The Battle for Jerusalem: An Unintended Conquest (50th Anniversary Edition)

By Abraham Rabinovich

Book Overview

Including a chapter on post-war Jerusalem

"Prose that is as graphic as it is lucid. The Battle for Jerusalem is deservedly acclaimed as a classic of its genre." Prof. Howard M. Sachar, author of A History of Israel.

"Extraordinarily dramatic". Prof. Edward N. Luttwak, author of Stategy: The Logic of War and Peace

Abraham Rabinovich arrived in Jerusalem five days before the Six Day War as a reporter for an American newspaper. He covered the battle for the city and was on the Temple Mount a few hours after its capture. To understand the momentous events he had witnessed, he subsequently interviewed 300 soldiers, officials and civilians.

The conquest of the Old City, a major event in modern Middle East history, was something that Israel's leaders had not planned and that some of them did not want.

The book was written soon after the war, when memories were fresh. The current revised edition expands the context, political and military, and offers new perspective from both sides of the battlefield.

With the outbreak of war with Egypt, Israel sought to avoid a second front. Hours after Jordan opened artillery fire, Israel refrained from substantive retaliation as it sought a cease-fire. Only after Jordanian troops penetrated the Jewish city did Israel respond on the ground, and even then in measured stages.

The Israeli cabinet was divided over capture of the Old City. It was, surprisingly, the religious ministers who argued against it most vigorously. They feared that Israel could not stand up to international pressure if it annexed an entity that was not just the cradle of Jewish history but also sacred to Christianity and Islam. However, events created a vacuum on the West Bank into which Israel was inexorably pulled, step by step.

We witness the heated debate in Jordanian military headquarters where King Hussein had handed over command of his army to an Egyptian general. The latter's strategy was designed to meet Egypt's needs, not Jordan's. It would cost Jordan the West Bank.

The book begins with a description of Jerusalem as a divided city, split between Israel and Jordan since Israel's War of Independence. With the onset of the crisis in 1967, anxiety grips Israeli Jerusalem which had been besieged for months in the earlier war and elaborate emergency measures are set into motion. On the Arab side of the city, by contrast, there is euphoria and anticipation of an easy victory. Virtually nothing is done to prepare the civilian sector.

The Israeli general staff pushes for a pre-emptive air strike against Egypt but the government resists. Tensions reach a point where at least one general, Ariel Sharon, considers the possibility of a putsch. The appointment of Moshe Dayan as defense minister opens the way to war.

Defense of Israeli Jerusalem is entrusted to the Jerusalem Brigade, made up of local reservists. The greatest concern is Mount Scopus, an Israeli enclave behind Jordanian lines. An Israeli armored brigade is dispatched from the coastal plain with orders to reach Scopus by flanking the Jordanian line. It would have to breach thick minefields and scale difficult terrain as it races a brigade of Jordanian tanks coming up from Jericho. With time pressing, a paratroop brigade is ordered to relieve Scopus by driving through the center of the Jordanian defenses.

The reader follows the grueling battles in the trenches of Ammunition Hill and the streets of east Jerusalem through the eyes of the men who fought there. We see the growing isolation of the Jordanian garrison in the Old City, their last bastion. In a room lit only by distant flares, the Jordanian commander informs the local governor that he is pulling his troops out. A number of soldiers choose to remain and engage the Israeli troops from the alleys and ramparts of the walled city. A classic tale.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1544227272
• ISBN13: 9781544227276
• Release Date: April 2017
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 474 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An outstanding account of a historic battle

This book has just been reprinted by Sefer v' Sefel Publications in Jerusalem. They have made a very attractive book with many pictures of the participants of the battle, and the battlefields themselves. Rabinovitch interviewed over three- hundred people, traveled all over the country for this work. He is a first- rate journalist and he has a real eye for the battlefield and ear for those who were able to tell their stories of what happened. I have done research on an important figure in the whole story Rabbi Shlomo Goren, and paid special attention to Rabinovitch's account of Rabbi Goren on that day. It was moving, and dramatic, and caught the spirit of the time. The whole story, the threat to Israel before the 67 war, the build- up of tension with the long - waiting period, the great fear that another Holocaust might be on the way, - all this followed by the dramatic turnaround the startling unexpected victory which had as its penultimate stage the taking and retaking of Jerusalem is chronicled here. The fact is that there would not have been a battle for Jerusalem had not the Jordanians attacked. Rabinovich tells the story of many of the quiet heroes of the battle, the people from every walk of life who came to defend their homes and found themselves part of the one great moments of modern Jewish history. This is journalism at the highest level about a great historical event.

The best book on the Subject

In June 1967 the third Arab Israeli war broke out. Although Jerusalem had been but a side show and not a prime objective, it ended up being one of the symbols and one of the most important victories in the war. Famous scenes of men crying at the Western Wall(the holiest site in Judaism) and Dayan(eye patch included) strolling down the Old city steps. Similar important battles such as Ammunition hill went down in Israeli military history as some of the bloodiest and bravest ever fought. Of all the books on the six day war, this is by far the best one on the Battle for jerusalem. Many subjects are covered, including the many units involved, the commands, the ordinary soldiers, the UN workers, the Mayor, the Israeli museum, the children and the hospital staff. Few people are left unmentioned in this tour of the battlefield, that puts the reader in the picture. The only downside of this book, like most on the conflict, is an almost total lack of maps and few if any acounts of the jordanian experience. Nevertheless this is the standard on the subject. Seth J.Frantzman