In the book My Promised Land by Ari Shavit starts off with the chapter at first sight where we meet Shavit’s great grandfather Herbert Bentwich. Bentwich is a very passionate Zionist. Bentwich decides that Jews must settle in their homeland Judea, and so Bentwich led twenty-one Zionist pilgrims to the land of Israel in 1897. This is because anti Semitism was on the rise which was effecting the Jewish people in very negative ways. Jewish people all over were treated as second-class citizens, which is why the emergence of Zionism in 1897 was such a big deal to the Jewish people. Bentwich understood that the Jews needed a radical solution to protect their survival. Bentwich was committed to ending Jewish misery, and preserving Jewish identity.
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Ari Shavit states, “By pure chance, my great grandfather is at the epicenter of the drama”(12). Ari Shavit is foreshadowing the war that happens amongst the Jews and the Arabs by expressing that drama is to take place. Shavit goes on to say “there are more than half a million Arabs, Bedouins, and Druze in Palestine in 1897”(12). Shavit’s grandfather saw that the land of Israel was occupied by another people, but chose to carry on any way. Mentioning another people living in Israel foreshadows that trouble could occur especially when Shavit says, “My great grandfather cannot turn back. So that he can carry on, my great grandfather chooses not to see”(13). Shavit may mean that his grandfather chose not to see that problems could arise by traveling to a land that is already occupied by a good amount of people. This first chapter also foreshadows the tragedy that will occur by Nazi Germany. Shavit states “Worse than the past is what the future holds. In the next half century, a third of all Jews will be murdered”(4). He is foreshadowing the holocaust, and the violence that came along with it. Shavit also mentions, “but in their own way they act in the 1890s in order to preempt the 1940s”(5). In the 1940s is when Nazi Germany started exterminating Jews. So this is foreshadowing the
Ari Shavit states, “By pure chance, my great grandfather is at the epicenter of the drama”(12). Ari Shavit is foreshadowing the war that happens amongst the Jews and the Arabs by expressing that drama is to take place. Shavit goes on to say “there are more than half a million Arabs, Bedouins, and Druze in Palestine in 1897”(12). Shavit’s grandfather saw that the land of Israel was occupied by another people, but chose to carry on any way. Mentioning another people living in Israel foreshadows that trouble could occur especially when Shavit says, “My great grandfather cannot turn back. So that he can carry on, my great grandfather chooses not to see”(13). Shavit may mean that his grandfather chose not to see that problems could arise by traveling to a land that is already occupied by a good amount of people. This first chapter also foreshadows the tragedy that will occur by Nazi Germany. Shavit states “Worse than the past is what the future holds. In the next half century, a third of all Jews will be murdered”(4). He is foreshadowing the holocaust, and the violence that came along with it. Shavit also mentions, “but in their own way they act in the 1890s in order to preempt the 1940s”(5). In the 1940s is when Nazi Germany started exterminating Jews. So this is foreshadowing the