e arting to ..se the populist got together they didn't have much of an agenda, but they had a sense that rings had really gone wrong. and people who work hard were not being rewarded. people who were suffering the consequences of other people's sins and missteps and in a country that was premised on the american dream, that dream became harder and harder to realize. and so they simply began to protest at first. they didn't know quite what they wanted to do, except to let people know that they were fed up with it. it is very early to tell i think what the occupy wall street movement intends to accomplish, except to get the word out that there are a lot of people that are very unhappy.

the populist eventually devised an agenda. they put forward candidates. some of the candidates one. their highest profile candidate williams ginning bryant did not -- williams ginning bryant did not make the presidency but the platform that he ran on was in most ways actually accomplished. the united states did not monetize silver but it turned out that new discoveries in gold in the next half decade did increase american money supplies and prices began to rise again. so i would be surprised if an occupy wall street candidates were nominated and ran for president next year, but i wouldn't be surprised if the various grievances that they are airing became important in the election. >> they want us to wrap up what could i give david one second to comment on this? speaking as one of the 80 odd

people that started up the movement in new york, yeah, if elected i shall not serve. we are not intending to do that but i think all of us would say that. the way the book and the movement are the same way, we haven't been talking about the things that are really important. we have allow the political conversation in this country to beer completely away from the concerns that people have in their day-to-day lives and i think that is what occupy wall street was about. did this change the political of the -- nature of the political conversation? if we can do that -- [applause] >> speech annie overcoming. >> this is a the handful of readers and i would recommend if you want to know more about this topic that would direct you to

not only buy these books but take a look at richard hofstadter's book the age of reform a quintessentially important book about this but weren't these guys great? one more hand. go buy their books. [applause] [inaudible conversation

>> up next on booktv, from politics & prose on washington, simon sebag montefiore talks about the 3000 year history of jerusalem. [applause] >> thank you so much. i apologize so much for keeping you waiting. thanks for waiting for me. i had no idea the traffic on connecticut avenue. so let's go straight to jerusalem. i've been going to jerusalem all my life, ever since i was a little boy, ever since i was a

baby. ever since i've been a writer, i wanted to write basically this book about "jerusalem." i've been thinking about a way to read about jerusalem. the trouble with jerusalem as there's millions of bucks, that the israel palestine conflict, the crusades were chief says. there's very few books. there's only one book in print, in english that is a parallel history, which is caricom strongsville, which many of you may have seen. that's really theological because it's a wonderful book, but really about the nature of god in jerusalem. i wanted to read a book that was really about not just the architecture, not just the holiness, theology, not just one empire after another conquering it, and people that they jerusalem and how they built it and how it developed. because after all it's people. his family said old families. it is both evolved and been

created by a great dramatic acts of destruction as well and it's a combination of these two things. i looked for this book for a long time and i couldn't find it and i read other books about russia. and then, once i read about benjamin disraeli, a hero of mine and he's in the boat. and he said what i want to read about, i rate it. and so, humbly following in his footsteps, i slightly done the same thing here. is that malfunctioning? >> no, not anymore. >> first of all, those of you -- many of you know in the scriptures in the torah and the talented, jerusalem is described as a woman, sometimes the mistress had been indicted

mother's, sometimes a beautiful princess scarlet silks, but always someone in. is it that is one reason in jerusalem has a personality, an idea that i like and appeals to me. but also, i said this is about the people. and what i wanted to do was create a book that would confront very complicated ideas. after all, the names alone are incredibly complicated. there's babylonian names, turkish names, english names and so on. in so many civilizations in serious and so forth. so the book had to be readable by someone who really knew nothing about the middle east, nothing about jerusalem in history books. mainly my mother. [laughter] and so, that is why i designed it so it's in very small sections in each section is a

person. it is a person who helped make the city in some way or the other. and the great thing about being a writer is the people that interested me and i want to write about. so it's a collection of biographies as well. some of them buried skier characters you may have heard of lake jesus christ or hurled the great work david ben-gurion. other than, well known characters like the ottoman travel writer or moon cake, the area -- the air tonight and later turned the tide of the crusades. some of these people i discovered. i have heard of them before and i'm sure many of you haven't either. it's partly a literary book. i want to share with you the joy of reading about jerusalem and discovering and may be yokel off and read more. if you read the book come yokel read more books about jerusalem

