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The Fight for Jerusalem
Jerusalem under Siege
In The Fight for Jerusalem , bestselling author and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold explains why radical Islamists seek to divide and conquer Jerusalem and raze sites holy for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. With the United Nations untrustworthy and global jihad making waves, the city is a ticking time bomb. Gold shows why only Israel can preserve its sanctuaries for different religions and why uncovering Jerusalem's past and biblical truths prove crucial to saving it.
In The Fight for Jerusalem , bestselling author and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold explains why radical Islamists seek to divide and conquer Jerusalem and raze sites holy for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. With the United Nations untrustworthy and global jihad making waves, the city is a ticking time bomb. Gold shows why only Israel can preserve its sanctuaries for different religions and why uncovering Jerusalem's past and biblical truths prove crucial to saving it.
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First published January 1, 2006
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About the author
Dore Gold
27 books17 followersIsidor "Dore" Gold was an American-Israeli political scientist and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations from 1997 to 1999. He was the President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was also an advisor to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office. In May 2015, Netanyahu named him Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until October 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 10, 2010
This book could be called the case for Jewish controlled Jerusalem. This book argues that internationalization and Palestinian appeasement are both failed policies when it comes to the Holy city. Reading this book made me rethink my personal views.
August 18, 2009
A great history lesson on why Israel is the best choice to to govern Jerusalem -- but it is a bit too long and detailed. A bit like reading an encyclopedia.
June 30, 2011
The Fight for Jerusalem is a retelling of Jerusalem’s formative moments as well as the current bitter struggle for control of the holy city. Offering up the Israeli perspective, it provides a convincing argument for why modern Jerusalem should be governed by the Middle East’s sole Jewish state and not the Palestinian Authority. The author, Dore Gold, describes the record of problems with the Arabs and radical Islam. However, the text largely reads as a long and dry chronological timeline. Its narrative resembles a detailed survey from a mostly one-sided foreign affairs or history textbook. This is combined with a policy review of recent diplomatic accords that attempted and failed to resolve the conflict, including the ill-fated efforts of President Clinton.
This book is likely to be an invaluable fact finding resource that convincingly explains why Israel makes the decisions it does concerning Jerusalem. I highly recommend utilizing this text as debate preparation concerning Israel and Jerusalem, though it might be interesting to find additional writing from a credible Palestinian author for a second perspective. The author also strived to defeat the claim of “Temple Denial,” a bizarre recent development in Arab culture dismissing the past existence of a Jewish place of worship on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Gold suggests this argument is an underhanded method, propagated by the late Yasir Arafat and other Arab thinkers, to undermine Israeli’s claim on the holy city.
This book is likely to be an invaluable fact finding resource that convincingly explains why Israel makes the decisions it does concerning Jerusalem. I highly recommend utilizing this text as debate preparation concerning Israel and Jerusalem, though it might be interesting to find additional writing from a credible Palestinian author for a second perspective. The author also strived to defeat the claim of “Temple Denial,” a bizarre recent development in Arab culture dismissing the past existence of a Jewish place of worship on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Gold suggests this argument is an underhanded method, propagated by the late Yasir Arafat and other Arab thinkers, to undermine Israeli’s claim on the holy city.
February 8, 2021
The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, The West, and The Future of the Holy City by Dore Gold, bestselling author and the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, attempts to explains why radical Islamists seek to divide and conquer Jerusalem and destroy sites that are holy for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. With the uncertainty of the United Nations and the activities of the global jihadists, Jerusalem is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode with racial and religious hatreds that have been building for centuries. As control of the holly city has changed hands often over many generations, the author provides analysis to show how internationalizing Jerusalem and appeasement with the Palestinians have both failed and suggests that only Israel can safely preserve its sanctuaries for different religions. This book explores Jerusalem's past and biblical truths from an Israeli perspective and explains why having Israel take on the responsibilities for governing Jerusalem will prove crucial to saving it.
July 21, 2016
I wanted to get to know more about this endless topic so I picked up this book ... and I was disappointed and I abandoned it after reading the first 100 pages and scanning through the rest of it.
The author doesn't even try to take a neutral stand neither in tone nor in content.
This is just a common story with two characters: the innocent "me" and the villain "you"
"Judaism has already proven its tolerant outlook on Jerusalem and its holy sites. Ancient Judaism believed in freedom of worship in Jerusalem, even permitting non-Jews to offer sacrifices at the Temple. Of course, neither Christianity nor Islam yet existed for most of the temple periods."
The author doesn't even try to take a neutral stand neither in tone nor in content.
This is just a common story with two characters: the innocent "me" and the villain "you"
"Judaism has already proven its tolerant outlook on Jerusalem and its holy sites. Ancient Judaism believed in freedom of worship in Jerusalem, even permitting non-Jews to offer sacrifices at the Temple. Of course, neither Christianity nor Islam yet existed for most of the temple periods."
May 17, 2011
The entire history of the battles over Jerusalem. An incredibly informative book.
January 26, 2013
Great info. And a very interesting take on everything. I loved it.
