This is the definitive account of Israel’s War of Independence. It’s detailed and comprehensive, perhaps overly so for a general reader seeking an introductory look at how just-declared Israel, just coming off the British blockade of open arms’ shipments to it, managed to throw back and then some the instant invasion for its destruction by the regular armies of multiple neighboring Arab states. But if you’re seeking an engaged Israeli officer’s account of that war in comprehensive detail, here it is.
This is my choice for a gripping account of Israel’s 1948 sovereign rebirth for the general reader. Back cover: “This monumental bok tells the full story of the first Arab-Israeli war and the birth of the State of Israel. Based laragely on some 1000 interviews with participants of all nations….Here are anecdotes and glimpses of great figures … and of the ordinary people who did the fighting.” An informative and lively read.
This is a very readable dramatic account of the Jewish-British-Arab struggle over that most fought-over of cities, alas marred in my opinion by a one-sidedly anti-Israel account of Deir Yassin. Still, taking that into account for what it is, O Jerusalem is a lively atmosphere-of-the-time-and-place-depicting gripping read.
This book dramatically depicts the final three days of the British Mandate, May 12-14, 1948, culminating in the declaration of the rebirth of the sovereign Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post credits Sharef, who was there, with capturing “the mood of hope and despair during the trials which beset the Jewish community in Palestine” during those three fateful days.
Dov Joseph was Military Governor of Jerusalem during its siege by the Arabs in the war of 1948. He “tells the story in terms of the events – human, dramatic, frustrating, heart-breaking, heart-warming, occasionally comic.” He writes: “Jerusalem in the summer of 1948 was more than the citadel of our ancient glories; it had become the symbol of our future.”
