The Cursed Swamps Book Club

THE cursed swamps BOOK CLUB

books, essays & paraphernalia on Israeli and Jewish history, reviewed and rated by

for your next SHABBAT read

sorty by

^?

Biased towards common Israeli or Arab narratives

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

get from amazon

Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

get from amazon

Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

get from amazon

Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

get from amazon

Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

get from amazon

Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

get from amazon

Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

get from amazon

Norman A. Rose

Chaim Weizmann: A Biography

1986

544

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

17

Norman Rose’s Weizmann is a clean, thoughtful, and highly readable portrait, an excellent example of what a biography should be.

It’s exactly the kind of work Israel’s first president - the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration and so many other pivotal moments in the country’s history - deserves.

I chose this one over the other respected (and more recent) biography mainly because of its length: the newer volume is nearly twice as long and seems better suited for deeper research, which I’ll certainly return to someday. Despite its somewhat imposing hardcover appearance, Rose’s book is actually a comfortable, mid-sized read.

get from amazon

Saul Bellow

To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account

1976

192

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

16

This is a travelogue by the great American writer and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow from 1976, three years after the dust of the Yom Kippur War had settled and eight years after the publication of his magnum opus, Herzog.

Bellow meets all sorts of people in Israel — diplomats, spiritual and cultural elite, and ordinary men — stitching everything he hears together seemingly without any particular narrative.

As with any writer’s reporting, it sometimes goes a bit too far into side-thinking, irrelevant poetic pauses, name-dropping, and, well, American overthinking about the country or America itself.

At the same time, it’s an interesting read for a short break between more history-focused books — a unique kaleidoscope of portraits and opinions, some of them exceptionally interesting: from Rabin to Kissinger, from Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek to Sartre.

Reading it from Israel in 2025, it is curious to see how exactly nothing in political thinking, history reading, the descriptive language of the conflict — has changed, or rather keeps reproducing itself. In that sense it provides some comforting about today's turmoil.

get from amazon

Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 & the Making of the Modern Middle East

2001

480

pp.

Should

READ

bias

▒▒░

15

This book is a painfully detailed timeline of the events leading up to and during the Six-Day War. I wouldn’t really call it a book though — it’s more of an exhaustive research project, at least on the Israeli and American sides, and what’s known of the Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Soviet perspectives, complete with a massive list of footnotes.

Being a professional diplomat himself, Oren is particularly interested in every path, dead end, and decision-making process on the eve of the war. He introduces dozens of political figures, plenty of diplomatic jargon and allusions, and doesn’t seem concerned with entertaining the reader. But that’s exactly what makes the account so clear — it’s anything but a simplistic view or propaganda.

If you’re just looking for a general overview of the Six-Day War, this probably isn’t your best option — you might not even get through the first chapters. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine a serious discussion of the war with anyone who’s skipped it.

get from amazon

Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic

2010

104

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒░░

14

This is a tiny book, more of an introduction to decades of the great writer's political commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for English readers.

A print version of his public lectures and a interview, it's simple, full of intellectual punchlines and non-trivial personal views. It's that case where "this could be an email", but it's quite handy in a form of a book to take with you for a beach day.

get from amazon

Matti Friedman

Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War

2016

272

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

13

Pumpkinflowers is an incredibly well-written little book hard to categorize.

It waltzes like a multidirectional swing between documentary, memoir, journalism and history around the war that never was — a time between the two Lebanon wars, with soldiers left in limbo for years at the outposts on the Lebanon side of the border.

It is apolitical in a sense that it doesn’t carry any agenda common to other books focused on Israeli wars. But having a massive career in journalism, Matti still finds ways to embed and illustrate his sharp observer talent.

What there is though, is a captured feeling of the Israeli society in a very special moment which eludes regular scholarly timeline, captured like a frozen insect between the chapters and shown through the eyes of 3-5 soldiers, including Matti himself.

