This book examines the personal vision of General Sir John Glubb, British pro-Consul in the Middle East and commander of the Arab Legion between 1936-1956. It offers the first in-depth account of Glubb's thinking and actions during 1948, as he led his small army into Palestine and war against Israel. His aims and actions, which lie at the very heart of the controversy between "Old" and "New" historians of the Arab-Israeli conflict, are carefully detailed using, for the first time, contemporary British, Arab Legion, and Israel Defense Forces intelligence sources.

Demonstrating that history is always political, Shapira (Zionism, Tel Aviv U., Israel) and Penslar (history, U. of Toronto, Canada) present nine works of historiography, examining the production of Zionist history in Israel and attacks upon its formulations of the past that came from both left and right perspective within the circle of Israeli historians. An effort has been made to include contributors from all three of these perspectives. The contributions are all based on papers first presented at conferences sharing the same name as the text, held in January and February of 2001 in Tel Aviv and New York. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In a world of relentless and often violent change, what does it take for a culture to survive? Steven Weitzman addresses this question by exploring the "arts of cultural persistence"--the tactics that cultures employ to sustain themselves in the face of intractable realities. Surviving Sacrilege focuses on a famously resilient culture caught between two disruptive acts of sacrilege: ancient Judaism between the destruction of the First Temple (by the Babylonians) in 586 B.C. and the destruction of the Second Temple (by the Romans) in 70 C.E. Throughout this period Jews faced the challenge of preserving their religious traditions in a world largely out of their control--a world ruled first by the Persians, then by the Hellenistic Seleucid Kingdom, and finally by the Roman Empire. Their struggle to answer this challenge yields insight into the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and creativity of a distinctive period in Jewish history, but one with broad implications for the study of religious and cultural survival. Detecting something tenaciously self-preserving at the core of the imagination, Weitzman argues that its expression in storytelling, fantasy, imitation, metaphor, and magic allows a culture's survival instinct to maneuver within, beyond, and even against the limits of reality.

Scholars have struggled for decades to explain why Jews have succeeded extravagantly in modern science. A variety of controversial theories from such intellects as C. P. Snow, Norbert Wiener, and Nathaniel Weyl have been promoted. Snow hypothesized an evolved genetic predisposition to scientific success. Wiener suggested that the breeding habits of Jews sustained hereditary qualities conducive for learning. Economist and eugenicist Weyl attributed Jewish intellectual eminence to "seventeen centuries of breeding for scholars." Rejecting the idea that Jews have done well in science because of uniquely Jewish traits, Jewish brains, and Jewish habits of mind, historian of science Noah J. Efron approaches the Jewish affinity for science through the geographic and cultural circumstances of Jews who were compelled to settle in new worlds in the early twentieth century. Seeking relief from religious persecution, millions of Jews resettled in the United States, Palestine, and the Soviet Union, with large concentrations of settlers in New York, Tel Aviv, and Moscow. Science played a large role in the lives and livelihoods of these immigrants: it was a universal force that transcended the arbitrary Old World orders that had long ensured the exclusion of all but a few Jews from the seats of power, wealth, and public esteem. Although the three destinations were far apart geographically, the links among the communities were enduring and spirited. This shared experience of facing the future in new worlds, both physical and conceptual provided a generation of Jews with opportunities unlike any their parents and grandparents had known. The tumultuous recent century of Jewish history, which saw both a methodical campaign to blot out Europe's Jews and the inexorable absorption of Western Jews into the societies in which they now live, is illuminated by the place of honor science held in Jewish imaginations. Science was central to their dreams of creating new worlds - welcoming worlds - for a persecuted people. This provocative work will appeal to historians of science as well as scholars of religion, Jewish studies, and Zionism

