Listen World, Listen Jew

Rating:
Summary: Jewish History Comes Alive
Review: If you want to know what Zionism is, this book is must reading. It did not start with Theodore Herzl in 1895. It started almost 2,000 years ago, when the Jews in the Land of Israel were defeated by the Romans and chased out of their land.

The story of the long Jewish exile, as 'guests' in other countries, is told here in an exciting manner. It all leads up to the return of the Jews to their own land in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

If you read this book, you will understand why the Jews returned to the Land of Israel.

Rating:
Summary: Jewish History Comes Alive
Review: If you want to know what Zionism is, this book is must reading. It did not start with Theodore Herzl in 1895. It started almost 2,000 years ago, when the Jews in the Land of Israel were defeated by the Romans and chased out of their land.

The story of the long Jewish exile, as 'guests' in other countries, is told here in an exciting manner. It all leads up to the return of the Jews to their own land in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

If you read this book, you will understand why the Jews returned to the Land of Israel.

Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: In this book, Rabbi Kahane's main goal is to show that zionism is inherent to judaism and to the jews. By comenting historical events of jewish persecutions, he afirms the necessity of the jews having a place(land of Israel) to dwell alone and self-government. The Rabbi urges the jews not to assimilate and also makes severe critics to the american jewish stablishment.It's a very meanfull book for the modern jew and for anyone who wants to understand real zionism.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and brilliant in its prose - yet stark
Review: When Meir Kahane was assassinated, I only knew that he was one of the most vicious impediments to Israeli peace with the Arabs. I tended to see the conflict as a simple matter of Israel expanding its borders at the expense of the native population. I still can't say that I wholeheartedly agree with Kahane's solution but his motivations are beautiful.

In this book written with the style of a poet and the intensity of a machine gun, Kahane again and again asserts that he is a Jew and he is a Zionist and that the two are inseperable. Because he is religious, he can only see the state of Israel in a religious context and that is that G-d gave Jews the right to the state of Israel and the duty to settle the land, and anyone who would impede it is going against the will of G-d. He discusses what Judaism means in a religious context, why Judaism is needed in the world and why non-Torah-based versions of Judaism aren't Judaism. He bristles with indignation at Christians who want to sweep centuries of murder, pillage and mayhem under the rug and he mocks parents whose children have gone to become Jews for JC stating that that is the end result of assimilation.

When he gets to the history of the modern state of Israel, he uses the pre-state riots and the British oppression for maximum effect. He uses the quotes of "respected" politicians like King Faisel and Sadat to maximum effect as Faisel is accusing Jews of blood libel while Sadat is threatening to have another Holocaust.

What makes this book refreshing is the counterpoint to Arab propaganda. Over and over again, Palestineans declare that Israel is an illegal state, bring up the U.N. resolutions that were "violated" and throw words like state-sponsered terrorism, unchecked aggression and Holocaust around without understanding for the context. Meanwhile Jewish defenders of Israel have to talk about concessions, Palestinean rock throwers and pleas for calm. Meir Kahane is meeting the battle head-on. No returning of land won during a war taht was supposed to wipe Israel off the map is giong to make peace. As long as Palestineans want to remove Israel once and for all, Israel must respond in kind.

What makes this book troubling is the anger involved. It is propaganda and should be read as such. Kahane is silent about laws of gerus and settlement statutes that would make the Palestinean presence in Israel acceptable from a religious standpoint (although they wouldn't please Palestineans), he doesn't mention that the page of Kesuvoth that he cites is also used by the Satmir Rebbe as an argument AGAINST an Israeli state settled by secular Jews.

Regardless, no matter what you feel about Israel - whether you are Palestinean, embarrassed American Jew, Israel hater, Israel lover, Israeli - you owe it to yourself to read this book, if only to know what you are fighting against.