or go back to the primary source that catches your imagination. so that is what i wrote this book. that's what i decided to do. the great challenge of jerusalem of course this is both a blessing and curse of jerusalem that everybody feels that jerusalem is partly owned by them. everybody has a vision of jerusalem, even though you may be a secular person, and atheists come a person who despises religion. and still have a view of what it should be. if you are a religious person, you have a strong view of what jerusalem should be. and that is why at the moment, a fascinating time in history. even though from washington d.c. to london to paris, many look upon religious people at this late smile. we think that coming and no, we portray them often in the media as a borderline non. in fact, in america in the

middle east in jerusalem, all over the world, obviously fundamentalist people by which any people who who believe the bible is fundamentally the divine word of god or the koran, those people are increasing in numbers within the three great abraham make faith. and jerusalem and sure many of you have been there recently. you feel that strongly now that the number of muslims, palestinians who are now extremely observant has increased enormously since they started going to jerusalem as a child. when you walk through the streets of jerusalem coming off in often courtly crowd. now you see people going down and praying in a way you've never seen 40 years ago. of course, there are far more o'grady now i jerusalem,

orthodox jews, so you need no explanation. throughout these groups of people, jerusalem is the place as it was for mohammed and jesus, is the place her in the kingdom of heaven comes, judgment day comedy apocalypse, the coming of the messiah, whatever you want to call it, it will happen in jerusalem. it can only happen in jerusalem. it will happen somewhere outside the court and gave her the golden gate is a beautiful come mysterious structure. actually, my favorite structure in the whole of jerusalem. and that is where it's going to have been according to all those three states. we are very different in areas, but basically that's the way it's going to happen. so for them, for ever-increasing numbers, ever more politicized as you know, but also in the muslim world, also in iran and

elsewhere, israel is ever more the center of the world. now you know that after the crusader times, since the early middle ages, really up to the reformation, you often saw maps in which jerusalem was literally the center of the world. that was one of the boat. a cross over the world and the center of the cross was jerusalem and the center was in those days people literally believe jerusalem was the physical center of the world. andy came out today in a weird sort of way, in a weird 21st out of way, jerusalem is one of the centers of the world. i've talked about the fundamentalist belief in the apocalypse in judgment day, but also geopolitically coming in now, in the middle east it is the fulcrum, the crosshairs of

all the great crises for the great conflicts of today's. secularism versus fundamentalism not just between the western world in the muslim world, but also within judaism for example. we are a strange situation now bird the orthodox often does non-observing on the side that for example jerusalem. so within the religions themselves, there's conflict. jerusalem is the essential cause of the palestine conflict and that itself has an iconic value, an iconic centrality in many of the crazies have been in the arab and muslim world. and another great importance in europe and in america. so all of these things are really being played out in jerusalem in different ways.

and also, america versus iran. iran is very shrewdly taken a the cause of jerusalem. the of the part of the revolutionary card is called the coups per great. in so many ways they have cleverly taken at jerusalem at the way. the persians, air and, shia are at dealing to the sunni arabs, who are often suspicious of them. so using jerusalem is a clever way of doing it. jerusalem is ever more central and one of the sadnesses in the sense that this bios on the intensity of all the world struggles, all these conflicts onto the fragile stones at jerusalem, which is really the temple mount, the center. what does it mean when you say holy city? is a phrase that is frequently used to cnn and newspapers.

