Tom SegevReseñas

Interessante Biographie eines Jahrhundertmenschen, dessen Leben allerdings auch von Widersprüchen geprägt war.½

Well written and easy to read, almost like a novel. I wish there was a little more explanation of who certain people were, but overall this is an excellent book about the mandate period of Palestine. It covers the period between the British invasion and the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the British pull-out in 1948.

ספר מרתק, אבל רע, ומרגיש. כתוב תוך צמידות רבה מדי למקורות ובלי שום ניסיון לתאר את התמונה כולה. מדגיש את התכונות הרעות של ב"ג ומעלים את זכויותיו. מבהיר לחלוטין שהתנועה הציונית לידתה בחטא ושמעולם לא היה בציונות שמאל אמיתי.

One Palestine, Complete explores the tumultuous period before the creation of the state of Israel. This was the time of the British Mandate, when Britain's promise to both Jews and Arabs that they would inherit the land, set in motion the conflict that haunts the region to this day.

A nice account of the life of the world's most famous Nazi hunter. It is sad to note that he was later embroiled in controversies he could have avoided, one of which at least cost him the Nobel Peace Prize.

A nice account of the life of the world's most famous Nazi hunter. It is sad to note that he was later embroiled in controversies he could have avoided, one of which at least cost him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ein weitgehend unaufgeregtes Buch über den Angriffskrieg der Israelis auf die arabischen Nachbarn. "Heute wird die Wüste Sinai die Kampfkraft der Stählernen Division kennenlernen. Und bei ihrer Ankunft wird die Erde erbeben.". Das sind Worte des Friedens-Dichters Amos Oz (S. 404). "Die Armee war der Ursprung der moralischen Werte und der Krieg ein Ausdruck menschlicher Größe" (S. 524) teilte sich einst der Friedensnobelpreisträger und Gesinnungstäter Yitzchak Rabin mit. Elie Wiesel, auch ein Friedensnobelpreisträger (es gibt da unten irgendwo ein Nest), schwingt auf S. 670 die Antisemitismuskeule gegen Charles de Gaulle, der etwas Richtiges sagte: " ... der Staat Israel sei dem Nahen Osten unter rechtlich zweifelhaften Umständen implantiert worden und die Israelis seien überheblich und anmaßend", worauf Segev etwas dumm kommentierte: "Dieses Verhalten war lächerlich". Ich kann verstehen, dass beim Verfassen eines solch umfangreichen Buches Denkpausen gestattet sein müssen.

התבשיל הרגיל של תום שגב. מעניין ונוסטלגי אבל זה לא בדיוק היסטוריה

מרתק, תשובה ניכוחה לכל קוטר. גם פעם לא היה טוב.

Tom Segev has written an impressive and extremely well researched account of the pivotal year in the modern history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Once again (as with the excellent 'One Palestine, Complete') he has presented as unbiased and objective account of this topic as you are likely to find. There is no agenda with Segev except well written history. The book covers in great detail the situation both within and without Israel in the years leading up to the Six Day War of 1967; the events and thoughts of those - both public and private individuals - in the period immediately before, during, and after the war; and the fascinating political and sociological implications of the aftermath of the war. Among the well-known leaders and politicians involved, there are numerous intriguing portraits of the likes of Levi Eshkol, David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Yigal Allon, Ezer Weizman, Menachem Begin, Lyndon Johnson, Abba Eban, Gamal Nasser and King Hussein - as well as many other key political, military and intelligence aides and commanders.

The wide-ranging sources cited by Segev in this account are really the strength of the book. From LBJ's White House machinations to the minutes of the Israeli war cabinet, from myriad private letters of concerned citizens to the various press articles and columns of the day. There is an important consideration given also to the cultural atmosphere in Israeli society whether before, during or after the war. These give the book an intensity of 'putting you right there' in amongst the days of drama. Those less familiar with the personalities discussed may struggle to keep apace of the fast-moving developments and intricacies of both domestic Israeli politics and complex cold war era international relations - this is not 'an ideal introduction' to the Arab-Israeli conflict. But for the interested reader of this subject, Segev's thorough book will prove compelling, well-written, and will quite probably serve to present a perspective on the war that you may not have previously been privy to.

