Summary 

Chapter Six 

In 1893, Alfred Dreyfus is found guilty of treason and sentenced to time in prison. Dreyfus is Jewish and the incident sparks a new era of French antisemitism after a long period of inclusivity. Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian Jewish man, is affected by all this and starts a campaign for a Jewish state. This became known as Zionism. He is mocked by some, but Herzl is able to garner support for his cause. The first Aliyah, or period of immigration, to Palestine takes place even though Arab people oppose it.   

Chapter Seven  

Jossi and Yakov begin to grow apart because they have different visions for Palestine. Jossi wants peace and Yakov wants revenge on the people who have hurt Jewish people. Over the years, more Jewish people come to Palestine and buy land. Yakov moves to a remote area with fifteen other pioneers to begin a new settlement and Jossi takes a job as a land buyer. Jossi takes this job even though he doesn’t believe that living through philanthropy is a long-term solution for Palestine. Further, the Arab people will only sell the worst land to the Jewish people. Jossi becomes friends with Kammal, an Arab landowner. Kammal gives Jossi a brief history of Islam, and Jossi is fascinated by it. The two religions have much in common, including Moses and Abraham.  

After the Russian Revolution of 1905, a second Aliyah comes to the Palestine. This time, the newcomers are young and zealous Zionists.  

Chapter Eight  

The people of the second Aliyah are determined to reclaim the swampy land of Palestine. Yakov is forming a guardsman group to protect the Jewish land from Bedouins, a Turkish tribe that steal from the settlements. Yakov wants Jossi to lead the guardsmen. Jossi is concerned because arming themselves is a big step, and it will make the Jewish settlers seem provocative. Ultimately, Jossi agrees to take the post because base camp is at his beloved Mt. Canaan. Jossi meets Sarah in the Rosh Pinna settlement, and they marry. He begins working for the Zion Settlement Society.   

Chapter Nine 

For a time, the farming settlements do not go as planned, and the work is backbreaking. Yakov joins the kibbutz, or agricultural community, of Shoshana with twenty other farmers. Putting some changes to the process into practice, they slowly begin to see progress. The people of Yakov’s kibbutz are a true, free Jewish peasantry. Jossi and Yakov finally begin to see the green fields they have were promised in the Pale.  

The women stage a small rebellion in Shoshana, spearheaded by a woman named Ruth. The women want equality at the kibbutz and not to be solely responsible for domestic work. Ruth wants to work with the dairy cows. Yakov is sent to deal with Ruth, and she is granted her request. Ruth enjoys great success with the dairy cows and she and Yakov marry.  

Chapter Ten 

Jossi attends a meeting of a Zionist group where he is asked to take a Hebrew name and make Hebrew the exclusive language of the settlements. Yakov is excited to speak Hebrew because he feels that Yiddish is a language of exiles. Yakov takes the name Akiva and Jossi takes the name Barak Ben Canaan.  

Barak now works constantly in the new city of Tel Aviv that he helped found. He attends meetings with the Turks and Palestinian Arabs through the Zion Settlement Society. As World War I nears, things become dangerous. Barak leaves to fight with the British Army for a time, leaving a pregnant Sarah behind in Ruth’s care. Barak ends up not fighting but working for the Zionist cause. The Jewish people leverage their much-needed support as the British reel from several defeats. The Balfour Declaration, which promises British support of a Jewish state, is drafted.  

Chapter Eleven 

In Barak’s absence, Sarah is apprehended by the Turkish police two weeks before she’s due to deliver her baby. All she admits is that Barak left Palestine because of his British sympathies. The police torture her for three days and finally let her go because she is not breaking, and she shows almost superhuman courage. She has the baby shortly after her ordeal and hangs between life and death for months as she recovers. Barak returns and meets his son Ari.   