what we really mean is this is the place, where on earth, this is the perfect place, the prime place for god -- when god can encounter man and man can encounter god. and that is holiness because that is what holy city means. the place where this is the temple mount in jerusalem. so that's very sort of quite large structure in fact. the relatively small, considering the hopes, dreams piled on top. many people go to jerusalem are hugely disappointed i jerusalem. and have the jerusalem syndrome. you know what the jurors on syndrome is. a special madness peculiar to jerusalem. and jerusalem there is a mental institution called the cover shows a mental institution, mental hospital, which specializes and every year, several hundred people are hospitalized with the jerusalem

syndrome. but then this place and it's one of the few places where you walk in to the patients they pcg says, several people turn around. and in fact, there are various levels of jerusalem syndrome and it's had many names over the year. jerusalem not us, jerusalem theater. but it not -- it's not just a silly name to what happens to people in jerusalem. it's a psychiatric -- it's recognized by site waitress is a genuine syndrome. and what it is caused by it is a disappointment. it is particularly christian pilgrims, but actually i think certainly jewish pilgrims also suffer from it. and certainly in the slums suffer from it, too. in fact, one of the desired. or sticks at jerusalem but i think anyone who gets control of jerusalem starts to suffer from

the jerusalem syndrome, too. every congruous masher control in the end have succumbed in some way. because mono atheism means that if you believe, you believe in one god, one way and therefore you simply can't compromise. you can't mark about what the road to heaven, which is the road to the last of the end days, to the last judgment. that is why there is a peculiar nature to one city where people don't just want to live there. they want to possess it totally. to come back to the jerusalem syndrome, it's a disappointment when people arrive expecting a white marble city, pristine towers rising towards the clouds, where a bearded date, the name of god smiles down on pilgrims in perfect white robes. now those of you append to jerusalem, by the way, how many of you have been? those of you who i've know is

excluded, aesthetic, say great, wonderful, gripping, compelling. if idiosyncratic, but it is also the messiest, noisiest, angriest, most awkward, most furious, most chaotic, dusty, hot, crazy city in the world. no wonder many pilgrims to go their separate from the jerusalem syndrome. when i first heard about it, i thought it was a sort of joke. as you probably to what i'm telling you about it. but i look to that than i found out that recently, in the last 10 years they spent scholarly work by psychiatrists in the states of israel and england about the jerusalem syndrome. they've divided it out. they've analyzed it. it didn't unintelligible. but at the end, there's a section for people like me. what it says -- this might be useful for people who are the

things tour groups to jerusalem. anyone who is going, here are five simple things to look for in your tour group. if one of your people in your groups starts to display an atheist or her sticks, then call for -- called a truly forward a commercial institution. he first won a succession of clipping of nails and toenails and keeping out the clippings. don't ask me why that is. the second one is up sessional clipping of the cutting of hand and again, keeping the commands. the third one is the fashioning of a toga like growth from the hotel bed linen. [laughter] the fourth is putting on the toga like growth and processing, progressing to a high place.

and alas one, number five, is giving a sarabande, preferably the sermon on the mount. and now, my wife thinks writing this book, which i have been for five years and could only read this if you're totally obsessive immersed in the project. she thinks they've suffered for years, but anyway, the book is finished now, think god. i have to say that this book is definitely the most daunting and challenging book i've ever written. i mean, when i started to write it, obviously the first important thing is there is no point in writing and anti-israeli history of jerusalem. no point in a pro-palestinian or a scientist history of jerusalem. all these things have been done. i am an historian. i wanted to write as close as you can get to a history jerusalem without bias. now, i should first of all tell you that is quite a hard time for me. i am jewish and montefiore.

i should say what that means because the characters play a big part in the creation of jerusalem is now totally forgotten. his name is moses montefiore. he was my great, great, great uncle. he was a fascinating to. he was born and it was really and came in the 1790s. and what they, he had a very successful financial career. heaven and the first and m. rothschild, the fairest business together. and it's sad and i think it has been proven recently that they were quite not be at the battle of waterloo. they had better intelligence service and the british government did. so they know when wellington had won the battle because that meant they could buy british

government stock first. so it's sad that made great fortunes, which should now be caught insider-trading. luckily for some reason not to fear you. he was exactly what victorians thought, victorian aristocrats of royalty pot jews should be like. he was six of, blue-eyed, barrel chested and he -- he was one of those people who must have great charm. when putting victorian at 10 she would say there is montefiore, what a grand old hebrew he established by the standards at the time is a great compliment. wouldn't go down so low today. but the point was england was in a strange situation at the time and it was a situation many of the leaders of written, aristocracy and the middle class for evangelicals and they

