Eric Gartman - Return to Zion: The History of Modern Israel

It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction. This maxim is perhaps nowhere more evident than as it relates to the history of Israel, which is the unlikely tale of how a scattered, statelessand in many ways powerlesspeople reconstituted itself in its traditional homeland, only to face the threat of annihilation by those who, during the many years of dispersion, had come to regard the land as their home. I have set out to write a narrative that captures this story in a lively manner, focusing on what I see as the two main themes of modern Israel: reconstitution and survival. The reader will not find any discussion of the structure of the government of Israel, nor exhaustive lists of political parties and their representatives in Parliament, nor a bevy of economic data. Instead, this history attempts to place the reader in the time and place of the major development of the Jewish state, re-creating a sense of what it was like for those whose lives formed the tapestry of the saga of Israel. In addressing the conflict with the Arabs, my approach has been to let the two sides speak for themselves through documents from the times. As this is a history of Israel and not of the Arab-Israeli conflict, there are, by necessity, more Israeli sources. Still, the Arab perspective is hardly underrepresented; I wrote this book not to take sides or to persuade, but rather to educate those who may not be familiar with the subject matter and to do so in a readable style.

The worlds only Jewish state, Israel is home to six million Jews and a million non-Jews. Israels influence extends far beyond its borders, however. It is a source of pride and concern for the fourteen million Jews spread across the globe as well as the millions of Christians who view the Jewish state as a validation of their own religious beliefs. Conversely, the presence of a non-Arab state in the heart of the Middle East is a source of friction for Palestinian Arabs in particular and for other Arabs as well. This friction forms the majority of the history presented here. Additionally, the conflict with the Arabs has had far-reaching effects. During the Cold War the superpowers vied for influence in the region by heavily arming both sides. Other outsider nations such as Iran continue to use this conflict to expand their influence to this day. Israel therefore is crucial in todays world. It is my hope that by explaining the Jewish states history, the reader will better understand the present situation in the Middle East.

Military intelligence played and still plays a large role in these events. Recently declassified documents shed light on the role of U.S. intelligence during the 1967 and 1973 wars and explain why U.S. leaders acted as they did during these two monumental upheavals. As these reports show, the United States predicted that Israel would easily win in 1967, leading President Lyndon Johnson to try to attempt a diplomatic solution. Conversely, U.S. intelligence predicted there would be no war in October 1973. As a result, U.S. and Israeli leaders were caught unprepared when the war began, and they paid a high price for their error. Two Central Intelligence Agency reports on the incident involving the USS Liberty during the 1967 war explain that the Israeli attack was indeed a tragic mistake.

History is not boring, and those tasked with writing it should take pains to make sure that it is not presented as a dry and unemotional recounting of events. Rather, it is a living and moving chronicle of those whose struggles have shaped our world. Yet all too often history books fail to do just that, turning magnificent sagas into dull, tiresome tomes. For millions of people the story of Israel is more than interesting: it encompasses the very lives of the people of the Holy Land, Jew and Arab. I set out to tell this tale in a way that conveys not only facts but emotions. For it is emotions that animate the people of the Holy Land. Indeed, a visitor to the region cannot help but be caught up by the passions of those for whom the Jewish state is the embodiment of all their dreams and aspirations, of those who will fight to the end to preserve it, and of those for whom the Jewish state is a foreign invader who took their lands and homes and who will fight to destroy it with all their might.

As a young man I experienced all these emotions firsthand. Although I was born in Israel to an American family and came to the United States when I was quite young, when I later visited Israel I was overwhelmed by the cacophony of sights that confronted me. In the Holy City of Jerusalem, the site of the Jewish Temple in ancient times, Arab merchants crowded the marketplaces. I wondered, If this is the Jewish state, why are there so many Arabs? Why are there so many soldiers carrying automatic weapons? Why is there so much tension? What does it all mean? After returning to the tranquility of suburban Maryland, I began to delve into the history of modern Israel in the hope that I could begin to understand what I had seen. That journey has never ended. The history of Israel is rich, complicated, and fascinating, and I have not stopped reading about it.

Yet in the dozens of books and articles I have read over the years something has been missing: the human element. Most histories do not convey the human element, nor even attempt to do so. This is what I would like to change. I wish to tell the history of Israel in a way that explains why the existence of the Jewish state raises the passions that it does and to tell it in an engaging manner. If I have explained the history of Israel and conveyed the dreams and aspirations of its inhabitants, I will have fulfilled my goal.