During these shocking times of war, violence, and hate many are now seeking answers to important questions. What are the bases of the claims of the Jewish people to the Holy Land? What are the foundations of the conflicts between Muslims and Jews? What does Western Culture and its decline have to do with Israel and the Muslims? How does the rise of extreme leftism in Canada and the United States facilitate and encourage extreme hate and violence at home and in the Middle East? These and many other questions are answered by David Solway in this timely collection of essays-- easily read, easily understood, and written with erudition, scholarship, and style. Solway's style is appropriate for general readers or those with long backgrounds of knowledge of Judaism, Islam, Israel, the Middle East, American and Canadian cultural and political radicalism and decline, the Jewish People, and the intersection of Judaism and Islam in the Middle East. The most recent horror for the Jews that began on October 7, 2023, can be better understood with a clear understanding of Israel, diaspora Jews, ancient and modern Jewish history, and the decline of the West into moral relativism, communism, and leftist utopianism. Times of strife and horror are best explained by clarity of thought and writing. Solway provides both in this important work that provides both context and background to the horrors seen recently in Israel, across Europe, in the United States, and across the world.

A recreation of a village in Palestine and its characters, each gently and carefully called back from the past to tell their stories in a literary narrative. In 1917, the members of a spy ring who sought to assist the British in driving the Turks from Palestine were betrayed. It was said that four women of the town were seen laughing at the arrests of their neighbors. Each met a strange fate: one died prematurely, the second went mad, the third was an invalid and the fourth lived out her life in disrepute. When Halkin read this story of the village that he lived in, it inspired him to begin a journey into the past. His friends and neighbors each offered a different version of the events, and Halkin discovered that each of them was in some way affected by the legendary fate of the spy ring

It is 1947, and in the British Mandate of Palestine the political pressure is rising. Jewish immigrants are arriving from Europe in their thousands, smuggled ashore past the armed patrols. The Wertman family, like the Jewish community, is divided: Avram is a member of the Irgun, a terrorist group fighting to end occuption; his daughter Hannah works for the Haganah, peacefully campaigning for a Jewish state. David Millar and Will Griffiths are two English sergeants, reluctant conscripts, who transfer to Intelligence. Half-Catholic, half-Jewish, David has mixed feelings about his work, more so when he becomes close to Hannah. Will, meanwhile, is finding trouble at the Jerusalem jazz bar where he plays his saxophone...

Rafael, a young Jewish boy living in Spain during the Inquisition, wants to have a Bar Mitzvah and when his father opposes it, Rafael leaves, meets and falls in love with Miriam, and journeys with her toward Safed, Israel, the spiritual home of mystical Jews.

This volume provides a series of contributions on the crucial aspects relating to the Bible and the Late Bronze Age period. The volume is introduced with a background essay surveying the main areas of history and current scholarship relating to Late Bronze Age Palestine and to the Egyptian New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20) domination of the region, as well as the question of the biblical account of the same geographical area and historical period. Specific chapters address a range of key concerns: the history of Egypt's dealing with Canaan is surveyed in chapters by Grabbe and Dijkstra. The Amarna texts are also dealt with by Lemche, Mayes and Grabbe. The archaeology is surveyed by van der Steen. The Merenptah Stela mentioning Israel is of considerable interest and is discussed especially by Dijkstra. This leads on to the burning question of the origins of Israel which several of the contributors address. Another issue is whether the first Israelite communities practised egalitarianism, an issue taken up by Guillaume, with a response by Kletter.

Studies and Texts in Jewish History and Culture, The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, University of Maryland, no. 5 Essays on the architecture, art, religious institutions, cemeteries, etc. of Jewish and Christian life in Palestine, based on the archaeological finds from the Classical and Byzantine periods.

First published in 1950, Palestine Under the Mandate is an account of the role of Britain in Palestine during the British mandate period from 1920 to 1948. The author served as the chief immigration officer in British Mandate of Palestine from 1921 to 1934 and considers this book an attempt to dissipate the fog of propaganda in which the whole subject is shrouded. He delineates the difference between the terms Jew, Jewish and Zionist before situating the central question of his What would have been the position of the Jewish National Home today if its germ had not been carefully nursed and protected for a quarter of the century after the acceptance of the Mandate? Since the author was a government employee, it is no surprise that his loyalty lies with the British government; however, this book is still an important record of the arguments employed to both build and destroy Palestine and will be worth reading for students of history, politics, international relations, global studies, and geography.

