THE FAITHFUL CITY: The Siege of Jerusalem- 1948

This long and detailed account of Jerusalem under siege provides an excellent if controversial picture of the forces which supported and resisted the creation of Israel. Written by a high Israeli official, a man who lived through the bitter years of 1947-1948, it has an immediacy and passion all too often lacking in history. Its accounts of battles, starvations, the fall of the Old City, and the interminable truce disputes, are real indeed. Unfortunately it pays for this with an obvious lack of objectivism. Its burning, partisan point of view is almost consistently anti-British. The lauded Count Bernadotte is summed up as being often unreasonable, even pro-Arab. And the bureaucracy of the Count's U.N. mission is blamed for the Count's death at the hands of Stern Gang terrorists. However, opinion has its important place in historical writing, and this is an example of it at its best. Well-written, informative, moving, and certainly one of the important books to come out of modern Israel.