Exodus

“Things at home? The same as always. Bombings, shootings. Exactly as it has been every day since we were children. It never changes. Every year we come to a crisis which is sure to wipe us out—then we go on to another crisis worse than the last. Home is home.”

Here Ari gives a description of the life of Jews in Palestine, in answer to a question from David Ben Ami. This characterization of the Jewish experience fits with both the theme of Resilience and Survival in the Face of Adversity and that of The Struggle for a Homeland, as Ari unhesitatingly identifies Palestine as, quite simply, “home” in spite of the violence and risks he describes being a part of day-to-day life.

“Right and wrong? It is not for you and me to argue the right and wrong of the question. The only kingdom that runs on righteousness is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdoms of the earth run on oil. The Arabs have oil.”

This quote comes from a British general, Tevor-Browne, in a conversation with Brigadier Bruce Sutherland. As the British grapple with the complex moral questions involved in the Palestine situation, he acknowledges that practical considerations often set the agenda, not moral considerations. This quote underscores the novel’s theme on The Moral Complexities of War and Political Struggle.

“‘The old men in there,’ Ari said, ‘don’t quite realize that the only Messiah that will deliver them is a bayonet on the end of a rifle.’”

Ari is here referring to Jewish men praying in a synagogue-tent. Many Jews hold out hope that a long-promised Messiah will arise to deliver them and return them to the land of Palestine, but Ari is convinced that their goals will only be achieved with resolute action, not by waiting for a miracle.

“In these ghettos something strange happened. Instead of dying slowly, the faith and culture of the Jews deepened and their numbers multiplied. Sealed off forcibly as they were from the outside world, the Jews turned more and more to the laws of Moses for guidance, and these laws became a powerful binding force among them.”

Here the narrator comments on the Jewish experience of life in the ghettos, with a particular view toward the Warsaw ghetto. The theme of Resilience and Survival in the Face of Adversity is visible here, as the novel takes note of the way that even the challenges faced by the Jews tend to add to their resolve to survive.

“Please…please…understand us. One of the Landau family must live. We want you to live for us all.”

In this passage, Mundek Landau (Dov’s older brother) implores Dov to escape from the ghetto before the Nazis’ final purge. This quote acknowledges the heartbreaking suffering and loss undergone by many European Jews and draws attention to the way that a remnant—like Dov—manage to survive.

“And so little Dov returned to the ghetto and a very strange thing happened. All over Warsaw and the surrounding countryside Jews who had managed to escape and live as Christians were beginning to return to the ghetto for the last-ditch stand. They had concluded that it was a privilege to be able to die with dignity.”

This quote, especially when taken in the context of the previous one, adds an important insight to the theme of Resilience and Survival in the Face of Adversity. For these characters, it is not enough to simply survive—they have to survive as Jews, not by losing their Jewish identity. They therefore stand with their fellow Jews in the ghetto uprising instead of remaining in safety.

“Ari Ben Canaan put the Bible down. ‘The gentlemen at Whitehall had better study their claims further. I say the same thing to the Foreign Minister that a great man said to another oppressor three thousand years ago—LET MY PEOPLE GO.’”

This extract comes from an interview that Mark Parker conducts with Ari at the height of the standoff over the Exodus, and that is distributed to the international press. Here Ari addresses the British government and alludes to the biblical Exodus narrative, in which Moses declares to Pharaoh that the Jews must be set free from their enslavement in Egypt.

“No one said it is easy to be a Jew. We were not born on this earth to live from its fruits. We were put here to guard the laws of God. This is our mission. This is our purpose.”

Simon Rabinsky, Jossi and Yakov’s father, speaks to his sons about what it means to be a Jew. His perspective echoes that of many religious Jews of the period, who are not convinced that taking matters into their own hands to seek a life in Palestine is the right way forward, but rather, that they ought to focus on their religious calling as custodians of God’s law.

“Jew hating is an incurable disease. Under certain democratic conditions it may not flourish well. Under other conditions the germ may even appear to die, but it never does die even in the most ideal climate.”

This quote is conveyed by the narrator of the novel, and likely represents Leon Uris’s viewpoint as the author. It refers to the startling and unexpected resurgence of antisemitism that happened in France near the turn of the 20th century, even after decades of proudly incorporating Jews into the national life of the French people.

“Kammal, in understanding the basic drive behind the ‘return,’ admitted to himself that it was a just and true move—but yet his mind could not believe that the newcomers would not eventually engulf and exploit the Arabs as all the others before them had done.”

Here Kammal, Barak’s Palestinian Arab friend, is shown reflecting on the surge in Jewish immigration to Palestine. Uris acknowledges the Palestinian fears concerning Jewish settlement, but also attributes a recognition of the justice of the Jews’ cause to the character, which is likely not representative of most Palestinian viewpoints from the time.

“Reprisal…remember that, for the Jews are outnumbered…we must use the principle of reprisal.”

This is a quote from P. P. Malcolm, the eccentric British officer who embraces Zionism and trains the Jewish Haganah into an elite fighting force. This is one of the few occasions in the novel where Uris draws attention to the brutal nature of the warfare undertaken by both the Jewish and Palestinian sides, in which an attack by one side would lead to a reprisal—like a strike on an innocent village—from the other.

“‘How do you like my city?’

‘Are there words? It is overwhelming and a little frightening.’

‘Yes, that is the way I have always felt about Jerusalem ever since I was a boy. It never fails to thrill me and haunt me.’”

This is a dialogue between David Ben Ami and Kitty Fremont, as David takes her around Jerusalem. This exchange illustrates the highly romanticized rhetoric that the novel uses to express Jewish feelings toward Palestine.

