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The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977
"Remarkably insightful . . . A groundbreaking revision that deserves to reframe the entire debate . . . It soars."―The New York Times Book Review
In The Accidental Empire , Gershom Gorenberg examines the strange birth of the settler movement in the ten years following the Six-Day War and finds that it was as much the child of Labor Party socialism as of religious extremism. The giants of Israeli history―Dayan, Meir, Eshkol, Allon―all played major roles in this drama, as did more contemporary figures like Sharon, Rabin, and Peres. Gorenberg also shows how three American presidents turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so.
Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, Gorenberg calls into question much of what we think we know about this issue that continues to haunt the Middle East.
In The Accidental Empire , Gershom Gorenberg examines the strange birth of the settler movement in the ten years following the Six-Day War and finds that it was as much the child of Labor Party socialism as of religious extremism. The giants of Israeli history―Dayan, Meir, Eshkol, Allon―all played major roles in this drama, as did more contemporary figures like Sharon, Rabin, and Peres. Gorenberg also shows how three American presidents turned a blind eye to what was happening in the territories, and reveals their strategic reasons for doing so.
Drawing on newly opened archives and extensive interviews, Gorenberg calls into question much of what we think we know about this issue that continues to haunt the Middle East.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
67 people are currently reading
1257 people want to read
About the author
Gershom Gorenberg
10 books57 followersGershom Gorenberg is a historian and journalist who has been covering Middle Eastern affairs for over 35 years.
His latest book, War of Shadows, began with a conversation in Jerusalem that set off years of searching through archives for long-secret documents, though attics for lost papers, through streets in Cairo, Rome, London - endless days and nights of seeing facts unravel and new ones take shape in place of them, of following one lead to another to find someone who remembered the mysterious woman at Bletchley Park who discovered Rommel's source in British headquarters in Cairo - an obsessive hunt that led to the real story of how the Nazis came within an inch of conquering the Middle East.
Gorenberg was previously the author of three critically acclaimed books - The Unmaking of Israel, The Accidental Empire, and The End of Days – and coauthor of Shalom, Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, winner of the National Jewish Book Award.
Gershom is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and in Hebrew for Haaretz. He will return to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2021 to teach the workshop he created on writing history.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, journalist Myra Noveck. They have three children – Yehonatan, Yasmin and Shir-Raz.
His latest book, War of Shadows, began with a conversation in Jerusalem that set off years of searching through archives for long-secret documents, though attics for lost papers, through streets in Cairo, Rome, London - endless days and nights of seeing facts unravel and new ones take shape in place of them, of following one lead to another to find someone who remembered the mysterious woman at Bletchley Park who discovered Rommel's source in British headquarters in Cairo - an obsessive hunt that led to the real story of how the Nazis came within an inch of conquering the Middle East.
Gorenberg was previously the author of three critically acclaimed books - The Unmaking of Israel, The Accidental Empire, and The End of Days – and coauthor of Shalom, Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, winner of the National Jewish Book Award.
Gershom is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and in Hebrew for Haaretz. He will return to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2021 to teach the workshop he created on writing history.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, journalist Myra Noveck. They have three children – Yehonatan, Yasmin and Shir-Raz.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 12, 2025
Great, thorough political history book dissecting the political tensions that accompanied the first ten years of the Israeli settlements. Very factual, but that didn't stop it from being fantastic and powerful writing. It's known as an authority on the subject and I couldn't agree more. It was written in the 2000s, but it was pretty strictly a history of that time period, and so does not suffer much from its age.
One of the rare books that doesn't have much "bias" in either direction. If I had to guess, I'd peg this as basically a pro-Israel book, albeit more in the vein of the new historians.