The chapters covering the action of the war itself are based simultaneously on the candid records of minutes and diaries of most of the principals involved, but most interestingly also include large extracts from the diary of one army reservist in particular called up weeks ahead of the conflict. This is Yeshayahu Bar-Dayan, and his diary provides a unique window into the mind of an everyday Israeli called on by his nation to do his duty. He is not a particularly gung-ho commando or special agent or anything as obvious or cliched as that, but a humble mechanic attached to a unit of the Tank Corps. His writing from the battlefield in Sinai is often at times both intimate and profound - an extremely valuable inclusion.

All told, this is an extremely good addition to the shelves of any reader with an interest in post-war 20th century history and/or the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is a particularly in-depth look at the complex Israeli national psyche of the 1960s, and the war which still shapes the fierce debate of the still ongoing troubles in the Middle East. It is a superb addition to the work of one of the finest contemporary Israeli historians around.½

A superb account of the background to and implications of the British rule in Palestine 1917-1948. Completely unbiased in his appraisal, Segev doesn't shy away from either the Zionists own failings, the Arabs' misguided ineptitude, or the British accountability for the mess which still obviously needs resolving in Israel-Palestine today. Very thorough and briliantly written. If you want a good understanding of how this lengthy conflict really began, this is the book to read.

Overall, I liked it, but I think I would only recommend it for those already interested to some degree in either Holocaust/Jewish studies, Simon Weisenthal, WWII, etc.

For those (like me) who may not recall off the top of their head, Simon Weisenthal survived the Holocaust and tracked down many Nazis - including Adolf Eichmann, the "architect of the Holocaust" - to bring them to trial for war crimes in the decades following 1945.

Though there are explanations and context throughout, I think some familiarity with Simon Weisenthal is helpful to have before diving into this book. He's a complex man who many have argued had a liberal relationship with the truth. This biography points out instances, potential motivations, and - when the truth is not acertainable - multiple versions presented by Weisenthal himself. These elements coupled with the sometimes shadowy world Weisenthal exposed and make the book rich and deep and interesting.

In some ways, for those (like me) unfamiliar with the history, part of the suspense of this book is following each campaign/effort to track down Nazis and to see whether the attempt was successful in a) finding the war criminal or b) bringing them to trial/justice. The shadowy nature of the efforts and the necessity of weighing the stories, documents, arguments/lawsuites and evidence to ascertain truth (or extent thereof) is also a dramatic aspect of looking at Weisenthal's life in retrospect.

As documentation bringing to light apparently new and and more comprehensive information on Weisenthal, I think this biography succeeds. There are ~45 pages of notes and the author had access to records only recently unclassified and exclusive interviews as well as to the archives of Weisenthal's documentation center in Vienna. It does attempt to answer questions about his motivations for hunting down Nazi's, his writing (including The Sunflower), and some of his major confrontations (including with the first Jewish chancellor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky). I felt the balance largely focused on his career later in life and there was little about his personal life - his relationship with his wife or daughter Paulinka. Aside from stamp collecting, there's little mention of anything Weisenthal did aside from track down Nazis. So to some extent, it's still missing a bit of the humanistic perspective of Weisenthal even though it does get at why he made hunting Nazi's his life's work.

