Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
By Amy Dockster Marcus
Viking Adult, 2007
When did the Israeli-Arab conflict begin? Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli
Conflict by Amy Dockster Marcus, a short
book of journalism and
history, finds those beginnings in the year 1913. As the Ottoman Empire drew its last breath in the
Holy Land, war threatened to tear apart
Europe. The Muslims prepared to take
control over Palestine as the British positioned their military and diplomatic
forces. European Jews selected Palestine as the best site for their homeland
and began to buy up land. These events
came together to shape the conflict that
we are experiencing today, 95 years
later.
Marcus, the Wall Street Journal's Israel
correspondent from 1980-1991, sees
pre-1913 Jerusalem as a city of peace.
She describes the colorful daily life of
the city where Jew, Christian and Muslim lived in interreligious harmony. For
example, she explains, "The unspoken
rule was that if you were baking and
your neighbor could smell what was
cooking...then a portion...was sent over,
so that every neighbor could share in
the other's good fortune." Marcus recounts the conflicts over domination of
the city so central to the three monotheistic faiths. To trace the complexities, she follows three men who shaped
Jerusalem's future: Albert Antebi, a Syrian Jew who urged strong relationships
with Arabs; Arthur Ruppin, the Zionist
who helped create Jewish settlements;
and Ruhi Khalidi, a Muslim who opposed Jewish expansion.
Each of these men, less familiar to
the modern reader than their contemporaries Theodor Herzl or David
Ben-Gurion, embodies the wisdom and
fear of that period. Using their writing,
speeches and musings, the author makes
a convincing case that 1913 was the year
when everything began to go wrong.
Marcus writes clearly and with conviction, using equal-handed treatment
and powerful story-telling capabilities.
As painted by her, multicultural Jerusalem comes to teeming life, even
as it teeters on the edge of the future.
As Arthur Ruppin, the book's Zionist,
wisely observes: "It is not a question of
what we would like but of what we can
have." — Susan Willens
Discussion Questions
The best discussion of the book can start with a simple question: "Why 1913?" After that, these specific questions may open up the discussion.
1. In Palestine, what was the role of the Zionist Congress in general and Theodore Herzl in particular in 1897?
2. What was happening among the Arabs of Palestine and Syria, within the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire at the turn of the 20th century? How did all those forces act on the Jews in Jerusalem and in Europe?
3. "The city had its own rhythms, a music that wound its way through everyone's lives" (p. 45). What effect do the early chapters of "Jerusalem 1898" have on your experience of the events that follow?
4. Amy Dockser Marcus creates her picture of Palestine through the lives of Arthur Ruppin, Ruhi Khalidi, and Albert Antebi. Discuss each of these gentlemen closely, in small groups or after choosing an advocate for each, to define his character, his passion, his achievements.
5. "The Zionists offered a kind of solace for the national pride of the Jews, combined with a muscular vision of how things might be instead." Discuss how Zionism as an ideology shaped these early years for Israel.