believed absolutely in the return of the jews to israel, the recapturing of the jewish people, jewish jerusalem and ultimately this would accelerate, both the british control of the middle east and also the second coming. ms actually coincides very much with montefiore. he was very friendly with the leader and they were very similar. and in the 80s and turn it into jerusalem the first time, he was so worth week english gentleman who made his first fortune, who is jewish, but not particularly orthodox. he fell in love with jerusalem. went seven times. when he received his knighthood from victoria, he said as much prouder to see my banner written on it, flattering in the hall then i was to receive a title from the queen of england.

and he became a very orthodox. he always traveled grandly with his own silver, on butcher and the complete paraphernalia who could afford to take everything with him wherever he went. his carriages in jerusalem and some of you may have seen. he went seven times, which is incredibly difficult and dangerous. any people died on the road to jerusalem. said he was an extraordinary character. after a while, after giving money to the jews who are incredibly poor, for this saturday to a teacher a teacher come in they had to return to jerusalem, but they also had to make their own living. in 1860, he builds the first suburb outside the city walls. it's a fascinating thing. if you read many of the papers in europe, not in america, but in europe, you would believe of the suburbs of jerusalem that

were jewish for very recent and an authentic inuit with the palestinian and arab neighborhoods were very ancient. in fact, one of the interesting things is how things people are ancient art as ancient as the thing. in fact, both suburbs were in the 60s. montefiore built the first jewish one and the great palestinian families come husseini is coming to started almost exactly the same time to build ayers, for example, what was most famous in their neighborhoods. but montefiore started it. he brought a little bit of england to jerusalem because this windmill didn't work for very long. fascinatingly in 1940 -- what i was going to say that he built a windmill, but also built the cottage is coming to rose, which

you would have seen if you'd been to michigan. it's near the king david hotel. he built at the time, this cottage is look out of place, but then so do many things. what they look like his fate, gothic battlements a committee of a castle. of course they look exactly like a golf club from london suburbia built at that time. that's exactly the time they were built. interestingly in 1848 or 47 at the battle for palestine began, the palestinian irregulars to possession of the jaffa gate and the walls of jerusalem. the city who have been there'll roughly built to picture this. you've got the montefiore windmill here. and the king david hotel was controlled by the british and had a huge fortification near that. as the battle started, the

jewish defenders actually used this golf club battlements azriel battlements. they were very useful. so they said the british were actually sort of vaguely packing and at one point off the top of the montefiore window, which i can't forgive them for. so that is the background. and of course that was the beginning of the family connection to jerusalem. they went down through many generations. in 1818 -- 1917, 1980 said it took they went down for many generations. in 1818 -- 1917, 1980 the british empire, by coincidence the person he made assistant provost general, military police chief was a nephew.

and his job was to run jerusalem and was very peaceful at that time. i found the family papers. this book is overwhelmingly the work of synthesis. you know, there wasn't time to go into archives, but there is also quite a lot of stuff in there which is new archival material. one of the thing for my family papers is the papers of the post-general. there is no tension between jews and arabs, but the big problem is stopping australian soldiers going into brussels and allen began very clear instructions all in the archive to stop the extra as he would not be put off, which were many at that time. and so, my ancestor, major jeffrey simon sebag montefiore

would regularly call out australian squaddies and put them in shackles in prison for the night. and his messages to his bias, theo marshall was actually a scene. there's about 20 of them identical. jerusalem acquired cd rampant. i said i was quite amusing to find out. either way,, one of the things about the connection was he adapted our family motto, so i grew up always feeling and i was visiting jerusalem. that's why he went there as a child. for those of us in a family, though, it became a huge bore, especially for the younger members of the family. the older members of the family -- our jewishness was very the taurean. the older members of the family would wear top hats and things

