Son of the Cypresses: Memories, Reflections, and Regrets from a Political Life"Now that I am seventy years of age, it is my prerogative to offer a summing up," says Meron Benvenisti, internationally known author and columnist, Jerusalem native, and scion of Israel’s founders. Born in Palestine in 1934 to a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Benvenisti has enjoyed an unusual vantage point from which to consider his homeland’s conflicts and controversies. Throughout his long and provocative career as a scholar, an elected official, and a respected journalist, he has remained intimately involved with Israel’s social and political development. Part memoir and part political polemic, Son of the Cypresses threads Benvenisti’s own story through the story of Israel. The result is a vivid, sharply drawn eyewitness account of pre-state Jerusalem and Israel’s early years. He memorably sets the scene by recalling his father’s emotional journey from Jewish Salonika in 1913 to Palestine, with all its attendant euphoria and frustration, and his father’s pioneer dedication to inculcating Israeli youth with a "native’s" attachment to the homeland. In describing the colorful and lively Jerusalem in which he grew up, Benvenisti recalls the many challenges faced by new Jewish immigrants, who found themselves not only in conflict with the Arab population but also with each other as Sephardim and Ashkenazim. He revisits his own public disagreements with both Zionists and Palestinians and shares indelible memories such as his boyhood experiences of the 1948 War. In remembering his life as an Israeli sabra, Benvenisti offers a vivid record of the historical roots of the conflict that persists today. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 68
Page 10
... fact that he retained personal letters to other women and theirs to him from the years preceding his marriage. At the age of nineteen, he penned the following lines to his lady friend Ts: “Ho! Innocent heart and innocent soul! From me ...
... fact that he retained personal letters to other women and theirs to him from the years preceding his marriage. At the age of nineteen, he penned the following lines to his lady friend Ts: “Ho! Innocent heart and innocent soul! From me ...
Page 12
... fact that many of them were active Zionists. Even the leaders of the Zionist parties made no effort to immigrate to Eretz Israel. They were supportive of their children who did so, but they them- selves continued to believe that no evil ...
... fact that many of them were active Zionists. Even the leaders of the Zionist parties made no effort to immigrate to Eretz Israel. They were supportive of their children who did so, but they them- selves continued to believe that no evil ...
Page 14
... fact that she was a midwife and hospital nurse , she decided to dedicate her- self to the job of school and public health nurse . These were dubbed “ green nurses ” because of their green uniforms with a red Star of David on their ...
... fact that she was a midwife and hospital nurse , she decided to dedicate her- self to the job of school and public health nurse . These were dubbed “ green nurses ” because of their green uniforms with a red Star of David on their ...
Page 15
... fact of actually being in the Holy City . Reflecting on his first Seder night spent outside the family circle and away from the city of his birth , he wrote : “ Far am I , far from them , but where do my feet stand ? In Jerusalem . And ...
... fact of actually being in the Holy City . Reflecting on his first Seder night spent outside the family circle and away from the city of his birth , he wrote : “ Far am I , far from them , but where do my feet stand ? In Jerusalem . And ...
Page 20
... fact that only with the help of Italian alpinists was Italy able to occupy the Tyrol , etc. [ after World War I ] . Nathan Shalem had studied at an Italian university and had been influ- enced in his thinking by the Italian nationalist ...
... fact that only with the help of Italian alpinists was Italy able to occupy the Tyrol , etc. [ after World War I ] . Nathan Shalem had studied at an Italian university and had been influ- enced in his thinking by the Italian nationalist ...
Contents
1 | |
2 Delayed Filial Rebellion | 32 |
3 Jerusalemites | 57 |
4 The Ceremony of Innocence Is Drowned | 97 |
5 The Morning After | 130 |
6 Separation and Disengagement | 157 |
7 Descriptions and Prescriptions | 199 |
Epilogue | 229 |
Notes | 235 |
Index | 241 |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve agreement al-Aqsa Intifada Amos Oz Arafat areas Ariel Sharon Ashkenazi attempt attitude Aviv Barak became become Belfast binational binationalism border Camp David conflict continued created cultural demographic disengagement East Jerusalem economic elite Eretz Israel establishment ethnic fact father Gaza Strip Ha'aretz Hebrew hikes historical homeland hostility identity ideological immigrants implementation intercommunal internal Israel/Palestine Israeli public Israeli society Israeli-Palestinian Jenin Jewish community Jews Jordan kibbutz Kollek land landscape leaders Lebanon living majority ment Meron Benvenisti military Mizrahi movement myth nationalist natives negotiations neighborhoods objective occupied territories one’s Oslo Accords Oslo process Pales Palestine Palestinian Authority participants partition peace political population position reality refugees regarding Salonika sense separation Sephardi settlements settlers Sharon side slogan social solution sovereignty struggle terrorist threat tinian tion unilateral village violence wall West Bank wrote Yishuv Yitzhak Zionist
Popular passages
Page 45 - Thus saith the Lord ; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
Page 165 - Is not the whole land before thee ? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me : if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right : or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.
Page 165 - And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.