City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem

""The chronicles of Jerusalem are a gigantic quarry from which each side has mined stones for the construction of its myths--and for throwing at each other."" Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and author of Intimate Enemies: Jews and Arabs in a Shared Land, describes the importance of Jerusalem to Jews, Muslims and Christians and the ancient acrimony that has arisen from their competing interests. Benvenisti outlines the follies of all claimants, while stressing the wrongs of the Jews and the U.S. government as well, which he accuses of using ""verbal gymnastics"" to appear neutral while in fact siding with the Jewish population. Most readers will already agree with Benvenisti about the importance of finding an answer to ""the Jerusalem problem,"" so he could have done without the overblown pronouncements: ""A bomb is waiting to go off in the heart of Jerusalem, its fuse burning with the fire of the religious fanaticism of Jew, Muslim, and Christian."" After long analysis of various solutions, he has little to add of his own, save to say that there is no solution. What is needed, he says is a ""`process-oriented' approach,"" one that is ""solidly planted in the `mud' of reality; there is no previously determined final and definitive goal. On the contrary, the assumption is that the two parties have conflicting final goals, and that it is pointless to exert oneself in the pursuit of a common goal, except for the purpose of conducting the dialogue."" (Nov.)