Simon Sebag Montefiore is one of that small pool of gifted TV communicators who can make history come to life and make it absolutely fascinating in the process. Other figures that share this rare gift are Michael Woods and Bethany Hughes. I highly recommend Montefiore's 3 part documentaries on Jerusalem, Rome and Constantinople. I love how he weaves his family connections into his coverage of Jerusalem. I am now off to start reading his books!
Simon, you're a fake historian! For all the lies about Stalin and the Soviet Union, you will answer at the Court! Your masters,are children of the devil, they will pay dearly for distorting historical facts before God!
Would that he had a fraction of the concern he has for the Jews for the Palestinians who are right now suffering as much as Jews have ever suffered. But no. He still dribbles on even now after close to 20 000 Palestinians have died about a two state solution indicating he doesn't realize that Palestinians are subjective beings who feel pain and who's blood is red just like his own. Oh yes he's gifted. Oh yes he tells a great story and it's lovely to listen to it. But he's an establishment hack to the core and lives in fantasy land. Zionism and Nazism are sadly deeply similar mentalities Both are based on the idea of the superiority of certain groups. The result is endless bloodshed. Love of all humanity is the only way to peace.
If you liked “Jerusalem A Biography” try his two books on Josef Stalin. Read “Young Stalin” first then read “The Court of the Red Czar” second. Sebag Montifore is elite. The British, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish make for great professional and amateur historians.
He has a brilliant, creative storyteller approach, filled with psychologically detailed characters. Wonderful writer and speaker, but did I once again hear him say "him and Rothschild were brothers"...? I've heard this from him during other discussions. Is this becoming standardized English? It hurts my ears.
@Walter Benjamin, … I’ve never hear anything about any Rothschild being a direct blood relative of a Sebag Montifore but Simon’s great Uncle Moses Montifore and quite a few British and French Rothschilds helped get modern day Aliyah Israel going.
If “Jerusalem A Biography” is the only book one would ever read about that Homy ancient City where Ha Shem literally dwelled and where the Lamb, our Savior walked and was crucified for the sin of humanity and the early rebellion of the 1/3 of Ha Shem’s angels in Heaven. The reason a lot of evil principalities despise humans especially real Christians and devout, righteous Jews is because some humans will be forgiven but the principalities are apparently not going to be forgiven. It’s a big script to play out yet still and you all must choose a side. We don’t get to sit in the bleachers and watch.
Utterly fascinating how the "Sebag" part of his name is left out every time his name is shown. One is left to wonder if that's because it shows the Arabic roots in his family line.
He is pure Anglo-Hebrew financier stock like the Rothschilds and his great uncle Moses Montifore was a great early proponent for the prophecy being fulfilled and the diaspora to cone home to Judea and Samaria.
@Ranitbasu, … very well said buddy I’ve read all his books except the Romanov lates one. I need you to mail me yours please so I can read it. Or take pictures of each page and email me the pages daily.’ I’d appreciate it Ranitbasu, no es pinche broma. I’m not joking.
@Darien, you won’t be able to put the book down it’s a very good history of Jerusalem since Moses Maimonides. There hasn’t been a Moses since Moses was here they say along with “Etz Chiam Hii”…. ie…..”It’s The Tree Of Life as my Jewish ex wife Cynthia used to say.
will you ask Britain to renounce London as its capital? or america to Give Washington away? oe would you ask islam to renounce Mecca? Jews--- they are originally from Judea , Jerusaleme---name given by the jews.. the rest are only Retorics
Boaz Senator The problem being the 1,900 year gap between the two Jewish sovereign states. In any other case, where a modern country was attempted to be created, it needs to include all people living in the proposed state boundaries. I understand the desire for statehood after the horrors of WW2 but the resident Palestinians have been treated like shit. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Funny. Why don't you take into account changes of boundaries in Europe after the WWII and massive forced migration of Germans living in what is now Poland, or was Chekoslovakia? Sometimes for many reasons people have to move. Arabs have some 1,5 milliion square kilometers, Israel has only 20 000.
Narnia Zoroastrians have none. Palestinians have lived in Palestine for millenia. And while many Jews have, too, many "Israelis" have no historic ties to the levant, and are descended from Central Asian Khazars, who converted to Judaism. And it is often they who show up, and dispossess Palestinian familes. If the Welsh did it to the English, in the name of "New Camelot", there'd be uproar. Non-levantine Jews don't belong there, and certainly not at the price of cooping a million Palestinians into the Gaza strip.
