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66 pages 2 hours read

Exodus

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1958

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Book 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 4: “Awake in Glory”

Book 4, Chapter 1 Summary

At the UN meeting at Lake Success, New York, the member countries meet to vote on a partition of Palestine for the establishment of a Jewish state. Since the majority the Jews are required to obtain must be gained in the face of the Arab nations all voting against them, they have to do what seems impossible, and win both the democratic nations of the West and the Communist bloc led by the Soviet Union. Despite the long odds against them, the global vote for the establishment of a Jewish state by partition is overwhelming.

Book 4, Chapter 2 Summary

Muslim-majority countries around the world immediately vow to go to war against any future Jewish state. The rest of the world, still weary from World War II, is not inclined to get involved any further: “[I]f the Jews intended to declare statehood after the British left, they would have the face the Arab hordes alone” (485).

Agents for the Yishuv desperately scour the world for weapons as violence breaks out across Palestine. Ari, still recovering from his wound, helps organize the defense of Galilee, where the hilltop town of Safed has become a major goal of Arab attacks. Their position is hopeful, however, because the British are set to turn over Fort Esther, the Taggart fort above Gan Dafna, to the Jews.

Book 4, Chapter 3 Summary

As Christmas 1947 comes, the children of Gan Dafna organize a Christmas carol for Kitty. Dov appears outside the walls of Gan Dafna and reconciles with Karen. All across Palestine, Jewish settlements prepare for war, looking toward the final British withdrawal in May of 1948. The Gan Dafna contingent prepares to receive Fort Esther from the British, and Zev Gilboa is dispatched up the mountain for the transfer, only to find that the fort has already been given to the Arabs.

Ari gives Gan Dafna a measure of security by staging an elaborate ruse in which it appears that a massive armament has been left for the children’s defense. Ari then goes to consult with his old friend Taha and the Arab village of Abu Yesha, but the tensions between their people have crept in and furthered the distance between them, and no pledge of peace is forthcoming.

Book 4, Chapter 4 Summary

Arab irregulars under Kawukji try to overrun what they consider an easy target: The kibbutz of Tirat Tsvi, held by religious Jews. The Jews muster a surprising defense, and even withstand the Arabs’ final charge when a downpour erupts and makes the ground impassible. Kawukji then suffers a second quick defeat when the defenders of another kibbutz, Mishmar Haemek, also repel his assault. Desperate to secure a victory, he orders his subordinate to seize Gan Dafna.

Book 4, Chapter 5 Summary

The situation at Gan Dafna grows dire as Fort Esther rains artillery shells down on the children’s compound. Ari comes up with a desperate plan to bring the youngest children to safety, by having 250 of them carried down the mountain by night in the arms of Jewish soldiers. The children are given sedatives and packed in special backpacks for the escape, and Kitty and Jordana wait for news in the darkness. While they wait, the two express the hope of reconciling with each other, and Jordana tells the story of how her romance with David began. After a startling burst of gunfire from down the mountain, they receive word that the children are safely away.

Book 4, Chapter 6 Summary

The remaining older children, together with a crew of Palmach fighters, prepare for the defense of Gan Dafna. Ari draws the opposing force into a trap as they approach, and with land mines, gunners, and an old antitank gun loaded with buckshot, they push the Arabs back.

Zev Gilboa pushes too far as they chase the Arab retreat, and he is shot as he approaches the walls of Fort Esther. Unable to free himself from the barbed wire fence, Ari leaves him with grenades for a final suicide-bombing against the Arab guards who come to retrieve him.

Book 4, Chapter 7 Summary

The siege of Safed is the next Arab goal in Galilee, and without sufficient armament, the Jews devise their own makeshift artillery piece, called a Davidka. Though everyone is at first dubious of its effectiveness, it proves to be astonishingly powerful, and its noise and firepower turn the tide at Safed. With Safed down, and now equipped with the first waves of imported arms, the Haganah sweep through the remaining hostile villages in Galilee.

In response, Arab leaders issue a call for a massive, country-wide evacuation, and Arab refugees stream away toward Lebanon and the central hills.

Book 4, Chapter 8 Summary

In the period leading up to May of 1948, the Jewish forces have been unexpectedly successful, with only the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion securing a few victories against them. When May 14 arrives—the official end of the British Mandate in Palestine—Jewish audiences around the world tune in to the Yishuv’s official radio broadcast, as it announces the establishment of a new Jewish state: “It is the natural right of the Jewish people to lead, as do all other nations, an independent existence as a sovereign state. We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called the State of Israel” (540).

Book 4, Chapter 9 Summary

As soon as Israel announces independence, Arab armies from the surrounding countries invade. An Egyptian column makes its way up the coast but is met by surprising resistance from the kibbutzim. Jerusalem proves hard for the Jews to hold, especially when a British officer of the Arab Legion goes back on his promise to withdraw, and instead orders an attack on the Old City. The corridor to Jerusalem from other Jewish-held areas is cut off by Arab defenses at Latrun.

In Galilee and the Huleh Valley, however, Ari successfully organizes the Jewish defense and holds back an invading Syrian army. After the first wave, it becomes clear that the Jews, against all odds, have held their ground, and that most of the invading armies, having met with stiff resistance, have little stomach for a protracted fight.

