Israel: A Nation Is Born

Starring:Abba Eban
Studio: Homevision
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
This six-part chronicle of the birth and development of the Jewish state is hosted and narrated by former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Abba Eban, who also hosted Heritage: Civilization and the Jews. Eban, who played a pivotal role in realizing the dream of a Jewish state, points out that "the series is designed to provide an essential context to an inspiring human story."

Among those featured in interviews and rare archival footage are U.S. Presidents Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, and key leaders Winston Churchill, Anwar Sadat, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Rabin. Together with Eban's firsthand testimony, this series achieves a diverse perspective of both the Arab and Israeli experience. According to Eban, Israel: A Nation Is Born is a "depiction of the turbulent and dramatic history of Israel, through the conflicts and tensions of five decades, climaxing in the brighter prospects of Arab/Israeli peace."

Average customer rating:

Very engrossing story of the birth of Israel and subsequent

Lightweight, and biased

An inspiring series

Not for the beginner

Wish Ezekiel Could Have Seen This!

Israel: A Nation Is Born
Starring: Abba Eban
Manufacturer: Homevision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Heritage - Civilization and the Jews

Israel: Birth of a Nation

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ASIN: B00008UAMZ
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Description

This six-part chronicle of the birth and development of the Jewish state is hosted and narrated by former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Abba Eban, who also hosted Heritage: Civilization and the Jews. Eban, who played a pivotal role in realizing the dream of a Jewish state, points out that "the series is designed to provide an essential context to an inspiring human story."

Among those featured in interviews and rare archival footage are U.S. Presidents Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, and key leaders Winston Churchill, Anwar Sadat, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Rabin. Together with Eban's firsthand testimony, this series achieves a diverse perspective of both the Arab and Israeli experience. According to Eban, Israel: A Nation Is Born is a "depiction of the turbulent and dramatic history of Israel, through the conflicts and tensions of five decades, climaxing in the brighter prospects of Arab/Israeli peace."

Customer Reviews:

Very engrossing story of the birth of Israel and subsequent.......2007-01-04

This is a very engrossing story of the birth of Israel, the subsequent ingathering of the exiles, and the development of the young country.

Lightweight, and biased.......2007-01-03

Abba Eban clearly loves his own role in history, and focuses heavily on events that he was a part of -- there's more about Israel's struggles at the U.N. in the late 1940's than, say, the '48 war. But Eban glosses over events in a rather underhanded way. For example, in describing the "Altalena" boat affair, he simply states that the specific events were deeply traumatic for Israeli society in the years to come... but I think we could stand to hear that the Haganah/Palmach actually shot at and killed Jewish Irgun fighters who were bobbing helplessly in the water, and this happened long after the Altalena had waved the white flag of surrender. In this and other ways, Eban displays a shocking bias toward the left. It simply is not honest about the events that modern-day Jews ought to know about. Because of his tendency to overload the brief chapters with diplomatic initiatives, rather than focus on other aspects of Israeli history or the conflicts as they occured on the ground, this series ends up being rather lightweight. And it lacks the emotional 'umph' that it ought to have. Cold, dry, not-so-factual.

An inspiring series.......2006-04-21

This six-part series does a great job of telling the story of the rebirth of the State of Israel. There are interviews with and footage of so many historical and political figures, such as Golda Meir, David Ben Gurion, Yitzchak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Anwar Sadat, King Hussein, Harry Truman, Abba Eban (the narrator), and Jimmy Carter. There are also interviews with Arabs living in Israel, among them Hanan Ashwari, whom I admire on one hand for her feminist work (esp. since it's not often you see such a prominent feminist in the Arab world) but also feel misgivings about because she's said a lot of anti-Israel things, as though Israel is almost 100% wrong and her own people are almost 100% right, with no gray area or just owning up to some of the basic historical facts presented in this series, instead of painting Israel as an evil monster that can do no right. It really disturbed me to see a poster of Arafat, the father of modern-day terrorism, on the wall behind her. The historical facts as presented here show the nation's miraculous rebirth, the struggle it had on its way to being reborn, all of the wars Israel has had waged against it over the years just to defend its existence (the first of which was waged against it when it had barely declared its independence), the anti-Israel bias demonstrated by the UN while at the same time turning a blind eye to terrorism and wars waged against it at every turn, the years when it has experienced peace and calm instead of constant terrorist attacks or preparations for war, what a good job it did of taking in so many immigrants (from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, Europe, Northern Africa, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and those who voluntarily came from Western nations as opposed to immigrating because they had no other choice), what really caused the refugee crisis among the Arabs who fled Israel in the wake of the War of Independence, political developments, and, yes, the fact that it has made some mistakes over the years. But even though the government has made some mistakes, as all governments have, it doesn't change the fact that in 70 years, it went from a sparsely-populated near-wasteland to a thriving modern nation with a huge population, many new citizens taken in and made a part of society, and saw the rebirth of Hebrew, the only language to date which has come back from the dead. I don't see how it could be called one-sided, since the historical facts and evidence support these things so strongly, contrary to the lies spun by the anti-Israel lobby. Sometimes there is only one right side. They even, as aforementioned, had a number of interviews with people who have a different perspective on things.