like that. you wouldn't believe it in america, but it was very, very victorian. they would go on about how wonderful moses was. he was the same. more recently we started to look into him and we found out like all great but taurean magnates, he had a secret life. first of all we discovered when he died, the next day his nephew, who i understand from, went to his house and burned all his papers. it's always a bad sign. and so, more recently we discovered many, many rumors about his life. he was happily married, but was also clearly atypical of the taurean mac made. and recently we have discovered that at the age of 81, he fathered a child by his 16-year-old housemate. it's a shock horror. so this has caused -- this has

shot the older members of the family in the 80s and 90s and it almost finished the last. but i have to say for younger members of the family now, they are a lot more interested than we were. so that is how it came to be. that's a great challenge coming from this background was to write, as i said, and unbiased history of jerusalem. there's so much to say about it, but of course one of the first things one should say this every religion has its mythology, which you are a believer, you believe it is absolutely true. if you're not a believer, it sounds absolutely ridiculous. and for jews, there's abraham, david, solomon. for christians, darius she says her rises on the third day.

from those funds, there is the nature and needs of mohammed from arabia on a horse with wings and a human face to jerusalem. the e-mail, there's no point in writing the history if you don't respect religion. and without respecting it, history is meaningless anyway. so i had a policy for this. my policy was not to find any religious belief, but to embrace it and to write a history, it jerusalem has to be a history as well as the facts. as historian i want to know the facts. you may well want to know the facts. as far as we know in an unbiased way, my father came up to me. he said to me, if you say king david doesn't exist, i'll disown

you. and just about someone from every religion because the interesting thing about the nature of jerusalem today and throughout the history is not just jews and palestinians. that's one of the tragedies at the age of nationalism reduced to that. this is about multiple identities. in one sense he rated as a saga, the greatest story ever told him the great conquerors in emphasis and fascinating tours. you can also read it as a study of how holiness develops, how identity develops. it's these things as well. i've tried to balance these two interests. so when jerusalem, i didn't see circular. in 1970 eight as the palestinian man, the word palestinian. if you read kind basement

autobiography, written in the late 40s, you'll see when he talks about palestinian father through the book, he means jews. he means the jewish community of palestine. so that's quite interesting. anyway, they asked the palestinian arab who is one of the great families which have read a lot about in the book. they asked him his nationalities and quite clear. the three nationalities. and firstly a jerusalem night. secondly, i am inerrant and thirdly an alterman. so many people would've answered in similar ways, similar complexity. that's what this book is about, respecting the complex identities and nationalities. you may not know that the armenian community in jerusalem speaks its own dialect of armenian, which is special in as many were special and unique to jerusalem and so on.

at one point the merry maids, the serbians, the georgians of the caucuses had a share of the church for their story, too. this is very complicated. many are descendent from turks, on the men's, all of the palestinian families. i've written about families that the rothschilds in a very small way my family, but also the great dynasties, to my outcome of the states, iranians, maccabees and so on. in modern times, the great families had been arab families. i've taken the trouble to go to every one of these families and find the person that keeps the family history and that if somebody from each family and there are fascinating stories. by the way, the church is still open every day by one of the oldest and may have been that these since saladin.

they claim lunker. all families have found their niche. that brings it back to my point. the minutes aren't as powerful as the facts. so you have to write those. and that is one of the sort of peculiar mystics of jerusalem as well that many of the myths are in fact historically wrong, but i believed by a lot of people. there's many examples, but the biggest one is almost certainly to view the delarosa, upon which millions of christian pilgrims walk every year is almost suddenly the wrong route for jesus. but it also applies to up team different sites about religion. for example, the tomb of same in the chest, the focus of great hurry the irreverence now in a whole political palestinian neighborhood where they are trying to build settlements and so forth. this is almost a noble woman and

not fame in the chest at all. but don't tell them that. they don't want to know why. can i say and they are? no. it is a place of reverence for them. but if you want to know the historical story, it is here and so on. very many sites like that of all religions. when people arrive, just about all of them thought that all of the big buildings they thought was built by king david or king solomon. and in fact, all the big domain ccr built by herod the great, the older ones. people say for 300 years in the middle ages, there were no wars in jerusalem. they are built by solomon the magnificent. they're not very ancient at all. it's a contemporary of henry viii. they are no longer in england, which is interesting. of course they are very ancient.