First published in 1950, Palestine Under the Mandate is an account of the role of Britain in Palestine during the British mandate period from 1920 to 1948. The author served as the chief immigration officer in British Mandate of Palestine from 1921 to 1934 and considers this book an attempt to dissipate the fog of propaganda in which the whole subject is shrouded. He delineates the difference between the terms Jew, Jewish and Zionist before situating the central question of his argument: What would have been the position of the Jewish National Home today if its germ had not been carefully nursed and protected for a quarter of the century after the acceptance of the Mandate? Since the author was a government employee, it is no surprise that his loyalty lies with the British government; however, this book is still an important record of the arguments employed to both build and destroy Palestine and will be worth reading for students of history, politics, international relations, global studies, and geography.

Introduction -- Garden cities and colonial Africa: -- Symbolic usage of the 'garden city' concept during the French Protectorate of Morocco : from the Howardian model to garden housing estates /Charlotte Jelidi -- From metropolitan to colonial planning : Dakar between garden city and cité-jardin /Liora Bigon -- The 'plateau' in West African, French-speaking colonial towns : between garden and city /Alain Sinou -- The afterlife of the Lanchester Plan : Zanzibar as the garden city of tomorrow /Garth Andrew Myers and Makame Ali Muhajir -- Garden cities in in colonial and Mandatory Palestine (Eretz Israel): -- 'May be solved by the construction of garden cities' : German Jewish literary proposals on garden cities in Eretz Israel /Ines Sonder -- Urban development in the 'garden city' : examples from late Ottoman-era Palestine and the late British Mandate /Yossi Katz and Liora Bigon -- Garden cities and suburbs in Palestine : the case of Tel Aviv /Miki Zaidman and Ruth KarkAfterword -- Multilateral cities and colonial planning /Liora Bigon and Yossi Katz.

First published in 1960, The New-Old Land of Israel deals particularly with the excavations which have amazingly enlarged our knowledge of Bible times. The unique quality of the Bible land of Israel is that it has the thrill of a rich historic past, an ardent, bustling present and an exciting, incalculable future. It is the purpose of this book to give to the reader that thrill, to describe the historical places which have been excavated by the archaeologists and link the past with the present. It starts with a survey of Palestine archaeology in the last hundred years, and a brief history of Jerusalem through the ages. Then it gives an account of the modern big town by the sea, Tel Aviv- Jaffa, and the ancient Roman town by the sea, Caesarea; of the Philistine city of Askalon and a biblical fortress of Judaea which are again populous: of Beersheba, the home of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, and now a teeming modern town which grows by thousands every year, and of a Eilat, a port of King Solomon and today of Israel to the Red Sea. This is an important read for scholars and researchers of archaeology, history of Israel, Middle East history and history in general.

Palestine of the Jews (1919) examines the history of Jewish Palestine, from 4,000 years ago to the early twentieth century and the Balfour Declaration. It details the importance of Palestine to the Jews, it being for two thousand years the centre of their nation, and for two thousand more the centre of their hopes and aspirations.

First published in 1928, Palestine Old and New is a historical travel guide providing a preliminary account of Palestine through the eye of a Zionist. The book takes the reader through the natural landscape of Palestine, familiarizing them with the local Muslim, Jewish and Christian populations, and providing both historical and Biblical accounts of various sites. As the chief immigration officer in British Mandate of Palestine from 1921 to 1934, the intended audience of the author was the Jews thinking about immigrating to Palestine, but his descriptive portrayal of the currently occupied territory is a rich account for present readers of the Palestine that was. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this republication. This book will be of interest to students of history, political science, international relations and geography.

Published in the year 1982, Zionism and Arabism in Palestine and Israel is a valuable contribution to the field of Middle Eastern studies.