Revival-CH16

In this chapter I enjoyed seeing some of the monuments of Jerusalem reappear.  Landmarks such as the Holy Sepulcher and the Western Wall.  It makes see how important the historical aspects were some 1500 years ago prior.  I enjoyed reading about people like Moses Hess and Theodore Herzl, their teaching and their writings.  I did not previously now about early 1900s strive a socialist state in the region.

Israel-CH17

It was great to learn about the creation of the state of Israel.  It was huge leap forward for the Jewish people, but in contrast a huge leap backward for the Palestinians.  It was amazing to read about Jerusalem being 90% Arab in 1917 (Armstrong 371) to a predominantly Jewish state.  My final thinking from the reading is that the British messed up.  Armstrong is English and is going to do her best to make her homeland look its best.  In my opinion the British  were negligent in the handling of the region between 1917-1948.

Zion?-CH18

This chapter gave a good conclusion to the book.  I did not know a whole lot about the 1967 War.  Armstrong gave a sufficient brief summary of the time period and what occurred.  The maps helped understand the change pre and post 1967.  She makes it seemed that the Israelis gave up the Sinai, Gaza and more areas without much fight.  I don’t think this could be, it was doubling the land of Israel with these areas.  Armstrong takes of just one major Jewish settlement in the Sinai, but still it was a great land area.

Book Reflection

My question still persists after finishing the book.  Would the state of Israel still exist if the Holocaust had not occurred?  I am not so sure that it would.  Yes, there was talk of a sovreign Jewish state pre-Holocaust, but would international superpowers encouraged this taking of Arab land for the Jews? I don’t think so.  I would have liked Armstrong to elaborate on the other possible locations for a Jewish soveigrn state.  Overall, I would give Armstrong’s book a B.  Despite several flaws I still recommend the book for the use of future IS501 classes.  Although, it is not going down as one my all time favorites, Jerusalem, One City Three Faiths is a book that I learned a great deal from!