Israel

Alan Dowty's book "The Birth of the Jewish State" explores how a community of Jewish refugees became a modern nation-state and homeland of half the world's Jews, tracing the story from the Ottoman Empire to the present. Despite its success, Israel remains a center of contention and is torn between its role as a normal nation and its unique Jewish history.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 198 pages
Publication date: 02 July 2021
Publisher: Polity Press

How did a community of a few thousand Jewish refugees become, in little over a century, a modern nation-state and homeland of half the world's Jews? Has modern Israel fulfilled the Zionist vision of becoming a nation like other nations, or is it still, in Biblical terms, a people that dwells alone?

Alan Dowty distills over half a century of study as an inside/outside analyst of Israel in tracing this remarkable story. It begins in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, when Jews fleeing Russian persecution established a renewed Jewish presence in their historic homeland. It continues through harsh struggle and in deep-rooted conflict with another people that sees Israel/Palestine equally as their homeland. Immensely successful by most standards, Israel today remains a center of contention and is still torn between its hard-earned role as a normal nation and the call of its particularistic, and unique, Jewish history.

Weight: 194g
Dimension: 116 x 172 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509536900