In this timely book, Bernard Wasserstein offers the first authoritative history of the fraught diplomatic relations surrounding the Holy City of Jerusalem. Jews, Muslims, and Christians have all claimed the city as their own over the centuries--as have a dizzying array of foreign nations. In the period between the founding of the city and its capture by Israelis in 1967, Jerusalem has been conquered at least thirty-seven times. "No other town," wrote Arthur Koestler in 1948, "has caused such continuous waves of killing, rape, and unholy misery over the centuries as the Holy City." Today, Jerusalem lies at the core of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is the most deeply divided capital city in the world: its Arab and Jewish residents inhabit different districts, speak different languages, attend different schools, read different newspapers, observe different holy days-- live, in almost every significant respect, different lives. Against the background of renewed violence in and around Jerusalem, this book explores the complicated origins of the current diplomatic impasse. Why is the question of Jerusalem so intractable? Why has it outlasted almost every other political dispute as a focus for diplomatic wrangling and collective violence? And what are the prospects for resolution? Meticulously researched, and written with humanity and elegance, this book offers an illuminating contribution to the effort to achieve a lasting negotiated settlement of a tragic conflict that affects us all.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Weakly argued:
There is some history of Jerusalem here. But it isn't all that good. And the author's conclusions are dubious at best. Suppose we were to see a history of Vilnius. We'd discover that the capital of Lithuania could be claimed by Russia, Belorus, or even Poland. Of course, these places have their own capitals. But why not steal someone else's? We could make up a story that some Russian Czar once dreamed of Vilnius. That ought to give folks a right to swipe it! And there is a demographic argument!... more info
Scholarly survey of 'the question of Jerusalem':
This book is a study of the `question of Jerusalem' in international diplomacy, a matter that is bound up with the question of Israel-Palestine relations. It presents a very detailed history of the city's troubled past and present.
Unhappy Palestine, so near to Europe, so dear to God! For millennia, three intolerant monotheisms have fought over the Holy Land, and the more religion has flourished, the less the chance of resolution. More recently, outside colonial forces, the Vatican particularly, have... more info
Well written but ultimately wrong.:
A misleading book in which under the thin gloss of scholarly objectivity, the very survival of Jerusalem is exposed to adversity.
Though smoothly technically proficient, the selection of "evidence" is highly militant: it advocates the end of Jerusalem as a Jewish capital and makes enormous efforts to hide the age-old connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem. It balances it symmetrically with connectedness to Jerusalem by others. It plays up everything it can get a hold of to prove that Jerusalem is... more info
