Israel: Birth of a Nation

List Price: $24.95 Buy For: $22.49
Usually ships in 24 hours


Add to Cart


Compare New & Used Prices From All Available Merchants:

Starring: Martin Gilbert
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Studio: A&E Home Video
Release Date: 2005-09-27
Running Time: 100 minutes
Sir Martin Gilbert hosts this compelling look at Israel's first three years, featuring never-before-seen footage and eyewitness accounts of the nation's birth.

A good introduction
The use of stock footage from the era gives the viewer a "feel" for the times. Mr. Gilbert's visits to some of the locations in which fighting took place was also interesting and I hope to visit some of these spots myself before I return to the United States.

Over simplified, and incomplete
Undoubtedly it's difficult to adequately describe the history of any nation's birth in one 50 minute documentary. The History Channel and Sir Martin Gilbert made a creditable attempt. Yet, the overall result is disappointing.

As another reviewer mentioned, the film is too much comprised of historical footage major War of Independence battles--from before the Nov. 29, 1947 United Nations partition vote, before and after Israel's May 14, 1948 Declaration of Statehood, through the February, March, April and July 1949 Armistice agreements and their aftermath.

The film includes interviews with retired Jewish defenders and survivors of massacres at Kfar Etzion, Mount Scopus (Hadassah Hospital medical convoy, Apr. 13, 1948), Sha'ar HaGai and Yad Mordechai. There is also wonderful 1949 footage of post-war Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and so on shot by Briton Bernard Beecham, who visited specifically to document life in Israel's first days as a sovereign state.

On the down side, the only Arab archival footage was reportedly staged anti-Israel military propaganda. This seems imbalanced.

There are also 1948 clips of Galilee Druze and Negev Bedouins who look happy to have accepted Jewish sovereignty.

But viewers miss any adequate Arab League political or Islamic theological explanations for the refusal to accept a new Arab state alongside the Jewish one. There's only the demand of Transjordanian King Abdullah I--that Israel submit to Muslim rule, or face war.

Also missing are any extant archival radio or news clips of Arab exhortations to flee--or destruction of Israel. Possibly only the news clips survive, but the documentary missed an important opportunity to air them.

Finally, while Jewish immigration from Arab nations is mentioned in passing, the forced exodus of nearly one million Jews from Arab and Muslim nations is not reported here, nor is Israel's absorption of their vast majority. That's unfortunate, since Middle Eastern Jews had lived in Arab and Muslim countries for thousands of years, in the case of Iraq, since long before the coming of Christ.

Birth of a Nation tries, but doesn't adequately present the intricacies of Israel's founding.

A History of Violence
I HATED this film. I had hoped to learn about the "Birth of a Nation" and "prenatal" life in the region. But the entire film is about postnatal fighting. Fighting, fighting, fighting!

The film is for people who find fighting to be glorious - for people who like to keep score of battles and casualties like some kind of sports game.

This ugly film depicted the entire society as being barbaric. And it sanctified the barbarism as being something good, something heroic. Surely the beautiful people and the rich culture of this region deserve more than this. Surely the viewers deserve more than this History Channel pandering.

Israel: Against All Odds
the most beautiful miracle of hshem took place on may of 1948. israel became a nation once again. for 2000 years israel has been displaced and been scattered through out the nations of the world. this is the most touching,heart warming,and gut renching you will ever see on film. makes you want to sob with so much joy and relief to see the holy people of G'D coming back home to the promised land of avraham, yitzhak,and ya'akov. biblical prophecy has been fulfilled.
yehoshooah is the gratest miracle, his life and ministry, his death, and ressurection. his whole life mirrors (reflects) exactly what happened too ancient israel and the jewish inhabitants. also vice versa israel mirrors the agony, pain, and death and ressurection of our beloved masheeakh yehoshooah.
this movie makes me proud to be jewish, proud to be israeli, and joy in my heart that yehoshooah,the anointed one,and his father in heaven, the holy one of israel, made this all possible that israel would be a nation once again. against all odds israel is still a nation surrounded by arab enemies who want to destroy our country and our people. it is sad to say but true that there are christians who like the arabs feel the same way about us. yet against all odds israel is a nation and a miracle too. bruch hshem (bless G'D) and todah hshem (thank G'D) i know i do every day. i know this film will inspire people.anyone who loves freedom will love this inspiring miracle that came true and was well documented on film. after the agony, suffering,pain, and death of the holocaust joy came afterwards in may of 1948 that joy came when israel became a nation once again. sorrow comes in the evening and joy comes in the morning i have read this in the psalms of king david. the holocaust was the evening and the nation of israel was the morning when joy came to the people.