Book 4, Chapter 10 Summary

Barak Ben Canaan, having moved from diplomacy to international arms deals, races to prevent a shipload of Syrian-bought arms from leaving Italy and reaching the Arabs. He creates a scheme in which the arms-runner, the Vesuvius, is turned over to a group of Jews masquerading as Italian customs-agents, and then lost at sea to an apparent pirate raid.

Book 4, Chapter 11 Summary

Ari is brought to Haganah headquarters to confer with Avidan, who assigns Ari the difficult tasks of seizing Fort Esther and taking out the hostile village of Abu Yesha. Ari has heretofore resisted striking the village because of his longstanding friendship with its leader, Taha, but the wartime posture of Abu Yesha leaves them no choice. Ari and his forces take Fort Ether with relative ease, but assaulting Abu Yesha is difficult for Ari, who leaves all but the final orders to David.

Book 4, Chapter 12 Summary

Jordana and David spend some time together, but David’s passion for the liberation of Jerusalem—a dangerous task—weighs on Jordana’s heart. A few days later, David goes to present an idea to the Haganah commanders, in which he proposes to rediscover an old Roman road that circumnavigates Latrun and that would allow the Jews to reach Jerusalem, but the others regard it as practically suicidal. As they are talking, however, they receive word that the Old City of Jerusalem has surrendered, and they change their minds and urge David to carry out his plan. David successfully opens a new road to Jerusalem, but Jordana later receives word that he has died in the attempt.

Book 4, Chapter 13 Summary

With the Jerusalem road open, the conflict begins to tilt even more in favor of the Jews. Arms shipments continue to come in on both sides, despite international edicts against them. Jewish forces are not only able to respond to the invading armies, but to strike out at those armies’ capitals in Cairo, Damascus, and Amman.

Seeing the direction things are going, most of the Arab nations back away from the war. None, however, are keen to help the Palestinian Arab refugees of the war, which now occupy vast displacement camps in Gaza and the central hills. Barak Ben Canaan conducts a study on the Palestinian Arabs’ situation on behalf of Israel’s government and concludes that the Palestinians have essentially become victims of their own leaders.

Book 4 Analysis

Within the literary structure of Exodus, Book 4 shares the most in common with Book 2. Although it does not include an extended flashback sequence (as in Book 2), both sections are primarily concerned with the history of the Jewish community in Palestine. It is the story’s dimension as a national epic that takes center-stage here, even over the main characters’ individual storylines.

Using Barak’s experiences on the diplomatic stage and Ari’s work for the military, Book 4 recounts the Jewish defense of their settlements in the waning days of Britain’s rule, the international support for the establishment of a Jewish state, the foundation of the modern nation of Israel, and the successful defense of its borders. The land itself—or more specifically, the Jewish community within the land of Palestine—is essentially a character in its own right, and Book 4 tells the climax of its story. Even though the main characters are side actors in Book 4’s narrative, without many major developments in their own character arcs, it is still worth noting that both Barak and Ari see their official roles—as diplomat and military leader—called upon for their highest labors in this section of the novel’s story.

In Book 4, the whole narrative action of the novel’s themes has been building toward this stage. The Struggle for a Homeland reaches its fullest articulation as the Jews stand on the verge of achieving their goal. Their struggle for a homeland now has to face its highest challenge, of mounting a defense against enemies on every side. This also fits with the theme of resilience in the face of adversity, a theme that generally avoids a triumphalist tone in the novel, but not in Book 4. Whereas other sections view the Jewish people as survivors in the midst of adversities, characterized by patience and resilience, in Book 4 they are portrayed as victors over their adversities, characterized by courage and keen strategic thinking.

The Moral Complexities of War and Political Struggle also feature prominently in this section, with a strong focus on both the wartime and the political sides of the theme. On the wartime side, Book 4 follows the story of Jewish attempts to defend their settlements and to root out hostile Palestinian Arab forces, both before and after the official declaration of Israel’s independence. On the political side, it examines the world of international diplomacy, in which Barak lobbies for votes at the UN summit. Despite the way that Book 4’s narrative fits the context of the theme, the moral complexities of war and political struggle are presented in a more black-and-white manner here than anywhere else in the novel. Rather than examining the morality of Jewish actions as being potentially controversial, Book 4 presents the Jewish cause in Palestine as a clear matter of justice and self-defense. It does not seek to plumb the depths of moral ambiguities in the war, but rather presents these Jewish actions as clearly justifiable, even laudable. The perspective of Palestinian Arabs during these conflicts is ignored, with the Arabs and Arab Palestinians depicted purely as antagonists.

This may strike some modern readers with surprise, since the moral complexities of the 1948 war would later become one of the most prominent questions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Uris presents even the most controversial aspects of the 1948 war—such as the Haganah’s act of clearing Galilee of Arab villages opposed to a Jewish state—in a cursory fashion, taking no note of the moral complications involved. Uris presents the period in which many modern commentators see the most moral complexities—the 1948 war and its surrounding events—as startlingly clear in its moral dimensions, and instead focuses on other periods, like the British Mandate, as the time when the greatest moral complexity was at issue. These narrative choices and Uris’s clear support for the actions of the Israelis have contributed to some of the controversy surrounding the novel in the decades since its publication (See: Background).

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