Product Description

In the fog of the 1967 war and its aftermath, Israel's generals and politicians took a series of fateful decisions that led to a bloody, bitter and seemingly endless occupation of Arab lands. Gershom Gorenberg takes us behind the scenes of history to glimpse those decisions being made. He reveals for the first time the motivation, influences and strategies of key players such as Yigal Allon, Moshe Dayan and Golda Meir. He shows how Labour politicians allowed themselves to be persuaded by a mixture of political convenience, military alarmism and religious fanaticism in to allowing settlements to develop in the occupied territories, despite being fully aware that this contravened international law. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's eviction of Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2004 has shown that it is possible for the Israeli government to confront the settler movement. and further evacuations have been mooted. But the issue is a divisive one: all the passions, ambitions and political alliances which gave rise to Israel's pursuit of 'The Whole Land', from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley, remain potent forces. Gorenberg's book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only the occupation, but the mindset of the occupiers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #698449 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
"The book works powerfully on two important levels: as a deeply informative counterhistory and as a mournful reminder of what happens when a democratic government acquiesces in the face of its own militants" - New York Times "An absorbing narrative with extensive references to archives, private papers, oral histories, books and articles...there is no comparably detailed history" - The Nation "An extraordinary book. It offers insight and understanding into a period that has never been well understood" - Denis Ross, former US Envoy to the Middle East"

The Jewish Chronicle
`Given his acknowledged expertise and original, painstaking researches, it is no surprise that Gorenberg's work has been showcased by the BBC, Channel Four and CNN...[and] has been garlanded with praise in the New York Times and New York Review of Books.'

-Mordechai Beck

About the Author
Gershom Gorenberg is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post and the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz.

Customer Reviews

How Labour established the settlements
The focus of this book is very specific, namely how the Labour party combined with the national-religious movement to establish Jewish communities in the Occupied Territories.

Although the pages are full of factual detail, at no point does the story get bogged down, due mostly to Gorenberg's writing technique, and his ability to organise ideas in easy-to-follow threads. But the fact that larger-than-life characters people the narrative helps too. Once I started reading, I was hooked, and I was kept turning the pages like any thriller, and read it quickly through to the end.

But "Occupied Territories" could equally be used as a reference work, to be dipped in and out of, checking the facts of a particular incident, the background or position of a particular politician.

What you get
Gorenberg explains the rise of the messianic national-religious movements, backgrounds the big personalities of the movement, what motivates them and their tactics. He charts the decline of the secular Zionist establishment which took place over the same period. He lays bare the constant - and often ruthless - battling for position within Israeli political and military élites, their corruptions and manoeuvrings.

What you don't get:
Absent from this story - astonishingly - is anything other than fleeting mention of how the Arabs (Palestinians and Bedouim principally) were affected by Israel's settlement policy. The only battles which count for Gorenberg are those between the settlers and their government opponents. A couple of references are made to expulsions here and there, but in reality, large numbers were affected, and both Palestinian and Bedouin society were changed by Israel's presence there.

The period which is most commonly associated with settlement expansion, Begin's Likud administration and the years following are NOT the subject of this book, and are covered only fleetingly in the epilogue

Conclusion
Gorenberg emigrated to Israel from the US as an adult (and has been a Jerusalemite for many years), a path shared with a significant portion of the most radical of the settlers. When this is considered alongside his failure to provide an Arab perspective, the reader may expect a one-sided account. Not a bit of it. Although he does not share their zeal, he is understands their point of view, and explains the religious motivations of the movements such as Gush Emunim. I doubt it would be possible to write a more objective account; all parties here are treated with respect. No doubt some readers will conclude that OT makes Gorenberg a self-hating Jew.

This is still a valuable book, not least for exposing of role of cheerleaders of the settlers played by politicians who later became synonymous with the peace camp. At every step of the way members of Labour's elite encouraged the settlers politically, financially and militarily. Their past is almost forgotten today, but here is Rabin, pouring the concrete of the first buildings of Yamit. Here is Peres forcing through pushing more than anyone for cabinet approval of new settlements in the West Bank; bending the rule of law to breaking point.

He conclusion that Sharon's pullout from Aza amounted to a defeat for the national-religious and, will allow Israelis to decide what kind of country they want to live in. Personally I think this is his wishful thinking, and that his true assessment is more starkly laid out just a few pages earlier, where he warns that the current position amounts to a situation where "the two ethnic groups live intermixed in the same territory - an artificially created Bosnia."

But this would be a nuclear-armed Bosnia, and the results of another conflict could be truly terrible. I hope that a second volume, covering the period where this abruptly leaves off will soon be forthcoming.