17 – Israel today
BECAUSE the State of Israel is of such vital importance to us, both as a fulfilment of Bible prophecy and as a lead-in to coming events, your library will need to include some books about modern Israel. But remember that I am likely to say that about lots of other subjects too!
Israel: its land and people
Its importance to us as a community can be measured by the number of books published over the years about the emergence of Israel, which broadly coincided with the rediscovery of the Truth by Brother Thomas. Brother F. G. Jannaway was an early visitor to the land and chronicled its settlement in his books Palestine and the Jews (1914), Palestine and the Powers (1914) and Palestine and the World. This last work states in the preface: “The Right Hon. D. Lloyd George found the author’s previous book ‘most interesting’, that six Cabinet Ministers, many members of Parliament, well-known editors, incidental peers and Orientalists have thanked the author for facts incorporated in the present volume.” The 1922 copy of The Christadelphian has a hard-hitting review, on page 557, which is ironically titled “The Man Who Knows”. Those books have long since gone out of print, but can be found second-hand and they make fascinating reading because they were being written as the events were unfolding.
Later Christadelphian books have the advantage of hindsight and offer some historical perspective. In 1988 Brother John Collyer wrote Israel – Land and People of Destiny, which reviews matters as diverse as Jewish Religion, Dispersion, Zionism and Archaeology. This beautifully produced book, with lovely illustrations, is well worth reading. It replaced Brother Cyril Cooper’s Modern Israel (1973), and both have helpful bibliographies (the latter in the Foreword), should you want to dig deeper. In addition to these publications by the CMPA, CSSS produced Zion My Chiefest Joy (1979) and The Jewish Phenomenon (1986), the latter by Brother Dennis Elliott, though both deal mostly with Israel in Bible times.
The return
Should you want to follow the unfolding drama of the birth of Zionism and the events associated with the establishment of the Jewish state, there are some excellent accounts available. Barbara Tuchman’s Bible and Sword (1956) chronicles the circumstances that brought the British to Palestine. She writes in a lively and interesting style and is very informative. In Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews (1987), nearly 300 pages of this 600 page book are about emancipation and resettlement.
Should you prefer something illustrated, Martin Gilbert’s atlases are worth considering. They are black and white outline drawings, annotated with relevant details. His Atlas of Jewish History (2006) contains 146 maps which trace the history of Israel up to the present day and his other atlases include those on Jerusalem, the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Sir Martin Gilbert has written many other books about Jewish history. His Israel (now available in paperback) is 750 pages long and begins with events in 1862, so it is very much a chronicle of the reborn nation. His Letters to Auntie Fori (2002) deals with the Biblical and Historical eras, before summarising the Twentieth Century and Jewish Worship. All aspects are covered in letter format, as he explains Jewish life to a close friend who has asked for more information. If you want something light, which can be digested bit-by-bit (there are 140 letters), this might be just right.