Gershom Gorenberg is an associate editor and columnist for The Jerusalem Report, a regular contributor to The New
Republic and an associate of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. He lives in Jerusalem, where
he has spent years covering the dangerous mix of religion and politics.
Review
"Gorenberg...shows himself an insightful listener."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Dismayingly good history....Gorenberg's book predicts not only the eruption but the location of each fault
line."
--Washington Post Book World
"A prescient and invaluable guide to understanding the collapse of the peace process and the dangerously escalating
conflict that has replaced it....Gorenberg's vivid descriptions of the setting and his well-crafted development
of the characters make this book read like a millennial thriller, leaving the reader with a bone-chilling sensation
about the violent events currently unfolding in Jerusalem."
--Boston Globe
"Gorenberg's prescience is manifest....This valuable study greatly enhances readers' grasp of [the] Middle
East's religious and political complexities."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Few American journalists understand evangelical theology well enough to explain the Christian Right, few
Israeli journalists take messianic Zionism seriously enough to explain the right-wing settlers, and few of either
investigate Islam as more than a caricature. Gershom Gorenberg has the intellectual depth and journalistic curiosity
to do all three, and as a result, his warnings chill the bone."
--The New Republic
Oxford University Press Web Site, March, 2003
Summary
In this provocative work, seasoned journalist Gershom Gorenberg portrays a deadly mix of religious extremism,
violence, and Mideast politics, as expressed in the struggle for the sacred center of Jerusalem. Known to Jews
and Christians as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, this thirty-five-acre enclosure at the
southeast corner of Jerusalem's Old City is the most contested piece of real estate on earth. Here nationalism
combines with fundamentalist faith in a volatile brew. Members of the world's three major monotheistic faiths--Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam--hold this spot to be the key to salvation as they await the end of the world, and struggle
to fulfill conflicting religious prophecies with dangerous political consequences. Adroitly portraying American
radio evangelists of the End, radical Palestinian sheikhs, and Israeli ex-terrorists, Gorenberg explains why believers
hope for the End, and why prominent American fundamentalists provide hard-line support for Israel while looking
forward to the apocalypse. He makes sense of the messianic fervor that has driven some Israeli settlers to oppose
peace. And he describes the Islamic apocalyptic visions that cast Israel's actions in Jerusalem as diabolic plots.
The End of Days shows how conflict over Jerusalem and the fiery belief in apocalypse continue to have a potent
impact on world politics and why a lasting peace in the Middle East continues to prove elusive.