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    My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
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    My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
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    My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
    Audiobook20 hours

    My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

    Written by Ari Shavit

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE ECONOMIST

    Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

    An authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today
     
    Not since Thomas L. Friedman's groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own family's story, illuminating the pivotal moments of the Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension.
     
    We meet Shavit's great-grandfather, a British Zionist who in 1897 visited the Holy Land on a Thomas Cook tour and understood that it was the way of the future for his people; the idealist young farmer who bought land from his Arab neighbor in the 1920s to grow the Jaffa oranges that would create Palestine's booming economy; the visionary youth group leader who, in the 1940s, transformed Masada from the neglected ruins of an extremist sect into a powerful symbol for Zionism; the Palestinian who as a young man in 1948 was driven with his family from his home during the expulsion from Lydda; the immigrant orphans of Europe's Holocaust, who took on menial work and focused on raising their children to become the leaders of the new state; the pragmatic engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel's nuclear program in the 1960s, in the only interview he ever gave; the zealous religious Zionists who started the settler movement in the 1970s; the dot-com entrepreneurs and young men and women behind Tel-Aviv's booming club scene; and today's architects of Israel's foreign policy with Iran, whose nuclear threat looms ominously over the tiny country.
     
    As it examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, My Promised Land asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can Israel survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is currently facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. The result is a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today's global political landscape.
     
    Praise for My Promised Land

    "This book will sweep you up in its narrative force and not let go of you until it is done. [Shavit's] accomplishment is so unlikely, so total . . . that it makes you believe anything is possible, even, God help us, peace in the Middle East."-Simon Schama, Financial Times
     
    "[A] must-read book."-Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times
     
    "Important and powerful . . . the least tendentious book about Israel I have ever read."-Leon Wieseltier, The New York Times Book Review
     
    "Spellbinding . . . Shavit's prophetic voice carries lessons that all sides need to hear."-The Economist
     
    "One of the most nuanced and challenging books written on Israel in years."-The Wall Street Journal

    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 19, 2013
    ISBN9780385359603
    Author

    Ari Shavit

    Ari Shavit is a leading Israeli columnist and writer. Born in Rehovot, Israel, Shavit served as a paratrooper in the IDF and studied philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the early 1990s he was Chairperson of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and in 1995 he joined Haaretz, where he serves on the editorial board. He is married, has a daughter and two sons, and lives in Kfar Shmaryahu.

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    Reviews for My Promised Land

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    • 4/5
      I was excited to receive this book, but a little daunted at the fact that I had to read it. Usually, I skim over introductions, but this one grabbed me right away and got me hooked. Kudos to the author for that.If you're old enough to remember the words "And, YOU were there!" then I can tell you that this truly is living history. It's like being in the middle of a movie because the author paints such a good picture of the events he chooses to tell the history of Israel. It comes alive, and really isn't that what you want when you start to tackle a long history book?I also appreciate the author's perspective. As a Jew, I've had more than a niggling doubt about Israel. I feel the author tackled it nicely--blending history with the here and now--both realities. And you'll never eat a Jaffa orange again without thinking about this book! I highly recommend this to both Jews and historians.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed reading this book. I've always wanted to know the history of Israel. Shavit provides detailed information on the lives of several Jewish immigrants to Israel. I am amazed at the strength and determination of the young settlers that survived horrific early lives so that future generations would hopefully live peaceful lives in the promised land. It is a long book, but every chapter moves along, making the reader eager to read the next chapter.
    • 3/5
      I am a pro-Israel, but not pro-everything-Israel-has-done, American who believes that the most painless way to teach is through stories, so I was excited to read this book which promised to be the history of modern Israeli written by an Israel peacenik through the story of his family, beginning with his grandfather who came to Israel in 1897 as a scout for Zionism. Sadly, I found Ari Shavit couldn't help but put himself in the story way before his time, beginning in 1897. If a Reader's Digest editor got a hold of this book and shortened it by 1/3 he could make it much more readable without removing any of the vast information and interpretation of the facts contained in it. There is much to learn and much to be said about Israel, and Ari Shavit succeeds in coming to the conclusion that it's complicated. There is no easy solution for the Holy Land. If you read this book you will learn much about the conflict and probably change your position several times, possibly not arriving at a conclusion. If you are interested in the land that is today Israel, you will find much to ponder in this book, and I don't mind if you disagree with my feelings about Mr. Shavit's writing style.
    • 4/5
      I read Thomas L Friedman's book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" many years ago and had begun to search for something more recent that would help me unravel current headlines. Thus, I was grateful when "My Promised Land" arrived on my doorstep. It has been a wonderful immersion into the history and culture of past and present Israel. While the author makes some assumptions about the basic understanding of the reader (a glossary and map would be helpful additions), the context provides clarity and the writing actually feels like a deep dive into a different world. I'm sure there will be controversy around the opinions expressed when this book is published. I look forward to following the writer (blog please). Mostly I appreciate the new perspective I have on Middle East issues and value this as a starting point for further reading.
    • 3/5
      I was looking forward to reading this book so I could possibly gain some insight into the situation in Israel and how it has changed over the years. I had hoped it would be informative and a good story, and unfortunately I was disappointed in one of those aspects. It was certainly informative, and would serve as a good resource on the subject, but a good story it was not. However, if you go into this book with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the land and people of Israel, you will not be disappointed. It is well-written and insightful.
    • 4/5
      Having traveled to Israel 20+ years ago, this book fascinated me. The author's background fascinated me - his great grandfather came from England. The book has a lot of interviews with people on both side of the politics of the region. A lot of really good, moving insight but it got to the point where it was just rehashed too often and got old. Well worth the read as far as you can get but needed to end about 30% faster than it did.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book tying Israel's settlement to its troubles today, both internal and external. Options on how best to proceed in the future are set forth and debated. This was a great discussion book.
    • 5/5
      A tour through the history and land of Israel. Amazing book, I couldn't put it down. Helped me see and evaluate the history of the state of Israel in a whole new way. I've been to Israel many times, and thought I knew the history of the country very well, but Shavit personalizes and offers his perspective in a whole new way. Should be the first book you read about Israel.
    • 5/5
      This is by far the best book of non-ficion I've read this year, and certainly the one that brought me closest to understanding Israel, and along with it the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

