In the Sands of Sinai
In the Sands of Sinai

Author: Itzhak Brook

Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 9781466385443

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

October 1973: A young physician in Israel prepares to celebrate the Jewish High Holidays with his wife and children. Suddenly a military invasion changes his life forever. This book chronicles the author's transformation from a civilian to a wartime doctor. In vivid personal details, the author Itzhak Brook, a veteran of both the Israeli Defense Forces and the United States Navy, recounts his first experience in war. He describes his own doubt and misgivings of being a physician facing the daily struggle of survival in the Sinai battle zone. Expecting to heal his soldiers' physical combat wounds, Brook unexpectedly must address his soldiers' psychological battlefield trauma. In unvarnished details from the mundane to the catastrophic, he describes his perspective of a war that shaped his own life, and his nation's fragile identity.

Holy Image, Hallowed Ground
Holy Image, Hallowed Ground

Author: Robert S. Nelson

Publisher: Getty Trust Publications: J. P

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Isolated in the remote Egyptian desert, at the base of Mount Sinai, sits the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the Christian world. The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai holds the most important collection of Byzantine icons remaining today. This catalogue, published in conjuction with the exhibition Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai, on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from November 14, 2006, to March 4, 2007, features forty-three of the monastery's extremely rare--and rarely exhibited--icons and six manuscripts still little-known to the world at large. The exhibition and catalogue bring to life the central role of the icon in Byzantine religious practices. Themes include the icon's status as holy object, the ways in which the icon sanctified the place of worship, and the monks' quest for the holy. The Greek Orthodox monastery at Mount Sinai not only functioned as a major pilgrimage site for centuries but was also a cultural crossroads at the center of the shifting sands of ecclesiastical and secular politics. The accompanying essays explore how the monastery's contact with the outside world, through pilgrimage, resulted in aesthetic exchanges between the monastery and Coptic, Crusader, and Islamic art; and between the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities in Europe.

The Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War

Author: Abraham Rabinovich

Publisher: Schocken

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 590

ISBN-13: 0307429652

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An updated edition that sheds new light on one of the most dramatic reversals of military fortune in modern history. The easing of Israeli military censorship after four decades has enabled Abraham Rabinovich to offer fresh insights into this fiercest of Israel-Arab conflicts. A surprise Arab attack on two fronts on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, with Israel’s reserves un-mobilized, triggered apocalyptic visions in Israel, euphoria in the Arab world, and fraught debates on both sides. Rabinovich, who covered the war for The Jerusalem Post, draws on extensive interviews and primary source material to shape his enthralling narrative. We learn of two Egyptian nationals, working separately for the Mossad, who supplied Israel with key information that helped change the course of the war; of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan’s proposal for a nuclear “demonstration” to warn off the Arabs; and of Chief of Staff David Elazar’s conclusion on the fifth day of battle that Israel could not win. Newly available transcripts enable us to follow the decision-making process in real time from the prime minister’s office to commanders studying maps in the field. After almost overrunning the Golan Heights, the Syrian attack is broken in desperate battles. And as Israel regains its psychological balance, General Ariel Sharon leads a nighttime counterattack across the Suez Canal through a narrow hole in the Egyptian line -- the turning point of the war.

The Invention of the Jewish People
The Invention of the Jewish People

Author: Shlomo Sand

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2010-06-14

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 178168362X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A historical tour de force, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a groundbreaking account of Jewish and Israeli history. Exploding the myth that there was a forced Jewish exile in the first century at the hands of the Romans, Israeli historian Shlomo Sand argues that most modern Jews descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In this iconoclastic work, which spent nineteen weeks on the Israeli bestseller list and won the coveted Aujourd'hui Award in France, Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel's future.

The War of Atonement
The War of Atonement

Author: Chaim Herzog

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-11-06

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1510738800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the authoritative account of the Israeli army’s performance in the bitter Yom Kippur War of 1973. The origins of the war amid the turbulent history of competing powers in the Middle East are fully explored, as is the build-up of Arab forces that almost inexplicably caught Israel by surprise. The author then provides a gripping narrative of the conflict itself, punctuated by firsthand accounts and interviews with combatants. The War of Atonement is full of drama and tales of inspirational bravery, as Israel defied the odds to defeat the two-pronged invasion. An analysis of the political implications of the conflict bring this epic tale to a close. For this edition Chaim Herzog’s son, Brigadier General Michael Herzog, has written an introduction which places the book in the context of his father’s achievements and gives a revealing insight into the man himself. This is the most comprehensive work on a conflict that has had major implications for our own troubled times.

Refusenik!
Refusenik!

Author: Peretz Kidron

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 1848137664

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, called up to take part in controversial campaigns like the 1982 invasion of Lebanon or policing duties in the Palestinian territories today, have refused orders. Many of these 'refuseniks' have faced prison sentences rather than take part in what they regard as an unjust occupation in defence of illegal Jewish settlements. In this inspirational book, Peretz Kidron, himself a refusenik, gives us the stories, experiences, viewpoints, even poetry, of these courageous conscripts who believe in their country, but not in its actions beyond its borders. We read about the cautious, even embarrassed, response of the authorities. And we see the wider implications of the philosophy of selective refusal - which is not the same thing as pacifism -- for conscientious citizens in every country where conscription still exists. Here is a real model for the peace movement in Israel and worldwide.