Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Jewish Revolution; Jewish Statehood by Israel Eldad

Anyway familiar with historical books/studies will automatically notice that this book is missing a bibliography and does not cite any sources. If you are familiar with European and Middle Eastern history, especially the role that Jews have played in both, then much of what is written here will not be a surprise for you. The context given to all of the above is, on the other hand, interesting, from time to time. It would be even more interesting if the author could cite sources!

I can't say I agree for 100% with all the arguments but much here makes sense. The sad fact, in the end, is that the world cannot and will not function as this book/author would like. A lot of what is advocated comes from hindsight, but humanity does not work that way. At other times the author wishes that double standards would not exist against Israel, so do I, but that is, again, not the world we live in. In the end this book is filled with a good amount of truth and honesty as well as emotion. At the same time, there is also too much idealism and not enough realistic thinking and acceptance. If the majority of the world was familiar with its own history then many of the mistakes made today would never have occurred, but that type of idealistic dream is just that. We should not concentrated on what could have been but rather try to understand our present reality, including how and why it came about, and what we can do to change it in the future, for the better.

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