You made that up: It was a Sumerian city after Egypt saw off the Hittites. King David took it by force. If you put might over law, war ensues. Mecca is a city of a sovereign state, why did you throw that in alongside 'muslim', it doesn't fit, its just an attempt at divisive rhetoric. Otherwise Celts could lay claim to Londinium, and Sitting Bull could once again be chief brave of D.C. from Wiki, etymology...; The name "Jerusalem" is variously etymologized to mean "foundation (Sumerian yeru, 'settlement'/Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone') of the god Shalem";[40][41] the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.[42] ' The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of "Yireh" ("The abiding place", the name given by Abraham to the place where he began to sacrifice his son) and "Shalem" ("Place of Peace", given by high priest Shem) then two names were united by God.[43] Shalim or Shalem was the name of the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion, whose name is based on the same root S-L-M from which the Hebrew word for "peace" is derived (Salam or Shalom in modern Arabic and Hebrew).[51][52] The name thus offered itself to etymologizations such as "The City of Peace",[41][53] "Abode of Peace",[54][55] "dwelling of peace" ("founded in safety"),[56] alternately "Vision of Peace" in some Christian authors.[57]. History: In the late Bronze Age, Jerusalem was the capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state,[93] a modest settlement governing a few outlying villages and pastoral areas, with a small Egyptian garrison and ruled by appointees such as king Abdi-Heba,[94] At the time of Seti I and Ramesses II, major construction took place as prosperity increased.[95] This period, when Canaan formed part of the Egyptian empire, corresponds in biblical accounts to Joshua's invasion.[96] In the Bible, Jerusalem is defined as lying within territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin[97][98] though occupied by Jebusites. David is said to have conquered these in the Siege of Jebus, and transferred his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem which then became the capital of a united Kingdom of Israel,[99]. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian combined Iudaea Province with neighboring provinces under the new name of Syria Palaestina, replacing the name of Judea.[128] The city was renamed Aelia Capitolina,[129] and rebuilt it in the style of a typical Roman town. Jews were prohibited from entering the city on pain of death, except for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha B'Av. Taken together, these measures[130][131][132] (which also affected Jewish Christians)[133] essentially "secularized" the city.[134] The ban was maintained until the 7th century,[135] though Christians would soon be granted an exemption: during the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of Christian holy sites in the city, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Burial remains from the Byzantine period are exclusively Christian, suggesting that the population of Jerusalem in Byzantine times probably consisted only of Christians.[136] In the 5th century, the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire, ruled from the recently renamed Constantinople, maintained control of the city. Within the span of a few decades, Jerusalem shifted from Byzantine to Persian rule, then back to Roman-Byzantine dominion. Following Sassanid Khosrau II's early 7th century push through Syria, his generals Shahrbaraz and Shahin attacked Jerusalem (Persian: Dej Houdkh) aided by the Jews of Palaestina Prima, who had risen up against the Byzantines.[137] In the Siege of Jerusalem of 614, after 21 days of relentless siege warfare, Jerusalem was captured. Byzantine chronicles relate that the Sassanids and Jews slaughtered tens of thousands of Christians in the city, many at the Mamilla Pool,[138][139] and destroyed their monuments and churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This episode has been the subject of much debate between historians.[140] The conquered city would remain in Sassanid hands for some fifteen years until the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius reconquered it in 629.[141] This is just antiquity: the saga continued, is continuing, and will continue - worryingly without resolution via the UN advocation of the 2 state solution - history suggests the future will be bloody. In many respects it does represent the centre of the world, like the centre of a chessboard. Today Isreal exists because the USA supported its illegal growth, and is their key bridgehead into the region. Trump is a dumb doll for a sinister group of puppeteers.
Once for all : such a thing as "Palestinian entity " had ever existed , the denomination Palestine was given by the Romans after they conquered Jerusalem and the judea 600 years before Islam was invented in Arabia ,-as you see today , most arBentitues are collapsing because they where nothing but mishmash of tribes ,so who dares talking to me about palestinian nation. Hahahaha . For 500 years the land was under ottomans After came Britain . After it was occupied by Jordan who declared wars against Israel losing West Bank , The rest is cheap Arab propaganda......liers
Hazy details for rhetorically unbalanced argument. Stick to well sourced and broad historiographies if you are commenting upon an academic talk. See my comment above.
The descendants of Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael will be a “wild donkey of a man. His hand against everyone, and everybody’s hand against him. He will live in hostility towards all his brothers”
Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for 3000 years. It will remain so. You have been a flaming idiot for a good number of years--and you will remain so. You have something in common with Jerusalem don't you?
