty.
8. Many others....

Mr. Berkman obviously did an impressive amount of research into the Israel of 1967 and his novel, through exploration of the stories of so many Israelis, reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Israeli culture. Among the strengths revealed is Israel's knack for bonding together an incredibly diverse group of people from the far corners of the planet (All parts of the Arab world, Europe, North America, and even Asia). Among some of the weaknesses revealed are the societal conflict (and discrimination) between Ashkenazi Jews of mostly European heritage and Sephardi Jews of primarily Asian (mostly Middle Eastern and North African) heritage. Mr. Berkman uses the term Oriental to describe Sephardi Jews, which in that day was considered acceptable (although the term Oriental in these days in considered politically incorrect). I mention this because I wouldn't want younger readers to misconstrue the use of the term as meaning that the book is insensitive to others. 1969 was another time and social realities were different (let alone language).

While I enjoyed what the stories revealed about Israeli society, the true treasure of the novel are the people stories. The feelings, hopes and desires reveal a world more about Israel than their actions could. This novels works as a great companion to any of the political or military histories of the Six Day War. I would also like to mention that Mr. Berkman writes using American-English idiom, which might require referencing for some non-American readers (baseball analogies, American political idiom, etc.). Although it is not academically referenced or footnoted, the writing is very poignant and captivating. I found the book a very entertaining read that was hard to put down.

I highly recommend this book as good background material to any study of Six Day War of 1967 or to anyone interested in the social realities of Israel.