Ghosts of a Holy War

The 1929 massacre of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron was one of the most seminal events in the Arab-Israeli conflict--until October 7, 2023, and Hamas's gruesome murder of nearly 1,200 men, women, and children, and their abduction of some 240 others. The echoes of 1929 in 2023 are key to understanding the complexities of what is, at its core, a holy war. Award-winning journalist Yardena Schwartz draws on her extensive research and wide-ranging interviews with both sides to tell the story of the world's longest conflict. She expertly demonstrates how the issues today cannot be fully understood without the context of ground zero of this century-old war, which began long before the occupation, the settlements, or the state of Israel ever existed.