Canaan, Land of Israel, the Holy Land, Bibleland—Palestine. Many names for a small speck of earth, no bigger than Wales or Massachusetts. This land has suffered most of the world’s conquerors, from the Babylonians to the British, only to brighten its aura of sanctity for millions of Muslims, Christians, and Jews to the present day. In Weathered by Miracles, Thomas Idinopulos tells the story of that one explosive moment in Palestine’s long history that began with Napoleon’s invasion of the Middle East in 1798 and concluded with the founding of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Here was the dramatic confrontation of world empires for possession and profit, the clash of Islam with the Christian West, and the pioneering zeal of explorers and excavators, diplomats, merchants, and missionaries. Here were the last days of Turkish and European imperialisms and the first breaths of Arab and Jewish nationalisms. Concentrating on the fateful ties between politics and religion, Mr. Idinopulos describes the extraordinary transformation of Palestine from wasteland to a dynamic country, and traces the origin of the violence that continues today between Arabs and Jews.
