A fascinating look at a neglected period in the history of Zionism and the pre-history of Israel. Marcus draws human portraits for us of largely forgotten but highly influential figures: on the Arab and Ottoman side the Khalidis, Khalil Sakakini, Ali Ekrem; on the Jewish side, especially Albert Antebi and Arthur Ruppin. She succeeds incontrovertibly in her aim of showing that the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict go back well before 1920 and the British Mandate, in fact to the end of the 19th century; and how the Zionists, with European chutzpah, turned a blind eye to the danger. She gives us too an idea of what the crumbling Ottoman Empire was like in its twilight years. It was not yet to be written off. Despite the Empire's shortcomings and the intrusions of foreign powers, there were native Jews like Albert Antebi who felt a loyalty to it.

Marcus is to be thanked for recounting Noah Sokolovsky's 1913 film "The Life of the Jews in Palestine" and for introducing us to the treasure chest of the Khalidi Library, which, as she says, is "off the beaten track for most visitors" to Jerusalem. She obtained access to several important unpublished sources like Ruhi Khalidi's "Zionism and the Zionist Question" and the letters that are in the possession of Albert Antebbi's granddaughter Elizabeth, and she did so by personal interviews with family members. (There is a good section on her sources.) In short, though she was hampered by not knowing Arabic, her research was fresh, assiduous, and more serious than the popularising impression that the book might give readers at first.

I make that last remark because, as a historian, I find Marcus's style too personal and intrusive for my taste. The book begins, "In September 1991, I flew to Tel Aviv...," and the concluding Acknowledgements end with "a mother's love and gratitude." But that's her character and I got used to it.

There are one or two minor inaccuracies. Notably, the date of publication of Hertzl's "The Jewish State", both in the original German and in the English translation by Sylvia D'Avigdor (who is not credited), was 1896 and not 1897 (p. 22).

The book could do with more and better-reproduced photographs, including pictures of the protagonists. The only clear photograph is on the dust jacket. There is a revealing map of the Old City of Jerusalem, but a map of Palestine as it was then would be useful. There is a good index.

Marcus asks a very pertinent question when she states where the breaking point in Jewish Arab relations was. She turns back to the last years of the Ottoman rule where Jews were still a minority in Palestine. Jews were buying land and settling it. The Arabs were coming into contact with these Jewish settlers and having some conflicts. However, there was discussions between the groups, and negotiations were available. As the years went by after 1913, the conflict became much more inflamed and not negotiable. Marcus states that 1913 was the year when people could have settled this conflict peacefully.

This book gives an interesting perspective. The Middle East has always been in conflict and the main conflict is Israeli-Arab. Marcus points to the time when the conflict was just emerging and could have been solved.

If you're hoping to gain some answers on why the Middle East situation is as it is and just how it came about then this is the book to get. It's informative and interesting. Alongside descriptions of the political power players of the century are equally entertaining insight into the sights and smells of Jerusalem. This book does the job of any great history book.. it brought it alive. In addition, it reminds us as we're told in the book that the past is not even past.. it remains in the present.

Amy Dockser Marcus thinks that the origins of the present-day Arab-Israeli conflict can be traced back 1913: the last pre-WWI year when Muslim and Jewish Jerusalemites lived together side-by-side under Ottoman rule. Thereafter, Arab nationalists and Jewish nationalists (i.e. European-born Zionists) began talking or arguing past each other and extinguished the preexisting world of inter-religious coexistence.

Her writing is very fluid and light. Her narrative is full of little vignettes and episodes constructed around key figures in old Jerusalem. While it is all very entertaining, it's not great history. Often, she describes what an important figure was wearing, then what he was feeling, and then what he was thinking at certain moment (say, before a big meeting). How does she know? How can she recreate the lives of these men and crawl inside their heads? Some of them left memoirs and diaries, but I seriously doubt that they described the tight fit of their suits and the sweat off their brow in politically-minded memoirs. Moreover, the story of what happened and why is much more complicated than the author depicts. It wasn't always all about five or six prominent Arabs and Jews.

[Incidentally, the bibliography is full of memoirs, journals, etc. But the author doesn't speak French, German, Arabic, etc. She relied on assistants and translators for much of her research. That may be fine for journalism (and the author is a former WJS journalist), but a real expert on the history of Ottoman Palestine should know the languages and have a better command of the history.]

"Jerusalem 1913" is a very interesting, but light, review of the political tensions between Jews and Arab-Palestinians between 1900-1930, as the Zionists strove towards their goal of birthing an independent Jewish state. The author subtitled her book: "The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict", but she really doesn't reveal the 'origins' that she purports to be examining. She seems to believe that after the Jews were exiled from the area by the Romans that that really ended the Jewish claim to Palestine (c. 360 C.E.?), and that the Arabs who moved/invaded Palestine thereafter had greater claims to the land than Jews who were interested in buying land there to develop a new Jewish state of Israel. She never really explained why Muslims during the 1890s-1930s were so opposed to an independent Jewish state. Apparently, she was unfamiliar with the Muslim's holy book, the Quran, which berates Jews, and she is unfamiliar with the Muslim hadith command of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad that Jews were forbidden in Arabia, and that the Islamic religion must convert/conquer all others. This is the real reason why Muslims oppose the existence of Israel (see: "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" by Spencer). This book is an interesting account as to how the lives of 3 men: a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian interrelated with one another and how they saw the development of Zionism in Palestine.

"Jerusalem 1913" is a very interesting, but light, review of the political tensions between Jews and Arab-Palestinians between 1900-1930, as the Zionists strove towards their goal of birthing an independent Jewish state. The author subtitled her book: "The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict", but she really doesn't reveal the 'origins' that she purports to be examining. She seems to believe that after the Jews were exiled from the area by the Romans that that really ended the Jewish claim to Palestine (c. 360 C.E.?), and that the Arabs who moved/invaded Palestine thereafter had greater claims to the land than Jews who were interested in buying land there to develop a new Jewish state of Israel. She never really explained why Muslims during the 1890s-1930s were so opposed to an independent Jewish state. Apparently, she was unfamiliar with the Muslim's holy book, the Quran, which berates Jews, and she is unfamiliar with the Muslim hadith command of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad that Jews were forbidden in Arabia, and that the Islamic religion must convert/conquer all others. This is the real reason why Muslims oppose the existence of Israel (see: "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" by Spencer). This book is an interesting account as to how the lives of 3 men: a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian interrelated with one another and how they saw the development of Zionism in Palestine.