So many random takeaways: Internal Labor-party politics and the need to maintain the Labor coalition drove so much of the decision-making (or lack thereof) during this time period. A stunning amount of "facts on the ground" were created by creative civilians in the absence of proactive Israeli policy. Failed peace initiatives drove rabid settlement expansion. I hadn't realized how much the initial settlement efforts were a product of the Labor party (as opposed to just religious right-wingers). Back then, mainstream Israeli politicians were frank about the fact that maintaining the territories and building settlements on them would essentially be a colonial enterprise; in these days, if you were to say the same thing, you'd get blasted for being antisemitic. The Israeli gov't skirted international law by blatantly lying about initial settlements being Nahal military outposts -- the facts here are actually pretty shocking and completely indisputable. In addition, although the gov't claimed the settlements were for military purposes, there was frank discussion of the fact that, on the contrary, the settlements were a huge liability in the event of an invasion, and indeed went a long way in raising pro-Palestinian sentiment, which began to coalesce only as Israeli military repression intensified as necessary to protect growing numbers of settlers. Unintended effects abound.....
Also: This book was written in the 2000s, but it happened to devote a good ~20 pages to Oded Lifshitz in his capacity as a peace activist based in the southern kibbutz Nir Oz. If that name sounds familiar, it is because he was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. His body was returned alongside the bodies of the Bibas family. He was strongly opposed to settlement expansion and maintained that it would lead to a result like this. Heart breaking and bone chilling.
Rating: Solid 4.25 or 4.5, rounded down just because it didn't blow my mind.
Spoiler alert: the settlements did, indeed, cause some issues down the road.
One of the rare books that doesn't have much "bias" in either direction. If I had to guess, I'd peg this as basically a pro-Israel book, albeit more in the vein of the new historians.
So many random takeaways: Internal Labor-party politics and the need to maintain the Labor coalition drove so much of the decision-making (or lack thereof) during this time period. A stunning amount of "facts on the ground" were created by creative civilians in the absence of proactive Israeli policy. Failed peace initiatives drove rabid settlement expansion. I hadn't realized how much the initial settlement efforts were a product of the Labor party (as opposed to just religious right-wingers). Back then, mainstream Israeli politicians were frank about the fact that maintaining the territories and building settlements on them would essentially be a colonial enterprise; in these days, if you were to say the same thing, you'd get blasted for being antisemitic. The Israeli gov't skirted international law by blatantly lying about initial settlements being Nahal military outposts -- the facts here are actually pretty shocking and completely indisputable. In addition, although the gov't claimed the settlements were for military purposes, there was frank discussion of the fact that, on the contrary, the settlements were a huge liability in the event of an invasion, and indeed went a long way in raising pro-Palestinian sentiment, which began to coalesce only as Israeli military repression intensified as necessary to protect growing numbers of settlers. Unintended effects abound.....
Also: This book was written in the 2000s, but it happened to devote a good ~20 pages to Oded Lifshitz in his capacity as a peace activist based in the southern kibbutz Nir Oz. If that name sounds familiar, it is because he was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. His body was returned alongside the bodies of the Bibas family. He was strongly opposed to settlement expansion and maintained that it would lead to a result like this. Heart breaking and bone chilling.
Rating: Solid 4.25 or 4.5, rounded down just because it didn't blow my mind.
Spoiler alert: the settlements did, indeed, cause some issues down the road.
June 23, 2021
This is a comprehensive, thoroughly detailed, multi-layered history of the Israeli settlements in occupied land. Sometimes the detail was too much, slowing down the narrative or created a brain fog, but the detail is necessary for the reader to understand and appreciate the complexity of the settlement movement. The settlements issue is not a simple one. It's complicated, affecting not just the Arabs who were being displaced, but all of Israel's neighbors, the U.S., and all the factions (political, military, religious, secularists, Zionists, etc.) within Israel. At the beginning, settlements were basically not in the picture, and at the end of this period, the settlements issue contributes to the toppling of Labor.
There is a large cast of individuals in this narrative. The first person accounts by settlers and other individuals who are not the historical figures, such as Dayan, Meir, & Sharon, gives this history more depth in revealing how the settler movement rose from the interplay of Labor Party socialism and religious extremism resulting in Israel slipping into the building of settlements in occupied lands.
The parts of this history that were, for this reader, the most riveting were the chapters on the 1967 War and its aftermath (how it affected the politics, and vision of the leaders and the public) and the Yom Kipper War and its aftermath (how it affected the politics, and vision of the leaders and the public).
This is a history of intended and unintended consequences, and of plenty of missed opportunities for peace, both by the Israelis and her foes.