Analysis

Chapter Six takes a brief break from the action in Palestine to explain the beginning of the Zionist movement that is so often referenced. Throughout the novel, Uris goes into detail about the prolonged periods of persecution suffered by Jewish people in different parts of the world for centuries. There are a few periods of time, however, where Jewish people are accepted and treated equally. These periods of time are presented by Uris as fools’ gold to Europe’s Jewry. Each time a period of relative tranquility gives way to persecution, the Jews of Europe become disillusioned, only to be given false hope again when the cycle repeats itself. The Dreyfus Affair, which ends an era of flourishing and acceptance for the Jewish community in France, represents the breaking point of this cycle and a turning point in the story of Palestine. Hertzl’s disillusionment over the vicious anti-Semitism unleashed by the Dreyfus Affair directly causes him to birth the Zionist movement and change the course of history. Though the idea of creating a Jewish state in Israel is an ancient one in the Jewish diaspora, Hertzl’s particular fanatic drive to actually achieve it has massive and important consequences. 

In Chapter Seven, years have passed since Jossi and Yakov arrived in Palestine, but the time has not changed their fundamental personalities. Jossi is content tending to his land and has hopes for a brighter future. Yakov, on the other hand, has allowed the hatred sparked by his father’s death to grow. His hate now encompasses his Arab neighbors because they thwart the progress of the Jewish people. Jossi believes, perhaps naively, that peace will come with the Arab people when the Jewish people take the time to understand them. This is the fundamental difference between the brothers that never disappears. Jossi is more tolerant and willing to put time into cultivating the future whereas Yakov wants to accomplish things quickly and believes violence is the bet and fastest way. The brothers begin to grow apart because of these differences and take different paths in the settlements. Jossi pursues a cerebral role and becomes involved the political and diplomatic work that he will keep up even into his old age. Yakov satisfies his need for excitement by helping establish an experimental farm in a dangerous area surrounded by Arab villages. The two contrasting personalities of the Rabinsky brothers represent a real divide in Israeli politics that has existed since before the country’s founding. Yakov represents the Jewish people who have advocated for a more hardline and unapologetic approach to settling Palestine, establishing Israel, and running its government. Jossi represents the Jewish people who support more diplomatic and peaceful means to these same goals. In the novel, the two sides conflict bitterly over their respective approaches, yet each contributes to the success of the Zionists’ ultimate aims.  

By becoming friends with Kammal, Jossi tests his theory that understanding the Palestinian Arab people will lead to peace. Jossi views Kammal as different from other Arab landowners because he lives in his village of Abu Yesha instead of being an absentee landlord. Kammal also turned against his own people to a degree when the girl he loved was allowed to die, and he was told by his father not to mourn her because he could have four other wives. These qualities of Kammal inspire respect in the moral Jossi, who takes pride in his land and also takes great issue with how women are treated by Arab men. Over the course of the friendship, Kammal learns of the passion and determination of the Jewish people to reclaim the barren land of Palestine and Jossi learns of the epic history of Islam. This mutual understanding leads to deep friendship between the two men, but the men are never able to realize the great era of peace between their people they would hope for. The friendship serves as an allegory and mirrors the relationship and hopes of many Jewish people and Arab people have surrounding the conflict between the two people over Palestine. Many Jews and Arabs want to live in peace and even foster friendships among each other, but the external pressures of the political situation make real cooperation impossible. 

Sarah’s does not figure prominently into the narrative, but she plays an important symbolic role. She is the one to propose to a shy Jossi, who has now taken the Hebrew name Barak, establishing herself as outspoken and brave. She is presented as Barak’s equal and endures the brutal torture that she experiences at the hands of the Turkish police, refusing to break. This illustrates Sarah’s devotion not only to Barak and his safety, but to the future of Palestine. Sarah is a stalwart support of everything Barak does and believes in the promise of a free state as much as her husband. Thus, Sarah represents Uris’ ideal Israeli woman: supportive to her husband, but independent, strong, outspoken, proud, and brave. The chapter ends with a birth, a physical representation of the future. Ari, who will have so much to do with achieving a free Israel, is born.