Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing. Needs more in-depth study.
Review: Having read all the reviews, most of which heap praise on this book, I picked it up with a sense of eager anticipation. Jerusalem being a city that I know so very well and love more than any other.Only too aware of the immense religious and political significance of the Jerusalem's Temple Mount to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, I expected to read a serious, in-depth, respectful study of the relevance of the Temple Mount to all the parties concerned, particularly in relation to how all faiths view it's place in the end times. Whilst these subjects are touched upon and there is much of merit in this book, I do not feel that the book does justice to this colossal subject. I feel that time and again, the writer's personal opinions are allowed to taint this study. Whilst such should be respected, I fail to find any justification for deviating from essential & pivotal issues to personally attack and insult Christian evangelists for example, over their own personal appearances & histories, or to ridicule the differing personal opinions of others professing some knowledge of the Temple Mount. Accusations of certain beliefs/opinions as being 'myths' without any appropriate elaboration or explanation for such accusations leaves a lot to be desired. Others might accuse me of 'nit-picking', but I feel that this is a subject that needs to be approached with the utmost respect. I consider that there is much destructive criticism within this book, smeared at times with arrogance, whilst constructive criticism and respect is unfortunately sometimes lacking, as is any real in-depth study to the issues concerned. Other reviews quite correctly state the immense signifcance and importance of the matters discussed here, but I am left feeling that this subject needs to be addressed with far more depth and far more respect. There are better books out there on these matters. Might I respectfully suggest that interested persons read "Secrets Of Jerusalem's Temple Mount" by Leen & Kathleen Ritmeyer, "The Coming Last Days Temple" and "Jerusalem In Prophecy" both by Randall Price. Thanks for listening.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow! A fascinating and informative book
Review: I had no idea of just how complicated things were in the Middle East until I read this book. Although the book is only about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Gorenberg is able to show the ways in which it really distills all the major problems in the region in miniature. Essentially, he tells about the impact that the fundamentalisms of the three religions of the book--Islam, Judaism, and Christianity--has had on the Mount. This book ought to be required reading for anyone wanting to understand the political situation in the world today. It will also explain why in all the peace plans that are offered by Israel, Palestine, or the US, the Muslims retain control of the Temple Mount. If anyone even threatened to take control away, it would probably result in World War III, so passionately is Al-Aqsa held by the Muslim world. Some in the Christian world imagine that a Jewish Temple will be rebuilt on the former Temple of David, but the book explains why this is a pipedream. A great book. I couldn't recommend it strongly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! A fascinating and informative book
Review: I had no idea of just how complicated things were in the Middle East until I read this book. Although the book is only about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Gorenberg is able to show the ways in which it really distills all the major problems in the region in miniature. Essentially, he tells about the impact that the fundamentalisms of the three religions of the book--Islam, Judaism, and Christianity--has had on the Mount. This book ought to be required reading for anyone wanting to understand the political situation in the world today. It will also explain why in all the peace plans that are offered by Israel, Palestine, or the US, the Muslims retain control of the Temple Mount. If anyone even threatened to take control away, it would probably result in World War III, so passionately is Al-Aqsa held by the Muslim world. Some in the Christian world imagine that a Jewish Temple will be rebuilt on the former Temple of David, but the book explains why this is a pipedream. A great book. I couldn't recommend it strongly enough.