there's a great variety and jerusalem itself is talked about as the holy city and so on and so forth. there've been times about the great religions had almost forgotten jerusalem. the jews i would say lease. ever since 78 d. when it was destroyed, the jews have always revered jerusalem and lived there whenever they could. i was annoyed as possible. for hundreds of years they were banned from jerusalem. the defense has kept them out as they ruined and said they were banned from there. they proved to the prophecies that jerusalem would not be built at temple destroyed. they were that once here to mourn as a sort of circus. but sometimes gathered about it

and they said they would lament before the structure of the temple and they would mock them. and in the book, you will read a christian account of this in a jewish version. the jewish one is very sad. for hundreds of years, the first 300 years of christianity, jerusalem was important to christians either. but at key moments in muslim history, jerusalem was a ruined abbey in and with only with no walls. in 1800 -- in 1800 and the turn-of-the-century 1800 or more to fear an israeli first win, jerusalem had 8000 inhabitants, it even within the worst this half empty. so it hasn't always been like it is today. it was really the approach of napoleon in 1798 the middle eastern war when he invaded egypt in advance and hope to

take jerusalem. he was an early zionists in fact. they never made it to jerusalem. that was the beginning of the return to jerusalem. which has culminated now a jerusalem is so central to media politics kind geopolitics and so on. so that is how i approach the book. know what time did i start talking? anyone know? 7:30. so i should step in a second and take questions. if you like. but the challenge has been, so given my background, given the nature jerusalem, given the way that it is so hot over, by the way, one of the weird things about it is that great things in 586 b.c. and the babylonians, these two great destructions were probably the most important

thing in making jerusalem what it is today, the holy city. the destruction intensified the place. anyway, jerusalem's holiness is undisturbed will. one of my hopes for this book though is by showing the history of all the peoples of jerusalem and me telling as fairly as i can, i knew it wouldn't be popular with everybody. in fact, it i knew if i was too popular with one side with the other i would've failed in my task. at first those that are difficult to take and then i realized they had to embrace it. the first governor was called sir arnold storrs. he was quite popular at first with both sides, but then he became very unpopular with both sides. so both stories point to his prime minister, david lloyd george and said to him, prime minister, and very worried. the jews are complaining, arabs

are complaining. what should i do? quickset flashes that if either side stops complaining, i'll fire you. so i followed a very similar attitude with this book. it's been very challenging. the two most controversial bids by the king david. come to biblical. and obviously the last 50 years. i don't quite finish and 67. 67 was the last change of possession of jerusalem. it was sort of the climax of the book. but as you said, to the earth spring, to the present time. and of course the length of it is the most controversial. when i decided i needed to get the palestinian authority people to read it and the israeli government to read it. i got those people to read these sections. they knew would be published in many languages, so they took trouble with it and they each gave me and memoranda of

questions. they didn't mind thinks are wrong. they just might do things against their interests. i had to make my own which i did. and so, this book is the result. now, we know about them at the earth spring. we don't know what will happen with the palestinians did for statehood at the united nations. all the great conflicts of the world cup which are so founded on jerusalem and based on our love of jerusalem and fascination, which is the holy city, universal city, all of these things are unknown and he would be mad to predict the year at spring, for example. i can see a jerusalem and 50 years that is kind of more or less chat up towards the peace deal is almost negotiated. i mean, both sides know what the terms with the underwear themed,

under all night, under barack, they were close to agreement with palestinians. both sides of course foster myths about the other side. from the israelis, for example, i often claim that palestinians are two people, that the palestinian people were invented very late and so on and so forth, that the came first and therefore one is worthless and so on if the palestinians had their sins. they often claim that zionism, jewish by the jerusalem was only invented in the 18 name is. that there were only became wholly very late in the 17th century -- 16th century and so on. so all of these both sides faster lies about the other. now you can make peace with

m-16s. you can make peace with the goat documents in the u.n. security council, but none of these pieces will hold a mass both sides recognize and respect somehow they heritage, the story, the truth of the other. and in a very small way is to contribute to be happy. as i said, everything is up in the air. they can see a jerusalem which is destroyed, blown up by some fanatic. if that happens, jerusalem will they become holier, but of course would break the hearts of the world. one thing we know is ultimately the day of judgment, the second coming, the messiah, jesus christ will return to jerusalem. so the only thing we know for sure is whatever else happened, belinda jerusalem. thank you very much.