It is extremely easy and quick to read, sometimes poetic in the best sense of the word, but punches you in the nose at every other chapter, without drama one would expect of a war memoir, which makes it even more haunting.

It's probably one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust

2000

593

pp.

Could

READ

bias

░░░

12

The Seventh Million details complex relationship and positioning of the Yeshuv towards Holocaust in the wake of, during, and after the WW2.

Segev’s book, as all his work, dismantles dozens of myths in the common Israeli mindsets, exposing the hard truth: Zionist leadership in Palestine could not do anything to save European jewry without damage to their state-building cause and systematically chose not to, whilst almost never hesitating to exploit their European brother’s suffering.

The book is at times a bit repetitive which you won’t find it Segev’s later works, but is still extremely insightful.

Seeing that the first part is mostly dedicated to Zionist leadership response to Holocaust, it reads well as a second part of Segev’s own “A State at any Cost”, Ben-Gurion’s biography.

get from amazon

Oren Kessler

Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict

2023

336

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

11

Published in just 2023, Kessler’s work is the first exploration of the (Great) Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939 for general audience. Which only underlines the tremendous lack of accessible historical material in this seemingly world-shaking conflict.

As every historian makes a bet on what to consider the zero hour of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Kessler argues that the revolt may very well be it, but at the very list it still massively influenced or even predetermined everything that followed, leading up the consequences of War of Independence.

The book undertakes a fresh (for me) approach: the key events of the revolt are followed through a set of biographies of relevant figures, somewhat equally divided between Jewish, Arab and British portraits. This turns it into a dynamic and volumetric narration, rich in details, even though quite short.

It is worth mentioning that Kessler lost a close relative as a first responder on October 7, the day he also had a wedding.

get from amazon

Tom Segev

A State at Any Cost. The Biography of David Ben Gurion

2019

816

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

10

The people whose opinions are detested by both sides might be correct. “Both the left and right are correct,” Micah Goodman writes in his new book Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War.

“The arguments for both sides have proven valid. Hence the crisis.”Goodman, best known until now for a brilliant book about the rabbi Maimonides, a surprise best seller in Israel, refuses to traffic in the old clichés.

Catch-67, despite its title, is not really about the Six-Day War but about what Israel can do to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, the fallout from decades of failed peace talks.Goodman wants to repair Israeli political argument, which he knows is badly broken.

The debate about peace has devolved into mudslinging and catchphrases. The right sees Palestinians as a security threat that must be kept under control. The left still looks to them as partners for peace. “One camp is afraid of returning to Egypt, and the other camp is afraid of turning into Egypt,” he says. Both have a point, but neither will admit that the other side has one, too.

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Menachem Begin

White nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia

1957

240

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

9

Menachem Begin, one of the most memorable Prime Ministers of Israel and the self-proclaimed heir to Jabotinsky, spent two years in an NKVD prison and Pechorlag at the beginning of the Russian phase of World War II. He was released by what can only be described as a miracle—a glitch in Soviet-Polish diplomacy.

His memoir offers a grim insight into the oppression of Zionists by the Soviets during the war, with their Kafkaesque ideological mindtricks. Fortunately, it avoids the excessive physiological detail typical of Soviet-era prison literature, making it bearable to read.

I would say it is important to read this one if you want to better understand Begin and his generation.

A startling fact: when the book was first published, many doubted its authenticity, accusing Begin of exaggeration—particularly in the way he described his daring communication with his interrogators. However, the declassification of his interrogation transcripts after the collapse of the Soviet Union largely confirmed his account.

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Daniel Gordis

Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul

2014

320

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

8

Begin is probably the least understood prime minister from today's people eyes. Yet, as Gordis shows, his deeds could be structured along a handful of principles which are far from just being extreme.

Although written by an American zionist which leads to oversimplifaction and some omissions which are hardly unconscious, this book is a great intro to Begin for beginners. It is extremely clearly written, and structured to be read.