Rating:
Summary: UNDERSTANDING WHY JERUSALEM IS NOT YET A CITY OF PEACE
Review: I have been a fan of Gershom Gorenberg for a long time, seeing him to be one of the premier Israeli journalists, writing first for the Jerusalem Post and then for the Jerusalem Report. All the skills that he has honed over the years have been put to good use in this excellent volume which explores the depth of emotion focused on David's City, the city whose name contains the word for peace, but whose ruins speak of centuries of war. Who should control Jerusalem is not a topic which lends itself to rational discussion. This in fact is the great strength of Gorenberg's book: he manages to throw a dispassionate light on what Jews, Muslims and Christians believe about the city, and especially about what Jews call the Temple Mount. The rhetoric about the Temple Mount has inflamed passions on all sides; indeed, it was a key factor, if not the key factor, in derailing the Camp David peace talks in 1999. Most Jews see that piece of property as being sacred turf, the holiest site on this earth, and they reject any possibility that it is even remotely as important to any other religious group. Muslims on the other hand see it as the site of the Farther Mosque -- the spot from which Muhammad ascended on his visit to heaven. That is why they built the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque on it, and that is why they insist that Muslim control of it be part and parcel of any settlement with Israel. Gorenberg makes each side's arguments crystal clear, making it understandable, possibly for the first time in a single volume, what each side is bringing to the table on this tremendously sensitive issue. This makes his book not only excellent social history, it makes it also required reading for anyone who wants to move beyond the rhetoric to understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Essential for understanding passions in the Middle East
Review: I have read a large number of books dealing with the situation in the Middle East, but this fascinating volume is one of the best that I have encountered for understanding precisely why so many individuals feel so passionately about their particular stake in the area. Gorenberg, a journalist and scholar raised in the United States but now living in Jerusalem, does a masterful job of taking the reader into the mental and spiritual lives of fundamentalist Jews, Christians, and Islam as he focuses on their respective beliefs concerning the fate of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The specific issue in question is the desire of marginal factions of Jews to rebuild the Temple on the current site of the Dome of the Rock, a Moslem Holy Site, in Jerusalem. In particular, he focuses on the millenarian hopes of extremist Jews who believe that building a Temple will usher in a messianic period of world peace, the dreams of Christian millenarian dispensationalists who believe that these same Jews building a temple is a necessary prelude to the impending return of Jesus, and of the varying reactions of Muslims. Some Muslims, Gorenberg points out, share their own millenarian dreams that are similar to those of fundamentalist Christians, in which a Jewish Antichrist is defeated by a Jesus sent by Allah, who will defeat Jesus and create a one world Islamic society. Most of the book is spent focusing on the Jewish and Christian participants in this story. Gorenberg is especially good in dealing with the myriad of ways in which Christians are profoundly dependent upon and encouraging of Jews performing their roles as actors in a Divine drama. He details the ways in which both Christians and Jews use each other in their attempts to bring the Temple Mount story to a conclusion incompatible to the desires and hopes of the other. He is also superb at showing how horrifically this could end, possibly bringing about World War III, if either Christians or Jews are able to avoid Israeli or Palestinian security and destroy the Dome of the Rock. This book is a powerful antidote to simplistic thinking about the Middle East in general, or the possibility or desirability of rebuilding the Temple in particular. It is not, perhaps, in the end a particular hopeful book. The reader can come away from it with a sense that there is probably no way to bring about a Middle Eastern solution that will satisfy all Jews or Muslims. A solution that satisfies all Jews will certainly lead to a Holy War carried out by Muslims, and one that satisfies all Muslims will certainly not satisfy many Israelis. The value of the book primarily lies in exposing the enormously complex nature of the situation, and explicating how passionately the various parties conceptualize the state of things. Apart from the pedagogical value of the book, this is a flat out fascinating read. The cast of characters is varied and colorful. Gorenberg recounts complicated stories lucidly. My only complaint with the book is that the overall narrative is told somewhat unsystematically. This in part perhaps reflects the complex nature of the story he has to tell. But even so, I feel the chapters could have been arranged a little more clearly. This book will be of enormous interest to anyone interested in the situation in the Middle East, and especially in Jerusalem. I put this book right alongside Fromkin's A PEACE TO END ALL PEACE, which chronicles how the modern Middle East was mindlessly created after WW I by the victors in Europe, as essential to understanding the contemporary situation in Israel.
Rating:
Summary: Timely, For sure, but something is missing, What is it?
