Israel through Israeli eyes

Book review of 'Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn'

Israel 

A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

Daniel Gordis

Ecco

560 pages; Rs 926

In Israel: A Concise History, Daniel Gordis tells the story of Israel from a decidedly Israeli point of view. He recounts the country’s “…accomplishments and the missteps, the extraordinary history and the worrisome future, the well-intentioned as well as the malevolent” to provide readers with an insight into Israel’s understanding of itself — its internal debates and dilemmas, triumphs, and challenges.  Essentially, he sees Israel as an epic achievement fashioned against great odds. His is an important perspective to comprehend, as India and Israel seek to engage and better know each other. 

This telling begins with the idea of Israel, starting with a man, Theodor Herzl, a dream, and a book – The Jewish State (1896) – a “stunning proposal” to gather the Jews of Europe in Palestine with a government of their own. It resonated with Jews, exiled from Judea by the Romans in 2000 CE, who had kept “…alive memories of a place they had never seen” through the genius of “cyclically reliving moments of history.” 

The narrative is grounded in how the dream was forged and debated in Europe.  Zionism, “a movement and a collection of competing dreams”, reverberates in Israel’s fractious and turbulent politics to this day. Yet despite these disagreements, the revolutionary zeal of early Zionism is essential to comprehend Israel’s ethos as reflected in Ben Yehuda’s commitment to reviving Hebrew and the determination of the early settlers to transform the swamps, marshlands, and deserts of Israel into productive land. These revolutionaries refashioned the “new Jews”, who would work the land and shape their destiny.

Mr Gordis discusses waves of Jewish immigration from the first Aliyah (immigration) in 1882 that alarmed the 27,000 mostly poor, religious Jews then living in Jerusalem. Zionist notions also clashed with the local systems of the Palestinian Arabs, as did the purchases of land supported by Diaspora Jews, key among them Baron Edmond de Rothschild, that have fueled a continuing conflict between Jews and Arabs. Waves of pogroms brought more Jews to Palestine with the Second Aliyah, which consisted of 40,000 east European Jews (1904–1914) who bequeathed the kibbutz movement, which was rooted in strongly socialist ideals. The third Aliyah (1919–1923), brought the first immigrants with a sense that their cause was internationally recognised, further igniting Arab anger and violence that led to the development of Jewish paramilitary capabilities. Continuous waves of immigration ensued as anti-Semitism rocked Europe, and these spurred further Arab violence against all Jewish enterprise.

The bloody violence that led to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, based on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, is poignantly described. The very next day, Israel was forced to defend itself against five Arab armies. During the “War of Independence”, some 700,000 Arabs left their homes: 700,000 Jews left Arab lands as a consequence and were absorbed into the fledgling state. The biggest losers in this war were Palestinian Arabs, who refer to this period as the Nakba (catastrophe). This traumatic dislocation for both Jews and Arabs poisoned the region for decades and Israel was implicated in their displacement.

Among the many deeply significant events in Israel’s development that Mr Gordis examines are Adolf Eichmann’s capture and trial, where the world was forced to confront the horrors of the Holocaust, the start of its nuclear programme, and the Six Day War (1967) that changed the nation forever. Israel almost tripled in size and captured the Old City. With victory came Occupation and “challenges to the Jewish State that were no less existential than the threats the Six Day War had sought to end.” The political future of the West Bank became a contentious issue and the Settler Movement forged ahead. Ending Occupation united the Palestinians, who were supported by Arab States committed to “no peace, no recognition, and no negotiation with Israel” and who insisted on the rights of Palestinians living in “Palestine”.

The Yom Kippur War (1973), defined as another seismic shift in the Israeli soul, was a decided move to the Right that ended the hegemony of the Labor Party. Menachem Begin’s election and the kinship with the religious nationalist movement spearheaded settlement growth that has sown its discontents both within Israel and internationally. The growth of the power of the Mizrahi (Jews from Arab lands) movement and the failed peace process are analysed in a bid to explain the political shift that has occurred. Mr Gordis concludes that despite the many threats within Israel and those it confronts internationally – the reality of being still locked in a conflict with no solution in sight, an international community tired of the conflict, and many Israelis pained by the Occupation and all its manifestations that has irreconcilably compromised the founding vision – Israel is “an extraordinary accomplishment.” 

Mr Gordis provides personal insights into the lives of the mostly European Jewish –philosophers, political leaders, artists, and generals – as the shapers of modern Israel’s short but tumultuous history. Palestinian and Arab-Israeli legitimate grievances, resistance, and challenges to the formation and expansion of Israel are treated in passing and as a problem to be solved. The Mizrahi Jews are discussed primarily in the context of ushering the Right to power and no in-depth analysis is given to Israel’s increasingly vociferous and powerful Orthodox Jews. Despite these serious limitations, Mr Gordis tells an important story that reflects Israel’s self-perceptions.