It had to be written!

We pray for peace and even world leaders talk facilely about a two-state solution: evidently that ship has sailed.
Two weeks after the pogrom and living through news of the retribution I ask: ‘what could justice look like, and clearly the first step must be one of the deepest and most soul-searching repentance on the part of western movers and shakers acknowledging the parts our governments have played in this appalling shambles- shambles originally being the part of a city where blood and guts were to be found strewn everywhere around after the butchers had done their work. This is probably the most shocking audiobook I have read: nobody spared; balanced and fair in distributing the unbearable burden of guilt. What zI learn with utter disbelief is that every atrocity that has confronted us in the news of late- every act of terror and cruelty perpetrated in the last two weeks and for decades previous - has its precedent in what Barr has so vividly documented here.
What has always struck me in all this is that when equally horrific massacres are reported in the news, no campaigning organisation gets sympathetic coverage as regularly as the Zionist cause: what this audiobook makes clear is that everything that has happened in the past fortnight has its precedent in very recent history: European and American history! After all, persecution of Jews has been a predominantly aEurooesn phenomenon, and at base what moral authority could any western power claim particularly in the light of the crusades, for seeking to usePalestine as a scapegoat for our own guilt? The book poses this question from every legitimate angle and the answer it implies is perfectly clear.
Read the Hebrew Bible and see that the Philistines were around 2.000 years ago too!
What is terrible to even think about is the theory of Shlomo Sands in his best-selling book in Israel ‘the invention of the Jewish people,’
that the people we call Palestinians may, in reality, have been Jewish originally themselves: it’s another book, but the idea that these could just be the same people fighting one another, is the worst of all nightmares, though history tells us that the most vicious wars are civil ones!
So we pray for peace and justice: what do they look like? Perhaps the horrors and intrigues recounted in this book could form a basis if the world can be brought to own up to them and be honestly willing to help make amends.

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3 people found this helpful

Essential reading

A seismic leap for forward for anyone wanting to comprehend the complex chaos of the Middle East.

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1 person found this helpful

A real eye opener

A mind blowing account of the turmoil in the ME caused by outsiders, much of which, you don't learn in school! Every party involved should be ashamed of their actions that caused so much disruption that continues to this day. Great narration. I have one dispute to make about the Mufti of Jerusalem "aiding" Hitler, as this wasn't the case.He wanted a German "Balfour Declaration" for the Arabs, but was turned down.

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Interesting but dry

What should have been an interesting and fascinating insight into this world and this time, was made incredibly difficult by the flat dry reading. Because of this, my mind wandered, and I struggled with remaining engaged.

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Well explained insight - i only knew the outine

Having grown up many generations after the period in question and having just studied secondary school history of the first and second world wars this book is a great insight into the "levant" region now commonly known as the middle east.

It eloquently charts the tit for tat tactics of two former world powers vying for lands and oil in the middle east to loose their foreign colonys in the region and finally culminates with the setting up of the state of Israel with the support of the superpower of the USA and the rejection of British Rule in Palestine much to the satisfaction of France as they had been expelled some years earlier from Syria by local elections where the British backed nationalist candidates.

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Great introduction to a complex issue

Well researched, well structured history book written so masterfully, it will leave you wanting more. As a complete layman in terms of geopolitics, I found myself researching more and more figures and topics related to the subject. The reading was pleasant, engaging and well produced. Wholehartedly recommend!

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3 people found this helpful

Impressive research - lacks local perspective

This is a very informative, densely written, account of the machinations of the British and French regarding the Middle East during the first half of the 20th Century. It conveys the difficulty of the situation that both countries found themselves in, while pulling no punches regarding the often abhorrent decisions they made. To this non-expert, it comes across as an excellent piece of research.

--- A weakness is that it is almost entirely focused on Britain and France, or more accurately a series of powerful British and French people. The motivations of some Middle Eastern leaders are briefly discussed. The perspective of the ordinary person living in Iraq, Syria or Palestine, is ignored.

--- The narration is appropriate for the book: clear, precise, hard and dry.

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Fantastic book

Great audiobook. As an amateur historian I highly recommend this audiobook, the narrator has done a fantastic job and the writing is of the best quality. A great adventure and story of colonial ambition that still resonates today.

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well worth a listen

i knew some of this story but not the details. i had the highlights of Lawrence of Arabia & Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem and the bombing of the King David Hotel etc. All the high (or low) points taught from the British centric point of view. However digging into the detail of just time between the late 1890’s and 1948 leaving aside the Ottoman Empire and The Crusades i don’t think any country or persons come out of this with much glory. (except Gertrude Bell but she does not figure large in this history)

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wow

great for learning about middle east politics during early to mid 20century and how is effecting now in palistein

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