Israel

Paul Levy was a year old when his Uncle Phil was killed in World War II, and his family, like many, faced their grief with silence. Upon retirement, and seventy years after his uncle's death, he set out to discover what might still be found about Phil. At every step, research led to unexpected turns, and ultimately revealed a vivid portrait of Phil's life and, astoundingly, of his death. In the process, the author also gained insights into war, antisemitism, family silences, and heroism, and encountered intriguing and sometimes famous characters who had touched Phil's life.

On Israel's seventy-fifth anniversary comes a nuanced examination of the country's past, present, and future, from the two-time National Jewish Book Award-winning author of Israel.

In 1948, Israel's founders had much more in mind than the creation of a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also a "national home for the Jewish people," where Jewish life would be transformed. Did they succeed? The state they made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering.

Now, as the country marks its seventy-fifth anniversary, Gordis asks: Has Israel fulfilled the dreams of its founders? Using Israel's Declaration of Independence as his measure, Gordis provides a thorough, balanced perspective on how the Israel of today exceeds the country's original aspirations and how it has fallen short. He discusses the often-overlooked reasons for the establishment of the State of Israel; the flourishing of Jewish and Israeli culture; the nation's economy and its transformative tech sector; the Israeli-Arab conflict; the distinct form of Judaism that has emerged in the Jewish state; the nation's complex relationship with the Diaspora; and much more.

Offering new angles of thinking about Israel, Gordis brings moderation and clarity to the prevailing discourse. And through weighing Israel's successes, critiquing its failures, and acknowledging its inherent contradictions, he ultimately suggests that the Jewish state is a success far beyond anything its founders could have imagined.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A "fascinating and very moving" (Aaron Sorkin, award-winning screenwriter of The West Wing and The Social Network) chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most interesting countries in the world--Israel.

Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts?

Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But "this is not your Bubbie's history book" (Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher). Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her "passion, humor, and deep intimacy" (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor) to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland's evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel's creation to the disputes dividing the country today. Tackling popular misconceptions with an abundance of facts, Tishby provides critical context around headline-generating controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured country of Israel.

This book contains twelve essays, ten of which appeared in Mosaic magazine in 2015-2018. They introduce English readers to a number of major Hebrew authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose work forms an important part of the literary response to the modern Jewish experience. These essays also explore the reciprocal relationship in this period between Hebrew literature, the evolution of the modern Hebrew language, and the emergence of Zionism as a historic force in Jewish life.

From the outset of his presidency, Donald Trump sought to narrow differences between Israel and the six monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-as part of his strategy to isolate Iran.With that objective in mind, Trump's first visit abroad as president was to Riyadh in May 2017-where he addressed the U.S.-Arab-Islamic Summit-immediately followed by a visit to Israel.The President's message was clear: Saudi Arabia and Israel would serve as co-pillars of the U.S. security architecture for the broader Middle East. Under that vision, Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf monarchies-together with Israel-would isolate Iran diplomatically. The second plank of this strategy was anchored in the so-called "Maximum Pressure" campaign, which sought for all practical purposes to expedite the collapse of Iran's economy as part of an effort to strengthen Washington's standing vis-à-vis Tehran. The third plank focused on solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. These dynamics, the Trump-administration reasoned, would help set the stage for the renegotiation of the Iran agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.Trump's vision, however, faced immediate resistance-not from Iran or its regional proxies, but rather from some of Washington's very own Gulf partners when they imposed a blockade on Qatar only weeks after his Riyadh address. While the crisis between Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt over Qatar was initially understood in Washington as an inter-Arab dispute, Sigurd Neubauer examines the overlooked and widely misunderstood Israeli and Omani roles in this feud.The Gulf crisis, Neubauer goes on to argue, has shattered a widely held preconception, namely that Israel and the Gulf states are drawing closer because of their shared animosity towards Iran and its regional agenda. While the Gulf states and Israel are indeed drawing closer, it is not primarily driven by fear of Iran but rather by inter-GCC rivalry, including in Washington, where an inexperienced administration had to dedicate significant political capital to solve the Gulf crisis.

After being brutally hacked at with a machete multiple times and with her friend murdered in front of her eyes, Kay Wilson somehow managed not only to fool her attackers and play dead, she rose to her feet and gagged and bound, and bleeding to death, staggered barefoot for over a mile. A harrowing and unfathomable ordeal, this book might have been one that people are afraid to pick up. Instead, The Rage Less Traveled is impossible to put down. Most surprisingly of all, it is peppered with an appropriate absurd hilarity. The Rage Less Traveled is as much about humanity as it is about the evil that tries to destroy it. It depicts the defiance of the human spirit to get through the impossible. The Rage Less Traveled is a sobering yet blistering read that is as much about hope as it is about hell.

"Indelible mesmerizing a monumental debut." Julie Burchill, The Sunday Telegraph "An extraordinary account of survival against the terrorism that threatens us all today. Kay Wilson is one of the most heroic people I have ever met." Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, former British Infantry Commander From Amazon Readers: "Won't kid you as this was most hard to read. I was recovering from oral surgery so I could" identify "with great pain. And I almost quit reading as it is such an intense story of the hatred of some towards others who are in some way different. I will NOT give it all away - so a semi-spoiler alert here --- Just as I was about to turn off the Kindle and put the book down ---- I turned the page to the most glorious outcome of it all! lkv " About the BookAfter being brutally hacked at with a machete multiple times and with her friend murdered in front of her eyes, Kay Wilson somehow managed not only to fool her attackers and play dead, she rose to her feet and gagged and bound, and bleeding to death, staggered barefoot for over a mile. A harrowing and unfathomable ordeal, this book might have been one that people are afraid to pick up. Instead, The Rage Less Traveled is impossible to put down. Most surprisingly of all, it is peppered with an appropriate absurd hilarity. The Rage Less Traveled is as much about humanity as it is about the evil that tries to destroy it. It depicts the defiance of the human spirit to get through the impossible. The Rage Less Traveled is a sobering yet blistering read that is as much about hope as it is about hell.