However, I do agree that for the uninitiated, it might seem a bit overwhelming, since it does kind of start in media res. Someone not incredibly familiar with Israeli history might indeed want a lot more background information to put it all in perspective and understand the meaning of these names, organizations, and Hebrew and Arabic terms. It might have been better had it begun in the wake of WWI instead of on the eve of WWII, since the events that happened in the interwar years were so instrumental in shaping the course of Israeli history and its struggle for rebirth. It isn't fair to assume that just because you're already intimately familiar with this material, all other viewers are too. One also wishes there were a fourth disc in the series, to cover everything that has happened since 1997, the final year covered. Still, all in all, there's a lot of great material here and it should leave the viewer wanting more, inspired to read more and to find more documentaries like this one.

Not for the beginner.......2006-02-10

I rented this DVD because of the glowing reviews here and because I wanted a better understanding of the origin of the modern problems in the Middle East. Overall, I was disappointed by this offering because it didn't give sufficient background and seemed to speak primarily to those who already had a knowledge of the subject. (It also seems to me to be *a bit* biased in Israel's favor vis-a-vis the Palestinians, but that flaw could be accepted and filtered appropriately.)

For instance, the documentary jumps right into the last Zionist Congress in 1939 (or whenever it was), but they never define what the Zionist movement is or where it came from. I know some of this from my reading, but it would be nice to have a summary here -- especially as it relates to the main players in the rest of the documentary. I wish the documentary would have at least started with WWI and the British occupation of Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, rather than picking up at WWII and mentioning some of the WWI details later. Doing so would have answered questions like, "Why are the British so important here?"

Another example is keeping track of the people, places, and organizations, which are often named in Hebrew or Arabic and are unfamiliar to the uninitiated. It made the sequence of events hard to follow because we had a hard time keeping track of who was doing what and where. Using more text on the screen, more maps, more recaps, and perhaps more English translations would have improved things greatly, methinks.

The film certainly has value, not least because it is told by a participant and first-hand observer, but it is not for those without much familiarity with the people, places, and issues at hand.

Wish Ezekiel Could Have Seen This!.......2005-01-27

This is a Classy essential documentary. Not a question of if you should buy it; but rather it is a question of why you have not already! It is worth every penny!!! It explains and puts into context the Struggle of the Jewish people against German attempts to annihilate them, their stunning post-war ascension into Statehood in spite of the British (!!!) and the resulting International Geopolitical ramifications of this.
All of this amazing history is made clear and comprehensible in a DVD that includes rarely seen, priceless interviews with Zionist supporters such as President Truman, Clark Clifford and other clips such as that of Warren Austin and to many others to list that your children will not see in our ever increasingly anti-Semitic colleges and universities.
The segment which shows the crucial reading in the UN of the United States' recognition of the Jewish Provisional Government will bring tears and chills to anyone who has even the vaguest understanding of the Ezekiel Chapter 37 Dry Bones prophecy!
It is a mesmerizing story that every Jew and Christian in America should see. A story that spans the ages...of the struggles of a people to survive against supernatural odds and rise again to power and prominence in one of the few stories on earth that can literally claim to be a struggle of Biblical proportions.

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