“How strange this place is, again Kitty Fremont mused. Here, so far away in these barren hills, the merging point of a hundred civilizations in its thousands of years. Of all the earth, why this place, this street, this wall, this church? Romans and Crusaders and Greeks and Turks and Arabs and Assyrians and Babylonians and British in the city of the maligned Hebrews. It is holy, it is sacred, it is damned.”

This passage refers to Kitty’s experience of being in Jerusalem and conveys her struggle to understand the curious gravity that the place exerts on the hearts of those who live there. As is typical of Uris’s usage, the quote assigns possession of Jerusalem to the Jewish people (“Hebrews”), counting the Arabs merely as one of a handful of other civilizations that have come and gone over the centuries.

“‘Look how that tree fights to live,’ Kitty said. ‘Look how it tries to dig its roots into rock.’

Dr. Lieberman observed thoughtfully for a moment. ‘That tree is the story of the Jews who have come back to Palestine,’ he said.”

Here the symbol of trees is used, with the symbol helpfully defined by the narrative itself: The tree represents the Jews of Palestine (See: Symbols & Motifs). The novel frequently uses trees to illustrate the effects of the Jewish presence on Palestine (particularly in land reclamation activities), but here it is put to a straightforwardly symbolic use in a way that supports the theme of Resilience and Survival in the Face of Adversity.

“What kind of army was this? What kind of army without uniform or rank? What kind of army where the women fought alongside their men with rifle and bayonet? Who were these young lions of Judea? […] An electrifying revelation hit her. This was no army of mortals. These were the ancient Hebrews! […] It was the army of Israel, and no force on earth could stop them for the power of God was within them!”

This extract relates Kitty’s reflections as she observes a reunion meeting of Jewish Palmach soldiers on Mount Tabor. The romanticized imagery, the exaggerated sense of wonder, and the allusion to biblical narratives all represent Uris’s standard way of evoking a sense of wonder at the Jewish presence in Palestine.

“This land and everything about it was closing in on her! Even the wild flowers will not let you forget for a moment. It creeps into you from its very earth and its very air and it is damning and tormenting.”

Here Kitty reflects again as she wrestles with her desire to go back home to America, but feels the mysterious tug of Palestine on her heart. The land itself almost acts as a character in the novel, exercising a compelling power over the other characters that encounter it.

“‘I’ll stay in headquarters. It is the most important place to be.’

The old man lay back again and he meditated. At length he spoke. ‘How wrong you are, Little Giora. How very wrong you are. The most important place to be is awakening in the morning and looking out at your fields, working in them—and coming home at night to someone you love and who loves you.’”

Here we have an exchange between Dov (nicknamed “Little Giora”) and Akiva, the elderly founder of the Maccabees. Akiva’s response illustrates the romanticized way in which the rural farming life of the kibbutz has become central to the culture and vision of Jews in Palestine.

“The Jews here have learned to live under the gun the way you Americans live with baseball. It’s made them a hard lot.”

This observation is made by Bruce Sutherland in a conversation with Kitty. One of the novel’s patterns in its characterization is to draw attention to the way that Jews in Palestine process and display their emotions, which often strikes others as overly tough, stoic, and blunt.

“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.”

These lines give the novel’s retelling of the official state announcement of the establishment of Israel in May of 1948, following the UN’s vote of partition and the withdrawal of British forces from the Palestine Mandate. The first line of the quote underscores one of the fundamental premises of the Israeli position: Namely, that the land of Palestine is their own ancestral land, and thus the quote draws attention to the theme of The Struggle for a Homeland.

“Only when the Arab people get leadership willing to grasp the hand extended in friendship will they begin to solve the problems which have kept them in moral and physical destitution.”

Barak’s report on the Palestinian Arab refugee situation after the 1948 war ends with the observation above. This idea—which places blame on Palestinian leadership and puts Israelis in the role of willing friends—is a trope that is often recognized now as being at the very least too simplistic, and at worst a clear example of anti-Palestinian sentiment. Such conclusions add to the controversial status that Exodus now holds in the literature of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict (See: Background).

“Young Israel stood out as a lighthouse for all mankind, proving what could be done with will power and love. No one in Israel worked for comfort in his own lifetime: it was all for tomorrow, for the children, for the new immigrants coming in. And in the wake of this drive, the tough young sabra generation emerged a generation never to know humiliation for being born a Jew. Israel became an epic in the history of man.”

This glowing report on Israel is conveyed in the narrator’s voice, thus likely portraying Uris’s perspective on the matter. Its use of romanticized imagery, and its specific invocation of the idea of an epic, underscores Uris’s use of the novel not merely as a piece of historical fiction, but as an attempt to provide a national epic for the reestablishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

“You have mistaken tenderness for weakness. You have mistaken tears for dishonor. You have made yourself believe that to depend on another person is to retreat. You are so blind that you cannot give love.”

Here Barak speaks to his son Ari, reproving him for the way he has allowed his tough exterior to become a barrier to the experience of normal human emotion. This is an important conversation in Ari’s character arc, and in the following chapters he is finally able to express the grief of his people’s sufferings and to connect with Kitty on a deeper emotional level.

“‘Oh no, Kitty, no! Israel is the bridge between darkness and light.’

And suddenly Kitty saw it all, so clearly…so beautifully clear. This then was the answer. Israel, the bridge between darkness and light.”

Here Karen describes to Kitty her understanding of the meaning of Israel for the world, as part of her explanation for why she must stay in Israel and keep working for it, even in dangerous conditions. This explanation becomes important in Kitty’s narrative arc, since she had heretofore struggled to make sense of why Palestine had such a hold on her, despite her desire to return to America. Uris again uses glowing, romanticized rhetoric when describing Israel’s role.