Review: I will re-read this book. But something no one here has mentioned bothered me all the way through my first reading. I believe, not sure, that it has to do with the author's voice. Not fully omnicient, but too omniscient. Good wordsmith but tone deaf. Ego where soul is needed. For such a timely and important subject, the author interfering with his story was a continual distraction for me. His style... was annoying. Did he use words to show off? Did he make dense what could have been simplified if never simple? Did he jump around from character to next character too awkwardly? The Temple Mount is a great and timely subject. I'm not doing well in expressing my reservations so I'll re-read it and check back in here, maybe amend the 2 stars. But I felt honor-bound to express that this book felt, all the way through, like a long, unnecessary struggle if a necessary education. Don't you hate it when a book is praised to the skies and you find it... difficult & off-kilter? That's my view.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Non-Fiction
Review: If you are unfamiliar with the various fringe groups seeking to rebuild the Jewish temple on the present-day site of the Dome of the Rock, you will be captivated by this book. I fit into the first category before picking up this book, and fit into the second category now that I'm finished. Gorenberg's description reads like a series of New Yorker articles. Individually, they are fascinating and well written. Together, however, they do not make a single coherent story that does more than inform. Hence four, rather than five stars. But information of this sort is valuable, and Mr. Gorenberg presents the information in readable prose that is enjoyable, notwithstanding the often dark subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Non-Fiction
Review: If you are unfamiliar with the various fringe groups seeking to rebuild the Jewish temple on the present-day site of the Dome of the Rock, you will be captivated by this book. I fit into the first category before picking up this book, and fit into the second category now that I'm finished. Gorenberg's description reads like a series of New Yorker articles. Individually, they are fascinating and well written. Together, however, they do not make a single coherent story that does more than inform. Hence four, rather than five stars. But information of this sort is valuable, and Mr. Gorenberg presents the information in readable prose that is enjoyable, notwithstanding the often dark subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, Scary and Still Timely
Review: If you believe in a just, all-powerful and merciful God, explaining why good people suffer is a terrible problem. One solution is eschatology -- the belief that at the end of days, God will replace the current order with a new, perfect Kingdom of God, where believers will be rewarded and the wicked punished. As Christianity and Islam became established mass religions, themselves playing significant roles in the current world order, their leaders tended to downplay hopes for an immediate or literal arrival of the Kingdom of God (and the overthrow of their own present power), looking instead for a metaphorical Kingdom of God, a goal that we strive for but never reach. The leaders of Judaism, having no secular power themselves, attempted to protect a persecuted minority by avoiding overt challenges to authority, with the result that they too disavowed any immediate, literal, messianic expectations. As a result, both "mainstream" followers of these religions and secular intellectuals tend to look down their noses at those who anticipate the imminent arrival of the literal Kingdom of God. Millenial and messianic threads have nevertheless remained present in all of the monotheistic religions, and resurgent fundamentalism has insisted on a literal, imminent Kingdom of God. Gershom Gorenberg does not attempt to explain the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in the late 20th Century, but he amply demonstrates how millenial or messianic thinking has influenced and been influenced by the course of recent history in the Middle East, from the Balfour Declaration through the first Intifada and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Gorenberg has spent hours with leaders of Christian millenial and Jewish messianic movements, many of whom see the rebuilding of the Temple as the key to bringing the end times. Of these, a certain number are not willing to wait for God to act, but have taken it upon themselves to bring about the Kingdom of God, whether by stopping the peace process or by destroying the Dome of the Rock so that the Temple can be built in its place. Since they expect battle, they are not afraid to bring on war; since they see themselves as already living under the "new" law of the "redeemed" world, they feel free to ignore the laws of this present one. Gorenberg emphasizes (rightly, in my view) that we cannot dismiss what so many believe as "crazy" or as the product of "cults." He lets the leaders of these movements present their views in their own words, even as he criticizes the potential implications for those of us who live in this world. Having read this book, I better understand the thinking of groups who view the peace process as inimical to God's work (though I still disagree with them), and I wonder even more what Sharon could *possibly* have been thinking when he went to the Temple Mount and brought on the present crisis. Although Gorenberg's book was published in 2000 and therefore does not discuss the most recent events in the Middle East, he makes the point that disappointed millenial believers are perhaps even more dangerous than those still awaiting the date. Equally important, the context Gorenberg provides for the impact of the 1967 War and reactions to the Oslo accords will be valuable to anyone interested in current events in the Middle East. This is an important book, which takes millenial and messianic thinking seriously and details them in a way that I have seen no where else. You cannot understand what a dangerous game politicians play in courting fundamentalists without reading this book. And any peace process must take the likely fundamentalist reaction into account. The only deficiency I found was that 90% of the book deals with Christian and Jewish fundamentalism, and only 10% with Islamic views. I got the distinct impression that Gorenberg does not speak Arabic, and therefore had to rely on the scholarship of others and a few interviews in assessing Islamic fundamentalism. Despite this weakness, the presentation of Christian and Jewish millenial thinking is so important and so powerful that I must recommend this to everyone interested in the future of the Middle East.
Rating:
Summary: Non-fiction that reads like a novel
Review: In a time of fundamentalist fervor, Gershom Gorenberg's superb lookat what makes them tick is essential reading. A compilation ofanecdotes and interviews with the true and extreme believers of thethree major faiths brings the reader up close and personal with aworld we really know little about. Most important, "The End ofDays" isn't a scholarly book in the conventional (boring)sense. It's storytelling at its best, beautifully written andengrossing from start to finish.
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