Since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and its still unresolved aftermath, I’ve had that fierce little nation on my mind.
I know about ancient Israel from the Bible. I know about modern Israel — Palestine, The Holy Land, primarily from two impressive novels that I’ve read on the conflict that is Israel’s modern history.
The two novels, both historical fiction, which I’ve read almost a lifetime apart, have given me some background to understand what is going on in the Middle East today.
The first was Exodus by Leon Uris, which I read as a high school student soon after it came out in 1960. The second is The Hope by Herman Wouk, published in 1993, which is under my reading lamp to be finished shortly.
Because the novels are well researched and reasonably historically accurate, I understand where Israel has come from and where it has desired to go after almost being lost to the Hebrews through years of domination by other countries, from Rome to Great Britain.
Because the novels are not just history but the stories of real figures we’ve heard of and fictional characters representing real Israelis, I can relate to what they feel for their nation.
Both novels trace how Israel was reborn in 1948 as a sovereign nation after 2000 years of being inhabited by Arabs and occupied by foreign governments. Fictitious characters in the novels act out the modern story that begins with the Holocaust of World War II and the Jews’ flight from Europe and other countries, immigrating to Israel, the homeland of their people.
They came in search of their own place in the world after being scattered in the long Diaspora that began with the various captivities that cast Jews out all over the world, where they often lived as outcasts.
Though God had promised the land to the Hebrew people in perpetuity, in the thousands of years since that promise, many Jews had left Israel, and the nation became almost unliveable for those who were left. Most of their farm land and cities had been taken over by Arabs who had encroached and refused to give up what they now saw as their land.
But the Jews set out to take it back and were able to do so, officially, if not in reality, by attaining sovereignty in 1948.
I’ll divide my comments on the two books into two columns, Exodus this week and The Hope later.
Exodus focuses more on what happened to the Jewish immigrants in Israel as many Jews made the trek from foreign lands back to the home of their ancestors after WWII.
Few of them were returning for religious reasons. Most were returning either as impoverished survivors of the Holocaust or as Zionists, Jews with no religious belief but with a militaristic attitude toward the restoration of their homeland.
One of those fictional Zionists is Ari Ben Canaan, a member of the Jewish secret army, the Haganah. He meets an American nurse, Kitty Fremont, who herself becomes embroiled in the Israeli’s freedom fight. Many other characters enter the story, examples of real Israelis and what they experienced.
From the bold work of Zionists like Ari, other Jews from all over the world are attracted back to Israel to join the fight and re-establish the land as a sovereign nation. But no one else wanted the Jews to return, no other nations wanted Israel to exist, and almost no one was willing to upset the Arabs by helping the Zionists. Aren’t we seeing the same attitude play out in the news today?
Through the fictional but realistic lives of the characters, readers will enjoy learning the background for what we’re seeing in Israel now. The fictional romances between Ari and Kitty and the younger Dov and Karen in Exodus are realistic themselves — this is not “happily ever after” stuff but the reality of life in a threatened culture.
Exodus focuses more on the kibbutzim, the socialistic farming communes established by Jews who returned to Israel in the 1920s. Though their purpose was to produce food and other products, the kibbutzim also produced many freedom fighters who are portrayed in the novel.
The plot of Exodus acts out the parallel between the modern day Israelis’ fight for the right to exist and the biblical account of the Hebrews’ deliverance from slavery to freedom when God told them to go into the Promised Land and possess it, though they would face great opposition. It’s food for thought from cover to cover.
One reviewer describes Exodus as “an international publishing phenomenon—the towering novel of the 20th century’s most dramatic geopolitical event.” Israeli leaders also described it as “the best propaganda for Israel’s freedom that could have been written.”
For you, it will be an exciting 600-page read, a gripping page-turner, and a rewarding way to spend a few hot summer afternoons.