Read
July 15, 2017Very interesting so far. Reads like a text book, though, so it's taking me a while to plow through in between interruptions.
June 6, 2017
As someone who reads a fair amount of the Middle East [1], I have certain expectations about a book like this. I would like to state at the outset that this book was surprising but in a way that was extremely impressive. This is not the sort of book that will be enjoyed by those who are apologists for the PLO and who are hostile to Israel. In this tour de force, the author strikes me as the student in the class who knows all the answers and leaves no gracious option to those with whom she is in a debate. Since my own opinions are along the author's, and I am generally familiar with much of what she has to say, I did not find the book to be unpleasant. On the contrary, I thought it was an excellent read, among the finest audiobooks I have ever listened to. That said, I know there are going to be some people who do not like this book at all. If you are hostile to Israel and fancy yourself to be have a rational and empirical and justifiable view on Jerusalem and Israel based on history and truth, this book will likely be a painful read or listen. Sometimes the truth hurts, and this book hits with particular force.
It is worth keeping in mind that this book, although it contains a great deal of historical context as well as analysis of contemporary political, diplomatic, and religious events, is basically a legal brief submitted before the court of public opinion that argues the position that Jerusalem is best served under undivided Israeli sovereignty. Everything included in this book serves that end, from a discussion of the context of the history of Jerusalem to some withering criticism of the European Union and the failure of the international community to act in defense of the Israeli people and their interests in order to appease the Arabs. Although the author does not go into the details of Europe in the period before World War II, the author appears to making an implicit comparison between contemporary extremist Muslims and Hitler and his acolytes as being emboldened by appeasement with immensely destructive results for Jews and Christians. The brief as a whole can be structured with an introduction to the problem, a discussion of the historical context, as well as a discussion of contemporary trends, and then a brief series of recommendations that ought not to be surprising for those who have read or listened to the previous material.
This is one of those books that provides striking insight to the troubles in the Middle East and to why the problem is so difficult. For one, it appears as if prophetic hobbyists among both the Christian and Muslims camps have a great deal of interest in Jerusalem as the sign of the impending end times, and some people believe that their actions can help induce the return of the Mahdi or Jesus Christ. For another, it appears as if there are unbridgeable gaps between the maximum concessions each party is willing to give and the minimum conditions each is willing to make. At best, it might be possible to achieve a modus vivendi assuming the elimination of political power of hard-liners on the Muslim side and a sidelining of EU deals that lack moral legitimacy. The odds for the best case scenario do not appear particularly high, and the author does a great job of warning the reader of the effects of unilateral concessions in the absence of firm strength, as well as the overcoupling of the Jerusalem problem with other areas of Muslim extremism around the world. This was an educational volume, and anyone who cannot answer the detailed evidence and pointed questions of the author has no business parroting pro-PLO propaganda and passing themselves off as an expert.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
It is worth keeping in mind that this book, although it contains a great deal of historical context as well as analysis of contemporary political, diplomatic, and religious events, is basically a legal brief submitted before the court of public opinion that argues the position that Jerusalem is best served under undivided Israeli sovereignty. Everything included in this book serves that end, from a discussion of the context of the history of Jerusalem to some withering criticism of the European Union and the failure of the international community to act in defense of the Israeli people and their interests in order to appease the Arabs. Although the author does not go into the details of Europe in the period before World War II, the author appears to making an implicit comparison between contemporary extremist Muslims and Hitler and his acolytes as being emboldened by appeasement with immensely destructive results for Jews and Christians. The brief as a whole can be structured with an introduction to the problem, a discussion of the historical context, as well as a discussion of contemporary trends, and then a brief series of recommendations that ought not to be surprising for those who have read or listened to the previous material.
This is one of those books that provides striking insight to the troubles in the Middle East and to why the problem is so difficult. For one, it appears as if prophetic hobbyists among both the Christian and Muslims camps have a great deal of interest in Jerusalem as the sign of the impending end times, and some people believe that their actions can help induce the return of the Mahdi or Jesus Christ. For another, it appears as if there are unbridgeable gaps between the maximum concessions each party is willing to give and the minimum conditions each is willing to make. At best, it might be possible to achieve a modus vivendi assuming the elimination of political power of hard-liners on the Muslim side and a sidelining of EU deals that lack moral legitimacy. The odds for the best case scenario do not appear particularly high, and the author does a great job of warning the reader of the effects of unilateral concessions in the absence of firm strength, as well as the overcoupling of the Jerusalem problem with other areas of Muslim extremism around the world. This was an educational volume, and anyone who cannot answer the detailed evidence and pointed questions of the author has no business parroting pro-PLO propaganda and passing themselves off as an expert.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
December 10, 2025
The Fight for Jerusalem captures the deep religious significance of Jerusalem across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; and the way that history and theology intersect with modern geopolitics. Gold's main points are as follows:
🌍 Jerusalem’s Unique Role in the 3 Faiths
Judaism: Jerusalem is the spiritual and historical heart of Jewish identity. The First and Second Temples stood there for nearly a millennium, making it the focal point of Jewish worship and longing. Even after their destruction, prayers and rituals. continued to center on Jerusalem.
