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Book Review  by Ida Nasatir

This is Israel by I.F. Stone

June 1949—Ida Nasatir, book review—This is Israel by I.F. Stone—Southwestern Jewish Press, page 6: Most of what Mr. Stone has to say in this book has been available before to the daily newspaper reader. By summarizing it up once again, he has made history out of isolated dispatches and supplied a yardstick with which to measure the hardships and accomplishments of this newborn, almost still-born state. That it was not still-born is due almost wholly to its own efforts. For although the men of Israel knew that the little state required help and good-will of the great powers, they also knew that no one cared so passionately about their nation, as they did. They were grateful, of course, to the U.N. but they knew that a debating point at Lake Success would not stop an Egyptian control in the Negev. Mr. Stone, as an American newspaperman, has lived through much of the drama he writes about. Readers who once read the PM (when it lived) will recall his first hand reporting of many of the events he now describes in book form. He tells of the character of the early pioneers and the course of Palestine from the time of the British mandate. He gives a comparison between American and Palestinian pioneering problems and a shrewd explanation of why the new state functioned so early, and so well. Without defending the terrorists he describes the conditions in which they were born and flourished.  More than offering examples of personal courage and hard labor, the modern history of Palestine underlines the efforts of a small group—a minority of a minority, since NOT all Jews were, or are they Zionists—who stayed stubbornly with their ideal until history caught up with them. The photographs show this most effectively.  Large and well reproduced on glossy paper, they are given enough elbow room to make their point. If the war pictures are most striking, it is the pictures of peaceful pursuits that are significant: a birdge at the potash works at the Dead Sea, a water pipeline to the Negev, a new settlement being established in Upper Galilee. These are the evidences that the people would not be daunted by eroded hills and desert land. They brought greenery and productivity to land bare and malarial for centuries. In his friendly foreword, Bartley Crum quotes Chaim Weitzman's remark: "We have a good population. That is the best of raw materials." Both the writing of I.F. Stone, and the excellent pictures are a confirmation of his claim. This is Israel has the answers to many questions. It should be read.