For more than thirty years the British ruled Palestine. Having entered Jerusalem in November 1917 in the wake of the campaign against the joint Ottoman-German forces, they left it in May 1948 in the mist of the Jewish-Arab war and the Zionist terrorist campaign that resulted in the foundation of the State of Israel and the destruction of the Palestinian Arab society. In the mean time the British fulfilled the plead made to the Zionism movement in 1917 by Lord Balfour and laid the foundation of the Jewish state the Zionists have dreamed of. The relationship between the local British administration, the British government in London, the Zionist Organization, and the Jewish population in Palestine was not always smooth but London kept its promise and did help the Zionists (their fellow Europeans) against the native Arab majority when they needed more support and protection. As a result the Jewish population of Palestine rose from less than 10% in 1919 to a bit more than 1/3 in 1948, it organized itself politically and militarily under the British umbrella, and prepared itself for the final show-down with the Arab population whose organization and leaders, never too strong or organized anyway, had been mostly destroyed in the suppression of the Arab revolt of 1936-39, and could at no point match the superior administrative organization, military efficiency and international public relations skills of the Zionists. This excelent book describes these events and traces the diplomatic and political discussions between the British and the Zionists during these tumultuous years. The book is not only extremely interesting and well written, but also very entertaining and lively, due to the author very competent use of a score of diaries, letters and other private documents to make the reader feel the mood of the times and the atmosphere surronding the historical events: Count Ballobar's (Spain's consul in Jerusalem in the last days of the Ottoman rule) and Al-Sakakini's diaries are particularly delighful. The only drawback is the somewhat misleading subtitle: the book is essentially about the Yishuv and the Zionist Organization under British rule, not about the Arabs, that, although treated with a commendable degree of fairness and understanding when they enter the narrative, they do so, in most of the cases, only in reaction against the Jews or the Administration. They are mainly part of the landscape and not a subject of the narrative in an equal footing with the other two partners in the struggle for Palestine. Apart from this minor detail, which has probably more to do with the subtitle of the english translation than with the original intention of the author, this is indeed a first rate book.

It is not an easy read unless you are very familiar with the names of the leading Israeli politicians, which I am not, from this era.

It does cast a new light on the 1967 War by focusing on the political attitudes and infighting that occurred leading up to, during and after the conflict. Was the war necessary? Should Israel have captured and held East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip? What about the settlements that began sprouting up immediately after the war?

Regardless of one's views, it is clear that the 1967 War was a pivotal moment in the history of Israel and that we are still living with it's consequences.

Researcher and writer Segev attempts to take 1967's most pivotal event (If you're an Israeli or an Arab,) the Six-Day War and use it as the centerpiece of a larger history of Israel and the effects (including those still felt today) of Israel's victory in the war.

If Segev has a problem, it's that he really wants to talk about the forest but always gets caught up talking about and describing the leaves. It happens in his other works and it occurs here too. For me this means his books are good, but not great and the reader may be confused about who or what is truly significant.

In 1967, Segev introduces Israel's economic state prior to 1967, the efforts of the Eshkol government (the first post Ben-Gurion era leader) to maintain growth and economic expansion amidst a growing social malaise of undetermined reason. The reality at the time was that the Palestinians weren't a factor, had no diplomatic presence, and their military capabilities were limted; hence they don't play a significant role in the book. If Israel has interlocutors it is the Egypt of Gamel Abdul Nasser, King Hussein of Jordan and US President Lyndon Johnson.

As an overarching history of the period and conditions leading up to the war, the book is valuable, though some of his tools are questionable -- snippets of letters from people as barometers of attitude. It brings forward players and conditions we don't traditionally see or read about. As an Israeli Segev doesn't engage in the false "David and Goliath" comparisons that many pro-Israeli writers use, though he does make it clear that this was the internal perception among Israeli citizens and many government ministers in the months leading up to the war. Even though the military comanders knew better, they weren't admitting it, so they could advocate for and get the pre-emptive strike they wanted. Egypt and Syria stumbled into a war they weren't ready for, but pretended they could have; Israel called their bluff. Nasser had no business removing UNEF and blocking Israeli shipping in the Straits of Tiran and Red Sea -- a legitimate Causus Belli.

What Segev does successfully bring out is that while Israel and the IDF had masterful, well thought-out tactical plans -- what to attack, when to attack and how to attack -- there really wasn't any strategic planning -- why attack and what to do when finished. In Segev's assessment, the conditions and situation today are a result of the Israeli govenment not having had a diplomatic plan during the war, or at any time afterwards. The later (1969) developments of settlement blocks by the Israeli religious right effectively vetoed any diplomatic leeway the Israeli government could ever have.

1967 isn't an easy read, but will introduce many readers to participants they didn't know, and to conditons and situations in Israeli (and US) histlry they probably wreren't caught up on. However, this isn't for the casual reader.

Israelis and the Holocaust

Israel pre-statehood

Founding of Israel