Contributor Archives: Tom Segev

About Tom Segev

Tom Segev is a columnist for Ha’aretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, and the author of three now-classic works on the history of Israel: 1949: The First Israelis; The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust; and One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice for 2000. Segev’s latest book is 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East. He lives Jerusalem.

1967: Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Tom Segev

“Today we know that Israel’s triumph in 1967 was a Pyrrhic victory. Tom Segev’s 1967 makes that more clear than anything written on the subject . . . Segev documents this historic tragedy brilliantly, authoritatively, as no one has before.”—Amos Elon, Ha’aretz From Israel’s leading historian, a sweeping history of 1967—the war, what led up to it, what came after, and how it changed everything Tom Segev’s acclaimed works One Palestine, Complete and The Seventh Million …

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Did the Holocaust’s Specter Drive Israel to Attack in 1967? Exclusive Excerpt | Tom Segev’s New Book

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Tom Segev

Chapter 8: 2. “Nasser is Hitler”: Israel on the Eve of the Six Day War Exclusive Excerpt from 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East During the first years of Israel’s existence, the events of the Holocaust were shrouded in a great silence, making the topic virtually taboo. Parents would not tell their children what had happened to them, and children dared not ask. But after the April 1961 kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann and the trial that followed, Israelis …

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What If Israel Had Turned Back?

Posted on June 5, 2007 by Tom Segev

FORTY years ago today, on the morning of June 5, 1967, Jordan launched an artillery attack on the Israeli part of Jerusalem. In reaction Israel conquered the Arab sections of the city as well as the West Bank. History is full of “what ifs,” and responsible historians should not indulge in such speculation. But journalists may. What if Israel hadn’t taken East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the Six-Day War? Would the Palestinian situation have found some solution and Israel be living at …

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Exclusive Excerpt | 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East–Israel on the Eve of the Six Day War

Posted on June 5, 2007 by Tom Segev

“Absorbing and convincing: an exemplary work of journalistic history.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Chapter 8 Nine Days to War: A Terrible Situation 1. Anxiety: “Keep up your appearance” The fear triggered by Nasser’s acts, beginning on Independence Day, rapidly escalated into panic. “We are in a cold war, with the hot war close on the horizon, ready to erupt at any time,” wrote Yosef Weitz in his diary. “The people of Israel are in a state of anxiety.” The …

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