A book on Jerusalem by Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is being published in Chinese and will soon hit the shelves in Beijing.

Dore Gold, adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Chinese edition of his book – Photo: Yonatan Zindel

“The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City” explains Israel’s historical links and legal rights to Jerusalem, and emphasizes the need to keep the city united and under Israeli sovereignty. The book, first published in 2007, made The New York Times best-seller list.

Gold, a former ambassador to the U.N., is now president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The request to translate his book to Chinese was born out of a 2012 visit from the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee to the center.

The book is unique in that it passed through the rigorous review of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s publishing house, the World Affairs Press, without being changed or edited. The Chinese stressed the importance of the country’s citizens knowing the Israeli stance on Jerusalem.

Last November, Gold flew to China to sign a contract and speak to the Communist Party’s central committee and at the Central Party School. The forward to the Chinese edition was written by Ma Xiaolin, a member of the central committee’s research institute and a former journalist with the Xinhua News Agency who specialized in the Middle East and worked in Kuwait, Iraq and the Gaza Strip.

“The timing of the book’s release is especially important with the growing interest from China in the Middle East and its future role in the region,” Gold told Israel Hayom on Monday. “Regardless of what happens with the diplomatic process, Israel needs to defend its essential interests in the international arena. This book can help contribute to the effort to get closer with one of the most important powers in the world.”

View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17145