[applause] >> lets to about 10 minutes of q&a for this microphone here. >> yeah, i'd like to comment about the line of king david and acknowledge the way that was for doing a few primitive filings and therefore, the oaten as all of those described in the holy books could not have existed at the time. >> this is the key question that my father was concerned with. it's a very good question. now, just to take things step by step, the bible of course, you know, if you're a fundamentalist

believer in the bible as god words come you don't need to listen to this. but if you are interested in what really happened, then the bible is a source i can answer come historical source and make any source you have to ask who wrote it, when they wrote it, why they wrote it because we don't know the answer to all of that in the bible. so we have to ask but we do know about david. the thing about david is everything in jerusalem, but that especially david and solomon, this has become an exceptional question for both sides. the politics has forced both sides and archaeologists and historians into extreme positions they would never have otherwise taken if it'd been a a normal historical question. because the palestinians believe in anti-scientists believe the israelis based their claim of king david and so on. so this is why it is such a fraught subject of the vicious

they debated among israeli archaeologists. but what we actually know, essentially, we noted david did exist because an inscription found in 1993 by israeli and down, refers to israel as the house, the kingdom of israel and the king of judah for which jerusalem was the capital of the house of david. this is dated only 100, 150 years ago, so after david's death. we know david was an historical error. but that is pretty much all we know. now in the archaeology, the chapel and most archaeology, what you don't find his intoxicants too. you simply use what you do find any understand archaeologists really like shining a flashlight

thousands of years ago and in that moment you can sometimes find something that for some reason was that the hind. so in the city of david, the regional city of jerusalem, there is very little. or maybe 11 or two buildings exactly at the david. but we also know from new finds in the city of david there were huge canaanite structures. there is a stronghold there from 800 years before david. since it survived two today, we know there was a large structure they are. it was much smaller than the biblical account suggests and is probably just a stronghold. david's kingdom is probably less a formal kingdom, more likely a confederation of tribes. doesn't mean it didn't exist. it is interesting, for example, that the maccabean kingdom that we know existed a thousand years

later is also that virtually no archaeological remnants. it's only because it is stated that there is such an obsession of fascination with whether it exists, what hasn't been found. what we do know is there's virtually no evidence of solomon existed. there is no steel inscribed with his name. again what we do know is in 30 or 40 years of the probable death of solomon, and we know the egyptians came and sat jerusalem and demanded the code from the temple. we know there is a jewish kingdom there and we know it was a city. so i'm less excited about whether king david existed or not that many people are because they know in 50 years of his, all of the conditions that are so important that exist. but i am not one of these people

who believe that just because it was a jewish kingdom in 1000 b.c. that this thing anyway -- this has any political comment in any way diminishes the rights of, for example, palestinians who have been -- arabs who have been a jerusalem, but it is a fascinating question nonetheless. yeah, thanks. sorry about the long answer. >> i have two questions. one is something that you mentioned. you know stalin was a machiavellian, where he picked on people. the question is, why would the religions -- if i was starting a religion, wouldn't i want to go to one place and point out weaknesses of religion saturday or, rather than going somewhere else in africa or whatever. i think this was an intentional that the religions focused on one place, very machiavellian.