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Hillel Halkin

Jabotinsky: A Life

2014

264

pp.

Could

READ

bias

▒▒▒

7

Hillel Halkin is a respected Israeli translator, novelist, and critic, which promised a great biography. It is a nice one, but, as probably conditioned by the contract of Yale’s Jewish Lives series, it is painfully short, giving no room for Halkin’s own voice.

Personally, I would prefer the same number of pages filled with Halkin’s meditations over Jabo, instead of him trying to squeeze Jabotinsky’s life timeline between the tight covers.

Halkin, being a literary person and obviously chosen because of this to author this biography, just like Jabo himself, balances between Jabo’s literature and Jabo’s Zionism, and one can clearly see which one he enjoys describing more—which is, of course, understandable.

Overall, it’s definitely not a bad read and is useful for beginners. The best parts of it, as expected, are Halkin's explorations of Jabo's ideology, which Jabo clearly deserves after decades of being branded a fascist—first by mainstream Zionism and the Israeli left, then by anti-Israeli scholars and activists.

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Derek Penslar

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader

2020

256

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

6

Lectures by Derek Penslar, the scholar of the emotional history of all things Jewish, are always packed with deep historical insights and exemplary center-left thought, but this book makes one realize that a biography of even such a short-lived protagonist under 300 pages is simply not enough.

While Penslar’s introduction to this work is as good as his other writings and speeches, the rest of the book is somewhat rushed and runs out of steam towards the end, without structurally answering the key question: why Herzl was and still is so magnetic.

Just like in the case of Halkin’s Jabotinsky biography, one could blame Yale’s series for it.

Penslar’s main innovation is dissecting Herzl’s mental instability, with the center of his structure dedicated to Herzl’s fit in 1895 leading to the creation of his cornerstone writings and energy for Zionist activities right up to his deathbed.

It is, though, probably the best alternative to any other Herzl biography, which would be waxed and sterilized—and for this critical approach, we owe Penslar a big hug.

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Leon Pinsker

Auto-Emancipation!

1882

40

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒▒

5

A canonical pre-Herzlian essay on the role of Jews subject to other nations. Although sometimes socially inapropriate for moden times, it is extremely well written.

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Micah Goodman

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War

2017

264

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒░░

4

Goodman’s book was a bestseller in Israel of 2017, a more of a calm era where something could be written on the Palestinian conflict without a need to rewrite it from scratch in a month’s time.

Goodman attempted a daring try to publish a very short analytical report which under normal circumstances should have ended up on a limited number of desks, but he packed it into something for a wider audience instead.

My favorite part of the book is a super brief description of evolution of the left and the right ideologies in Israel, something I couldn’t get in basic history books focused more on specific events.

Goodman’s style is extremely repetitive with every statement opening and closing each chapter, and reinstated at the beginning of the next one. Weirdly, it is not annoying and helps you follow his line even with intermittent reading.

Although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his conclusions, I would say that’s the top book I would recommend for someone trying to understand the Israeli part of the West Bank issue.

‍

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Moshe Dayan

Living with the Bible

1978

232

pp.

Should

READ

bias

░░░

3

A slowcore, haunting set of memories by Israel’s most famous historic personality. Each chapter splits into two with the first one describing the events from selected portions of biblical stories, and the second one talking about Dayan's own life experiences related to mentioned locations and narratives - battles, people, archeological finds (Dayan's thing), intimate memories.

This book is nothing close to what one would expect from an iconic military man, and the language is extremely beautiful. I would probably re-read it in 20 years from now, just to get myself into that meditative state once more.

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Benny Morris

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War

2008

544

pp.

Must

READ

bias

░░░

2

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Avi Shlaim

The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Expanded

2014

670

pp.

Must

READ

bias

▒▒░

1

A hard blow on Palestine's leadership and society of the Holocaust period

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TOTAL

17

reads

6167

PAGES

extra:

- an evergreen playlist of Israeli/Hebrew acts and composers

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