Jerusalem: City of Mirrors [ペーパーバック]

I'm surprised that this book is considered out of print as I just bought it in a bookshop at Gatwick Airport on my way back from my first trip to Israel. I strongly recommend seeing Jerusalem before reading this, as then you will have a picture of the city in your mind before hearing the inside story on some of the landmarks. This book is better than a guide even though it does demand a little prior knowledge of the city and the Bible. Congratulations to Mr. Elon on his religous neutrality. I'd be glad to chat to anyone out there about this great country: pfinn50379@aol.com

Jerusalem City of Mirrors is a very interesting read but one must be very much aware that it the book is directed at either the benighted or very secular, or anti-religious reader. The author's usage of many a-historical terms and trying to be more 'Politically' correct over factually correct is evident by his placing forward numerous statement or facts without any follow up thus leaving the position entirely out of context or factually unsound. Some simple examples include the usage of "fanatics" directed at most religious people: Jews, Christians and Muslims. However one cannot compare the "Fanatic" Jew, say Lubavitcher to a "Fanatic" Muslim as the "Fanatic" Jew is responsible for near zero crime or terrorism while today the Muslim "Fanatic" is responsible for 100% of terrorism and greatly increased crime levels in all non-Muslim lands. Another example is Elon's position on Jews being "chosen people" in some benighted racial/arrogant way when in fact the position according to Jews themselves means solely that god supposedly gave them, Israel, their Torah and not to the Hittite, Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian, Babylonian, Jebuzite etc.

Using the term "Palestinian" when during the entirety of this Earth's history Palestine (the name Hadrian gave to replace Judea) was never a country, state or nation - therefore any speak of a 'nationality', be it Jewish, Druze, Christian or Muslim, is simply a-historical. A product of modern political agenda and not of historical or factual specificity. Mr. Elon uses this 'nationality' in the same time frame as to separate them from Jordanians which prior to the mid 1960s didn't exist. The other a-historical term would be "West Bank" as not only historically documented by numerous ancient and modern cultures to be Judea and Samaria was changed into "West Bank" after the failed war of 1948 and future liberation of those lands, already mandated to the Jews, from Jordanian occupation. One must never forget that the Jew was, and is, the legal owner of those lands and had never left those lands even after Christian occupation in the 132 ("Palestina") and Mohammedan conquest after the Battle of Yarmuk in 636 which left the entire area barren of life, plant and animal, as Samuel Longhorne Clemmons found it in 1867.

Mr. Elon shows incredible bias, or shortsightedness, towards Islam's rule over the Jewish and Christian "Dhimmi" in those lands after 636, or in all Muslim lands and after the Conquest of the Ottoman Turks. Perhaps the greatest error in Elon's work is the fact that Jerusalem is never mentioned within the Koran yet he gives many statements of passion and respect for the Muslim interloper or conqueror while the opposite for the Jew, especially after liberating Jerusalem and Temple Mount in 1967. Not even once. Mohammad was never in "Palestine" and most certainly not Jerusalem. Jerusalem means literally nothing, aside from one vague passage of "the holy" within the Koran, to which validated 5 times a day by the Mohammedan turning his back to Jerusalem, with buttock in the air, as he/she prays to Mecca. I believe some worthy reads along with this very good book to give it a bit more historical accuracy would be "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters, the works by Andrew Bostom and Robert Spencer.

Elon makes many comments that are very much out of context which outlines either his being unaware of his faith and its history or makes a direct attempt to appease the secular reader by painting all religious people and religions under the same cloth.

Enjoy this read but I feel one must read a number of other books, including the aforementioned as to become aware of the numerous statements and facts given entirely out of context or distorted for this authors purposes. There are just too many examples that one can give as my book is riddled with comments and clarification written in the margin. It is very informative and very well written be on their toes to notice the various subtle attempts to gloss over historical realities in order to widen the reader base...in my opinion.