There is a large cast of individuals in this narrative. The first person accounts by settlers and other individuals who are not the historical figures, such as Dayan, Meir, & Sharon, gives this history more depth in revealing how the settler movement rose from the interplay of Labor Party socialism and religious extremism resulting in Israel slipping into the building of settlements in occupied lands.
The parts of this history that were, for this reader, the most riveting were the chapters on the 1967 War and its aftermath (how it affected the politics, and vision of the leaders and the public) and the Yom Kipper War and its aftermath (how it affected the politics, and vision of the leaders and the public).
This is a history of intended and unintended consequences, and of plenty of missed opportunities for peace, both by the Israelis and her foes.
December 12, 2009
I don't really know what to think of this book. It was interesting and painted a good picture of the origins of the settlement movement and why it wasn't stopped. Also it allows many parallels between the beginnings and what followed, specifically in the 21st century (which the author speaks to in the epilogue).
I have a couple of complaints that kept it from being a really good book though. One is that for a book that relies heavily on geography there is a dearth of maps (from my count there was only 1). Also the author seemed to jump around too much for my taste. I would have preferred that he go a bit more in depth on the few more of the symbolic settlements (he did on 1 or 2) instead of giving a little bit of information on most of them.
The high praise for this book from the likes of Michael Oren and Dennis Ross had me excited to read it, but it didn't quite live up to the lofty expectations.
I have a couple of complaints that kept it from being a really good book though. One is that for a book that relies heavily on geography there is a dearth of maps (from my count there was only 1). Also the author seemed to jump around too much for my taste. I would have preferred that he go a bit more in depth on the few more of the symbolic settlements (he did on 1 or 2) instead of giving a little bit of information on most of them.
The high praise for this book from the likes of Michael Oren and Dennis Ross had me excited to read it, but it didn't quite live up to the lofty expectations.
August 31, 2007
The first third is a bit awkward. It took a while for the writing to become something more than just a vehicle for the listing of events, motives, history, ect., that propelled the first settlements after the Six Days War into existence. It got better. I don't know what or who is worse the secular nationalist/socialist/Zionists or the religious fundamentalist/nationalist/Zionists, but be prepared to finish angry.
April 28, 2024
Does accidental necessitate or justify perpetuity?
I read this book at the recommendation of #fareedzakaria . Written in 2006 by an #iaraeliamerican journalist who raised his family in #jerusalem , #theaccidentalempire #israelandthebirthofthesettlements1967-1977 by #gershomgorenberg approached the topic of the settlements as a journalist and documentarian, diving deep into government records and interviewing scores of people involved in the settlement movement that was touched off by the #sixdaySwar when #syria , #jordan and #egypt launched a coordinated attack on Israel.
While the common argument regarding the Hamas attack on October 7 is that the attack was by surprise and unprovoked, in truth the #zionistmovement had long probed the goal of redefining the borders as set forth by the #unitednations and the #britishmandate , particularly as the #palestinians were disinclined to have a new country formed out of long established territorial claims. But the belief by many of both religious and secular Israelis that the #wholelandofcanaan included all of the territory of #gaza , #westbank , #golan and #sinai, in essence, was capsulized in the concept of "The River to the Sea", that this is now a belief among many Palestinians is much more that irony that this phrase originated under the "Erasatz Israel" movement of pre-state Zionist in 1948 first. It was reiterated as a mission of the Israeli settlement movement after the Six-Days War when Arabs were driven from their lands in the Golan Heights.of Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza portions of Egypt and the West Bank and East Jerusalem of Jordan which had effectively doubled the land under Israeli control. The phrase was later adopted by Palestinians only after with the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the mid-60's in response to Israel's refusal to settle the state status of the Palestinians.
While the Hamas attack was horrifying, no one who studies the history of the region can seriously say it was a surprise. Like the hubris of disproportionate reprisals by the Israeli Air Force against Palestinian terrorist attacks from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan resulted in first Syria and Jordan responding to attacks on their soil followed by Egypt and the subsequent Israeli occupation and settlement to "create facts" of Israeli presence in occupied lands, so to was Israel's walling of the West Bank and Gaza, the decision by Israel to separate West Bank and Gaza into two political entities, secular in the West Bank and Religious in Gaza, Israel assured that reconciling Palestinian statehood. In 1967, Israel depended on a United States armed modern Air Force and subsequent Air superiority that allowed them to rely on reservists for ground units that caught them unaware when their neighbors launched an armored ground attack in Israel that caught them by surprise. In 2023, Israel still depended on air superiority and airborne and security wall camera systems to contain the Gaza population. It does seem inexplicable that one day after the 50 year commemoration of the start of the Yom Kippur War, hubris reigned supreme as there were no Israeli soldiers manning the supposed impenetrable walls that kept the Gaza Palestinians locked in, given the Hamas nearly 7 1/2 hours to terrorize the adjacent Israeli communities.
In order to understand what is happening in Gaza now, it is important to understand how the Israelis and Palestinians got here. What started out as a liberal and idealistic movement of wealthy American and European and Russian Socialist Jews trying to build a new homeland for the Jewish people in harmony with the Palestinians Arabs who owned the land they purchased and worked the fields and factories that were emerging alongside one another was later peopled by Holocaust refugees as well as Jewish resistors bent more on security than in cooperation and coexistence. While many of the Palestinians can take the blame for refusing to accept the creation of a new country by the Post-War world order exemplified by the United Nations and the Allied victors, the willingness of Israel to expel indigenous people and expropriate land, though shocking and seemingly illegal, merely followed examples of American settlement and expropriation, not surprising as so many people who made up the Israeli government had migrated from the United States and the rest of America. While a New World Order was emerging, Old World colonialism and armed territorial dominance was a familiar and comfortable orientation for these new arrivals of the Middle East. Over the decades, with the emigration of more post-Soviet Russian and religious Jews to Israel and the inability to settle Palestinian status in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israel's government has grown steadily more conservative and religion more prominent as the secular and liberal founders of the Israel has been diminished to an ever shrinking minority voice.
One can only hope that, at some point, both Jews and Palestinians can begin to see the fruitlessness of allowing the political and commercial entities who derive their power and wealth by perpetuating conflict can be diminished by a rising movement of populaces who demand the peaceful and democratic approach be seriously pursued. Otherwise, October 7th will just be another date in the endless conflict who will never relinquish their claims to their mutual homeland very clearly exemplified in this very important book.
#israelihistory #israelipolitics #readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #israelpalestineconflict
I read this book at the recommendation of #fareedzakaria . Written in 2006 by an #iaraeliamerican journalist who raised his family in #jerusalem , #theaccidentalempire #israelandthebirthofthesettlements1967-1977 by #gershomgorenberg approached the topic of the settlements as a journalist and documentarian, diving deep into government records and interviewing scores of people involved in the settlement movement that was touched off by the #sixdaySwar when #syria , #jordan and #egypt launched a coordinated attack on Israel.
While the common argument regarding the Hamas attack on October 7 is that the attack was by surprise and unprovoked, in truth the #zionistmovement had long probed the goal of redefining the borders as set forth by the #unitednations and the #britishmandate , particularly as the #palestinians were disinclined to have a new country formed out of long established territorial claims. But the belief by many of both religious and secular Israelis that the #wholelandofcanaan included all of the territory of #gaza , #westbank , #golan and #sinai, in essence, was capsulized in the concept of "The River to the Sea", that this is now a belief among many Palestinians is much more that irony that this phrase originated under the "Erasatz Israel" movement of pre-state Zionist in 1948 first. It was reiterated as a mission of the Israeli settlement movement after the Six-Days War when Arabs were driven from their lands in the Golan Heights.of Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza portions of Egypt and the West Bank and East Jerusalem of Jordan which had effectively doubled the land under Israeli control. The phrase was later adopted by Palestinians only after with the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the mid-60's in response to Israel's refusal to settle the state status of the Palestinians.
While the Hamas attack was horrifying, no one who studies the history of the region can seriously say it was a surprise. Like the hubris of disproportionate reprisals by the Israeli Air Force against Palestinian terrorist attacks from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan resulted in first Syria and Jordan responding to attacks on their soil followed by Egypt and the subsequent Israeli occupation and settlement to "create facts" of Israeli presence in occupied lands, so to was Israel's walling of the West Bank and Gaza, the decision by Israel to separate West Bank and Gaza into two political entities, secular in the West Bank and Religious in Gaza, Israel assured that reconciling Palestinian statehood. In 1967, Israel depended on a United States armed modern Air Force and subsequent Air superiority that allowed them to rely on reservists for ground units that caught them unaware when their neighbors launched an armored ground attack in Israel that caught them by surprise. In 2023, Israel still depended on air superiority and airborne and security wall camera systems to contain the Gaza population. It does seem inexplicable that one day after the 50 year commemoration of the start of the Yom Kippur War, hubris reigned supreme as there were no Israeli soldiers manning the supposed impenetrable walls that kept the Gaza Palestinians locked in, given the Hamas nearly 7 1/2 hours to terrorize the adjacent Israeli communities.
In order to understand what is happening in Gaza now, it is important to understand how the Israelis and Palestinians got here. What started out as a liberal and idealistic movement of wealthy American and European and Russian Socialist Jews trying to build a new homeland for the Jewish people in harmony with the Palestinians Arabs who owned the land they purchased and worked the fields and factories that were emerging alongside one another was later peopled by Holocaust refugees as well as Jewish resistors bent more on security than in cooperation and coexistence. While many of the Palestinians can take the blame for refusing to accept the creation of a new country by the Post-War world order exemplified by the United Nations and the Allied victors, the willingness of Israel to expel indigenous people and expropriate land, though shocking and seemingly illegal, merely followed examples of American settlement and expropriation, not surprising as so many people who made up the Israeli government had migrated from the United States and the rest of America. While a New World Order was emerging, Old World colonialism and armed territorial dominance was a familiar and comfortable orientation for these new arrivals of the Middle East. Over the decades, with the emigration of more post-Soviet Russian and religious Jews to Israel and the inability to settle Palestinian status in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Israel's government has grown steadily more conservative and religion more prominent as the secular and liberal founders of the Israel has been diminished to an ever shrinking minority voice.
One can only hope that, at some point, both Jews and Palestinians can begin to see the fruitlessness of allowing the political and commercial entities who derive their power and wealth by perpetuating conflict can be diminished by a rising movement of populaces who demand the peaceful and democratic approach be seriously pursued. Otherwise, October 7th will just be another date in the endless conflict who will never relinquish their claims to their mutual homeland very clearly exemplified in this very important book.
#israelihistory #israelipolitics #readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #israelpalestineconflict
February 8, 2009
Thorough, sobering, highly informative, and excellently written account of just how Israel let the settlement movement happen. Struck me as quite balanced.
March 27, 2011
Brilliant. The best book about Israel that I have ever read.
December 20, 2023
The saddest part of this book is that every single argument for or against keeping the territories obtained in the 1967 Six Day War, and every idea for how to balance Israeli security with what to do about the local Arab populations--every single thing we say and debate today--was known and raised within a week after the 1967 war ended. There is nothing new under the sun. There are no new arguments or ideas to be had. They knew right away everything we know now. One day, we'll just have to settle on some outcome or another.
For me, the best thing about the book was learning more about Israel's political history, the rise and fall of various parties and factions, and new insights into figures like Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres.
My only complaint is that the book could've said more about the developments of factions and positions among the Palestinians, though to be fair, the book is about how Israel got to be in the position it's in, so the focus is on the Israeli side. So the history of particular settlements and settlers is a little too detailed, whereas some of the larger trends on both sides are overlooked.
For me, the best thing about the book was learning more about Israel's political history, the rise and fall of various parties and factions, and new insights into figures like Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres.
My only complaint is that the book could've said more about the developments of factions and positions among the Palestinians, though to be fair, the book is about how Israel got to be in the position it's in, so the focus is on the Israeli side. So the history of particular settlements and settlers is a little too detailed, whereas some of the larger trends on both sides are overlooked.
April 28, 2021
Gorenberg is a great journalist-historian who tracks the growth of Israel's settlements through interviews and archival documents alike. The Israeli left and right both supported settlement because it was baked into Israel's founding, but the project was gradually taken over by the right.
Leftists imagined they could settle a limited amount of land with kibbutzes — just like their parents had — and trade away the rest for peace. Right-wingers, however, saw plenty of nationalistic and religious reasons to go for the whole thing. And when push came to shove, the left didn't really have a good argument for why they supported some settlement but not all the way.
Ultimately there is a cautionary tale for Democrats here. You have to stand for things and oppose things clearly. If you pretend to be for the same things as hardliners, but in a more moderate way, then a lot of people will just go with the hardliners — they're offering a more muscular version of what everyone "agrees" is good.
Leftists imagined they could settle a limited amount of land with kibbutzes — just like their parents had — and trade away the rest for peace. Right-wingers, however, saw plenty of nationalistic and religious reasons to go for the whole thing. And when push came to shove, the left didn't really have a good argument for why they supported some settlement but not all the way.
Ultimately there is a cautionary tale for Democrats here. You have to stand for things and oppose things clearly. If you pretend to be for the same things as hardliners, but in a more moderate way, then a lot of people will just go with the hardliners — they're offering a more muscular version of what everyone "agrees" is good.
September 15, 2024
This book needs more maps! With so many details surrounding where settlements were occurring, where people live, and the lines that cause so much debate - the book could use some more guides on the geography of the area. A very quick read and in-depths review of Israeli politics regarding the settlements. Excellent depth to the conflict that is easy to understand and presented mostly neutrally, but from an Israeli focus.
As opposed to historical non-fiction where you know there is a conclusion or at least some resolution, it's harder to read history that is still so relevant in the present day. Reading in 2024, the epilogue that ends in 2006 makes you realize how much of the story is still to be told, and makes you feel for the polititians whose viewpoints would resonate far more now than in the 60's.
As opposed to historical non-fiction where you know there is a conclusion or at least some resolution, it's harder to read history that is still so relevant in the present day. Reading in 2024, the epilogue that ends in 2006 makes you realize how much of the story is still to be told, and makes you feel for the polititians whose viewpoints would resonate far more now than in the 60's.
May 10, 2021
Excellent book that covers a critical period of Israel's history post Six-Day War and the beginnings of the settlement movement, starting in the secular, leftist camp (championed by Peres) and ending with religious, right-wing groups. The trajectory of this conflict seems to have been etched into its DNA, yet also seems strangely random.
February 19, 2024
This book description of the settlements was educational. Their illegality in settling certain was carefully disguised and described in many ways to different people: Egypt, Jordan, Syria, United States, and the Palestinians.
Read
January 24, 2021Not completed. Well written and detailed - too detailed for me at this time. This would be great for someone who wanted to immerse into the minute by minute play of this time and events.
Want to read
December 8, 2023From Ezra Klein 10/31/23 - Zack Beauchamp - If not this, then what should Israel do
March 14, 2024
After 10/7, I need to go back and see what happened. Extremely helpful.
December 31, 2014
I found this book very good. Unlike other reviewers I have a grasp of Judea and Samaria geography so the lack of maps didn't bother me.
Sometimes the narrative was too contrived and dry, as if the author was merely narrating history and its actors, but other times it was as if he was shedding light in very unknown yet important parts of Israel history.
My main reason to read this book though, is my main criticism against it: I wanted to understand how life really is in settlement-cities like Maale Adumim and Ariel, what kind of social and economic dynamics exist between Kyriat Arba and Hebron, what culture these settlements developed and how was the period when Begin rose to power. Sadly none of these was answered, only what context brought them.
While the author spends entire chapters in a single government of Rabin, he skim through all right wing governments as if they were an historical mistake not worth talking about. Ariel is mentioned only once in a brief passage, although it has the biggest university in Israel and one of the best documented attempts to settle land with a planned city. Maale Adumim is mentioned 3 or 4 times, but you can't understand what is happening. Were the houses already finished? Is it a ghost town? Who went to live there? Is it only a suburb? What so called and so mentioned industries are there? As again, it is as if the author speaks from the point of view of a Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem journalist who doesn't consider this world as worth of analysis or prose. Only the birth of it and the implications it had on politics is what matter. There is no discussion if Oslo accords were worth it, or if the land for peace mindset is a failure.
The sensation is that the book finished abruptly, as if he was tired of writing about the topic, leaving the most important settlement narrative, the one under Begin and Shamir outside.
Sometimes the narrative was too contrived and dry, as if the author was merely narrating history and its actors, but other times it was as if he was shedding light in very unknown yet important parts of Israel history.
My main reason to read this book though, is my main criticism against it: I wanted to understand how life really is in settlement-cities like Maale Adumim and Ariel, what kind of social and economic dynamics exist between Kyriat Arba and Hebron, what culture these settlements developed and how was the period when Begin rose to power. Sadly none of these was answered, only what context brought them.
While the author spends entire chapters in a single government of Rabin, he skim through all right wing governments as if they were an historical mistake not worth talking about. Ariel is mentioned only once in a brief passage, although it has the biggest university in Israel and one of the best documented attempts to settle land with a planned city. Maale Adumim is mentioned 3 or 4 times, but you can't understand what is happening. Were the houses already finished? Is it a ghost town? Who went to live there? Is it only a suburb? What so called and so mentioned industries are there? As again, it is as if the author speaks from the point of view of a Tel-Aviv/Jerusalem journalist who doesn't consider this world as worth of analysis or prose. Only the birth of it and the implications it had on politics is what matter. There is no discussion if Oslo accords were worth it, or if the land for peace mindset is a failure.
The sensation is that the book finished abruptly, as if he was tired of writing about the topic, leaving the most important settlement narrative, the one under Begin and Shamir outside.
January 22, 2025
Generally a boring book to read but very informative. Now I understand why the settlements are a hindrance to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The book offers an exploration of the origins of Israel's settlement enterprise following the Six-Day War. The author looks into the complexities of this pivotal period in Israeli history, analyzing the political, ideological, and historical factors that contributed to the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The book provides insights into the motivations behind the settlement movement and its impact on Israeli society and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author's approach challenges conventional narratives, making this book essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the challenges of achieving a lasting peace.
The book offers an exploration of the origins of Israel's settlement enterprise following the Six-Day War. The author looks into the complexities of this pivotal period in Israeli history, analyzing the political, ideological, and historical factors that contributed to the establishment of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. The book provides insights into the motivations behind the settlement movement and its impact on Israeli society and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The author's approach challenges conventional narratives, making this book essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the challenges of achieving a lasting peace.
February 15, 2010
Informative, but loses because there are no accompanying maps of Israel - Palestine or the Allon Plan, which is cited throughout. A good critical look at the beginning of the settlement movement, but a terribly misleading title, which makes me suspect that the author was afraid of what the reaction to his book might be. Follows individuals but doesn't give a good overall picture of the major settlements, and only spends a few paragraphs in the epilogue talking about the current manifestation of the settlements as commuter cities. Though seemingly balanced, does not do a good job talking about how the settlements constrict Palestinian movement.
Overall a good read, but I suggest further reading to round out what you might be missing as you go through Accidental Empire.
Overall a good read, but I suggest further reading to round out what you might be missing as you go through Accidental Empire.
April 13, 2008
I got this because Amazon reccomended getting it with 1967. Good call Amazon. Interesting additional take on a very complex & troubling issue & gives a sort of follow on to what has happened since the '67 war. If you have already made up your mind about who is in the right & who is in the wrong in the Occupied Territories/Judea & Samaria, don't bother, but if you want to run the risk of actually LEARNING something, give it a try.
May 10, 2016
Religious devotion, pioneering kibbutzniks, security concerns, incompetence - as Gorenberg correctly points, make up the primary factors for the birth of the settlement craze.
I wish the book was less a point by point recap of history (often, not about the settlements even), and more describing the zeitgeist of the time.
I wish the book was less a point by point recap of history (often, not about the settlements even), and more describing the zeitgeist of the time.
December 8, 2012
I read this soon after it was published in 2007 and couldn't help but think of it in recent weeks. Not sure how one wins the struggle against "their" religious extremists by further empowering "our" religious extremists...seems a little more sensible to stand against all religious extremists!
February 23, 2013
A bit of a slog at times but mostly excellent.
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