>> is one question. >> yeah, i know except what you're saying. what is fascinating about jerusalem is each religion has a huge revelation that took control of jerusalem didn't say were going to start from scratch. no way. the holiness of jerusalem is a tradition and it's infectious. so this update almost certainly both the first temple on a canaanite shrine. the christians, very consciously fulfilled the jewish scriptures, with a pair of thing she will and based much of his legitimacy on his study and fulfillment of these prophecies. so the jewish scriptures were always vital to christianity and so with a jewish site. and similarly, mohammed when he studied -- we don't know if he

was literate or not, but he certainly was very, very familiar with the christian and jewish scriptures, the profits. he revered -- you know, but in the slums, king david is not a doubt, the prophet david and so on. and so, moses is not the messiah. so they consciously built on the jewish tradition in the christian tradition. what was this about? but was he doing there? he was giving legitimacy to his religion, but also he was adapting, adopt team, commandeering the holiness those 30 tear. and that is what all religions have done throughout time and that is why there were three religions and drusilla. >> a comment to what you said. i recently read anti-semitism but your great uncle and would put a in the parliament at the time. even say they wanted to jews to

get ahold of israel israel, they yet this antagonism towards the jews. >> it was like in many countries was ambiguous. but in fact, this hebraic son, which i described that the evangelists, which is very similar to christian evangelism today in america was very pro-jewish. of course there is social anti-semitism in america, too. but that was limited in a very big way that may surprise many americans. if you look at the story of my ancestor, an italian immigrant penniless in england at a country estate, friends of queen vic doria, many aristocrats, many crowned heads of europe.

the rothschild said many other banking families. they were then very wealthy and so that is always an easy passport to acceptance. nonetheless, they testify some of the preconceptions, does it not, about english system quiet >> are you in line? okay, will do the last two. >> two quick questions. outside of the last pages of your book or the last chapters of your book, could you give me one maximum two books that objective histories of israel palestine? in the second question, demonstrable effect your thinking or your writing is quiet >> well, everyone was or is, they cannot, of course, i love his status. you know, i think he is a great man. delay can? >> as you were speaking in his

image and his books alexandria bubble -- >> at the wonderful boat. you know, alexandria, jerusalem, said monica, these were the great levenstein cities full of many nationalities and nationalism has destroyed all that. what was the other questions? >> one maximum objective on palestine israel conflict. >> is quite hard to find them. i'm trying to think. most of the ones i can think of it don't want to name because i regard them as unequal. i'm not saying that just to promote my book. i just want to answer the question truthfully and i can't quay. i can think of a lot of books i loved as a child as a pro-zionists i can see. but a lot of the modern books written part either neocon, which i often regard as totally unrealistic or they are essential israeli.

a nameless income you will judge when you read the book how it's done on this and nothing is perfect. it is actually very hard to find -- it is very hard to find a sort of object to view on this. and so, i can't answer your question quite. >> is that the last question? former question, yeah, fire away. go on. >> i came tonight to honor you in this book because i have a long history of loving your work and very much admire u.s.a. thinker, writer and the documentary you were in on catherine the great. so my question is a little bit involved with the work i'm doing, and i want to show you how i honor you and what i think of you. i'm doing a novel on the friendship between catherine the great in it that much of.

you are the man who could make the ink in your book on stalin, what a handsome man that stalin was. so it gave me the idea that i was going to have stalin undergoing transformation of the hotel by catherine the great. the question i have now and i haven't delved in terror biography at, but i have catherine trying to soothe who says i don't know why people try these ideas of the village is the matter with the why has gone down in history that way. and catherine is soothing him and cuddling him and him and say, don't worry my darling. i have asked simon sebag montefiore or to write a biography of you and i know he will tell the truth. now i have to go home tonight

and look. shall i be scared? chalets drink before i go home? >> you should definitely have a glass of wine. that's the nicest question i've ever had. thank you very much. before you finish, i got an e-mail today. not quite answering your question, but i love your question. he reminds me of something. i received a letter from my history teacher in england who wrote to say he put up on the picture a young starlet on the cover of young starlet and enlarged poster over his desk. and it has become the first of all one young girl comes in many gross and all that grows in the school had come to see it as a pilgrimage. he was very alarmed because they are found handsome and irresistible. he wrote to me one of those rather funny letters. dear simon, what shall i do about this