Some truth in advertising is needed here: This is a work not so much about the main founder and leader of the modern state of Israel as it is a record of the entire Jewish Agency Executive (JAE), the de facto governing body of the Jewish community in mandatory Palestine, in trying to rescue Jews for the Nazi death machine. Teveth—author of Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground (1987), the best biography of the leader to date—spends less time in setting out his subject's record than in attempting to refute the work of other Israeli journalists and historians who argue that he and the JAE were far more focused on nation-building in Palestine than on helping to relieve the terrible plight of European Jewry. In contrast, Teveth unqualifiedly asserts that Ben-Gurion was engaged in ``ceaseless efforts to save Europe's Jews.'' In arguing this hypothesis, he does an excellent job in describing the extremely constricted context in which ``B-G'' and other JAE leaders vainly tried to influence Allied policy: Palestine was a geopolitical ``backwater''; its Jewish population of less than 600,000 lacked arms and was itself gravely threatened by Rommel in North Africa. In addition, the British censored news about the Holocaust and blocked almost all immigration to Palestine. While unearthing a great deal of interesting material, Teveth does not make an entirely convincing case; in fact, he cites several quotes that seem to offer more support to Ben-Gurion's critics than to his defenders. Finally, Teveth simplifies, to the point of misrepresentation, the views of some of B-G's critics, most notably, Israeli journalist and historian Tom Segev. Segev, Teveth claims wrongly, feels that ``Israel, built on the ruins of Europe's Jews and Palestine's Arabs, has no right to exist as a Jewish state.'' This tendentious paraphrasing of Segev's views exemplifies Teveth's generally no-holds-barred defense of Ben-Gurion and the entire JAE, and undermines the presentation of a historical record that is more ambiguous than Teveth would have it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100237-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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