Christianity: The city is tied to pivotal events in Jesus’s life—his crucifixion, resurrection, and early church history. Yet its importance has fluctuated: from being a central pilgrimage site during the Crusades to a more symbolic “Spiritual Jerusalem” in later centuries.
Islam: Jerusalem is revered as the site of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey (Isra and Mi’raj), where he ascended to heaven from the “distant mosque” (traditionally identified as Al-Aqsa). It is Islam’s third holiest city after Mecca and Medina.
Rise of Islamic lFundamentalism
Gold’s analysis emphasizes two turning points
Shift from Tolerance to Schism: Early Islam granted Jews and Christians “dhimmi” status—protected but subordinate. Over time, sectarian divides (Sunni vs. Shiite) and political struggles hardened attitudes toward outsiders.
Territorial Concessions as Catalysts: The argument is that Israeli withdrawals (e.g., from Gaza in 2005, or southern Lebanon in 2000) were interpreted by radical groups not as steps toward peace but as signs of weakness, encouraging further aggression in pursuit of a broader Islamist vision of a caliphate.
Why This Matters Post–October 7, 2023
The Hamas attacks brought these themes into sharp relief:They underscore how religious symbolism and territorial disputes intertwine.
They highlight the challenge of negotiating peace when concessions may be perceived by extremists as victories rather than compromises.
They remind us that Jerusalem is not just a city but a powerful symbol—its fate resonates across billions of believers worldwide.
This book seems to function both as a historical primer on Jerusalem’s religious significance and as a political analysis of modern Islamist movements. That dual structure makes it particularly relevant for readers trying to understand the ideological backdrop to current conflicts.
🌍 Jerusalem’s Unique Role in the 3 Faiths
Judaism: Jerusalem is the spiritual and historical heart of Jewish identity. The First and Second Temples stood there for nearly a millennium, making it the focal point of Jewish worship and longing. Even after their destruction, prayers and rituals. continued to center on Jerusalem.
Christianity: The city is tied to pivotal events in Jesus’s life—his crucifixion, resurrection, and early church history. Yet its importance has fluctuated: from being a central pilgrimage site during the Crusades to a more symbolic “Spiritual Jerusalem” in later centuries.
Islam: Jerusalem is revered as the site of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey (Isra and Mi’raj), where he ascended to heaven from the “distant mosque” (traditionally identified as Al-Aqsa). It is Islam’s third holiest city after Mecca and Medina.
Rise of Islamic lFundamentalism
Gold’s analysis emphasizes two turning points
Shift from Tolerance to Schism: Early Islam granted Jews and Christians “dhimmi” status—protected but subordinate. Over time, sectarian divides (Sunni vs. Shiite) and political struggles hardened attitudes toward outsiders.
Territorial Concessions as Catalysts: The argument is that Israeli withdrawals (e.g., from Gaza in 2005, or southern Lebanon in 2000) were interpreted by radical groups not as steps toward peace but as signs of weakness, encouraging further aggression in pursuit of a broader Islamist vision of a caliphate.
Why This Matters Post–October 7, 2023
The Hamas attacks brought these themes into sharp relief:They underscore how religious symbolism and territorial disputes intertwine.
They highlight the challenge of negotiating peace when concessions may be perceived by extremists as victories rather than compromises.
They remind us that Jerusalem is not just a city but a powerful symbol—its fate resonates across billions of believers worldwide.
This book seems to function both as a historical primer on Jerusalem’s religious significance and as a political analysis of modern Islamist movements. That dual structure makes it particularly relevant for readers trying to understand the ideological backdrop to current conflicts.
November 18, 2021
Being an ambassador certainly qualifies him for writing this and for possessing intimate knowledge of the subject. It's extremely well written and an enjoyable read. One cannot help but learn a lot from his knowledge of the subject and presentation. I loved it.
April 7, 2021
Very detailed and well researched.
July 14, 2025
Another excellent publication for anyone interested in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I had no idea about Arafat denying the existence of Herod’s Temple, and many other facts were completely new to me. If you’re planning a trip to Jerusalem, I would say that this book also serves as a solid historical guide to the city. I’m taking off one star because there is a bit of repetition, and the book doesn’t really try to take a more neutral stance on the issue.
April 22, 2009
This was pretty much a one sided look at Isreal and their plight with Palestine/Islam. According to this book Isreal has done no wrong, never provoked, and certainly never attacked Palestinians except when defending itself. A little too biased for me.
June 26, 2009
Good book with insightful thoughts but too much of it was over my head. I need to find a more simplified book that starts at the beginning of the conflict and outlines each parties complaints. This book just jumped right in talking about people and wars that I was unfamiliar with.
December 23, 2014
I found this a fascinating read. The author seemed to be fairly knowledgable about religions other than his own. Even though it was written about 7 or 8 years ago, it doesn't seem like much has changed in the Middle East.
March 14, 2013
Very interesting read of the history of Jerusalem involving Christian, Jews and Muslims.
February 5, 2016
Good history, good analysis. The premise is that Christians are being run out of Jerusalem, and if that occurs what's left-total muslim domination?
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews