“The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom. Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland.”
This film is actually about the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, not the creation of the state of Israel
The establishment of the modern state of Israel is one of the greatest events in world history. In 1948, the Jews returned to their ancient homeland. But the land was now inhabited by the Arabs instead. Moreover, the Arabs weren’t too crazy about the return of the Jews, and were willing to go to war with them to prevent Israel from being re-established. Thus, this documentary is actually about the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. It does not give the political background on how the modern state of Israel was created. It does not even give much political background about the war itself. Thus, it may be necessary for me to give some of the missing background here, and show a few of the things that this documentary omitted. Along the way, I will also give some praise for those things that I believe the documentary to have done well.
Background on Ancient Israel, and on the Middle East during World War One
Israel had once been the home of the Jewish people. But the Jews had anciently been scattered in the Jewish Diaspora. Thus, they lived all over the world (particularly in the Western world and in the Middle East), and were minorities everywhere that they went – literally everywhere. In World War One, the Arabs had revolted against the rule of the Ottoman Turks – a story dramatized in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia.” The British promised independence to their Arab allies in the Middle East, but did not really plan to follow through on these plans. For example, the British made the “Balfour Declaration” in 1917, which promised a “national home for the Jewish people.” To quote its exact words, this British declaration said that “His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” (Source: “Balfour Declaration,” 1917) The Muslim Arabs weren’t too crazy about these things, but were powerless to prevent the Ottoman Empire from being carved up into several Arab states – rather than a single unified Arab state, as some of them would have liked. This sowed the seeds of a number of things to follow.
Lord Arthur Balfour, the man after whom the Balfour Declaration is named
Background from World War Two, including the European Holocaust of the Jews
In World War Two, there was extensive fighting in Muslim North Africa, a region controlled then (and now) by the Arabs. To a lesser extent, there was also some fighting in the Muslim Middle East during this same war – also an Arab stronghold. But the most notorious action of this war was the European Holocaust, perpetrated by the Nazis. In this infamous genocide, ten million people were murdered, including six million Jews. This amounted to two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe. It was in this environment that there were renewed calls for a “national home for the Jewish people.” This had the support of American president Harry Truman, who wanted a place where the Jews would be safe from genocidal actions – relatively safe, at least. Thus, nearly three years after the end of World War II, the state of Israel was established in 1948. Almost immediately, the Arabs declared war on them, determined to keep the Jews from “invading” their homeland and establishing a Jewish state. They formed an Arab League, consisting of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen (among other participants). Thus began the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
Starving Holocaust prisoners at Mauthausen concentration camp, 1945
Comments on their coverage of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War itself
This is the topic that this documentary really covers here. It omits virtually any background on this conflict, or on the establishment of the modern state of Israel. Instead, it focuses entirely on the war. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – given that this program was only one hour long (it was made for the History Channel), they didn’t have much time to cover this. But even the coverage of their chosen topic isn’t all that deep. The host (who is Martin Gilbert) gives the impression of trying to cram as much military history as possible into his one hour of runtime. Thus, he gives his delivery at breakneck speed, allowing little time for the audience to absorb what he says. I still found it interesting, but found the show’s maps to be a little confusing. It would have been helpful for the host to clarify some of the geographic terms that he used. For example, he talks about the “Negev,” without specifying that this is a region in Israel. This wasn’t too much of a problem for me, because I have a little bit of background in Biblical studies – allowing me to know what the “Negev” region was. But I could imagine someone else being confused by this, and wondering whether the Negev is anything from a geographic region to a political faction involved in the war (which it wasn’t). His version may be more concise, but it may also be a little confusing for many of his viewers.
Israeli artillery unit in the Negev region of Israel, 1948
This film has a somewhat journalistic style – ironic, since its presenter is actually a historian
The program makes limited use of real photographs and footage, allowing you to see what the war’s fighting actually looked like. They also show modern footage of where some of these things happened, which is helpful in dramatizing a forgotten subject. But the show seems to have something of a journalistic style – ironic, since presenter Martin Gilbert is actually a historian, rather than a journalist. This pedestrian delivery doesn’t really do justice to the topics. I’m actually a bigger fan of another Martin Gilbert film, which is his notable documentary about Winston Churchill. In that film, at least, he slows down his delivery to allow the meaning of his words to sink in somewhat. But the lightning delivery in this “Israel” film seems to detract somewhat from its quality, making it harder to learn much from the film. There are also no interviews with people on either side, so it’s harder to understand things from an eyewitness perspective. In fairness, this film had only an hour of runtime to work with, and was trying to tell the story of a nine-month war in that runtime. But given that this film was made when the eyewitnesses were still around, this still strikes me as a curious omission.
An Egyptian Spitfire shot down over Tel Aviv on 15 May 1948
Conclusion: This film seems not to have lived up to its potential
Thus, this film seems not to have lived up to its potential, even if that potential is limited to that of a single hour. It seems like the usual fare from the History Channel – fun to watch, but a little light. I’ve watched other History Channel programs that are much better, so I know the kind of films that their network can make when they really put their minds to it. But I experienced this program as a bit disappointing, and wished that it had covered things from a somewhat different angle. Or, if they had chosen to focus just on the war, I wish that they could have covered it differently, and at a more digestible speed to boot. This film may still be worth your time if you’re really interested in the subject. But there are much better military history programs to watch out there, or programs about various kinds of political history. For the politics of the state of Israel being created, I recommend Simon Schama’s “The Story of the Jews.” This latter program has an entire episode (its last episode) about the modern state of Israel. Thus, it may help you to better understand the political background of how this state was created – even though this is only covered at the beginning of that last episode. That episode is simply entitled “Return.” (More about that here.)
Footnote to this blog post:
Israel won this 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in that the state of Israel was established and survived. But the war is also known as the First Arab-Israeli War. The Israelis would have to continue to fight for their existence in the coming decades. For coverage of some of the other wars that followed this, see this link.
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