      What made this book different from all of the other books I've read about this subject so far is that unlike most other authors Shavit focuses on the micro rather than the macro. It tells the story of Israel and the Zionist utopian project that was the beginning of what we now know as Israel, by providing very little handy political facts. No chapter on the Yom Kippur War or on any of the other wars or Camp Davids that in most books about Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would define the face of the country portrayed. Instead Shavit zooms in. On people, on certain events and places. He makes the macro comprehensible by focusing in on the micro. And he does so with a deep passion for Israel and its people, and at the same time an astonishing ability to capture the state of moral ambiguity that Israel has been living in since day one.
    • 5/5
      The author is, among other things, a columnist for Haaretz. This is a personal, wide-ranging, sociological history of Israel, told as a series of life stories of the author's friends and acquaintances. His view is unusually well balanced and insightful.
    • 5/5
      What I wanted was what I got -- a well balanced booked that explained the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the beginning to its current sorry state of affairs. Shavit, a journalist who has lived his whole life in Israel and been active in the peace movement, shares his perceptions along with the those of many people who have been influential in the development of the country. He knows most of the major players on the right and left and lets them speak for themselves in interviews. I, for one, didn't know much about the Zionist political movement which brought secular Jews to Isreal as early as the late 1800's with the goal of setting up a socialist, agrarian community. Now I want to know more. One book on my list is A Peace to End All Peace, which explores the roles played by England, France, Germany and Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) in the Middle East prior to WWI and beyond.
    • 4/5
      An outstanding collection of essays and reflections that start with Shavit's great-grandfather arriving in 1897 and end with the aftermath of the 2013 elections.

      Tremendously readable and unblinking look at the triumphs and disasters of Zionism's first century. Shavit is as sharp on the failures of the Left as he is on the excesses of the Right. Hard to imagine this changing anyone's mind, but it's bloody good all the same.
    • 5/5
      I received an ARC of My Promised Land by Ari Shavit as part of the Early Readers Group at Library Thing in return for which I agreed to write a review. The opinions expressed in my review are my own.It was obvious to me from the very beginning of this fascinating and informative book that for Ari Shavit writing this history of those who developed and continue to nourish the state of Israel was a labor of love. The whole atmosphere of this reading experience was one of devotion to telling Israel's story from the beginning of the state to the present time as well as hopes for the future. It was done as factually as possible by telling the story directly from as many people who were able to share what they experienced in the context of the time frame in which these events occurred. For each of the participants, in sharing their personal experience, the passion, courage, and attitude to never give up on the formation of the Israeli state is a constant. The dedication to forming a state as well as providing it with the continued devotion to having it remain relevant and viable as an entity to be reckoned with globally is an inspiration and testament to the strength of the human spirit. As Shavit puts it, "Israel is a nation-state founded in the heart of the Arab world... A wide circle of 350 million Arabs surrounds the Zionist state and threatens its very existence." An inner circle of 10 million Palestinians also poses a threat to Israel's ability to survive. Given those numbers, Israel doesn't appear to have much going for it. Unless, of course, the sheer will power to exist as a free society is taken into account. Israel is continued proof that people with one specific goal in mind, the right and necessity to have and keep a homeland, is motivation enough to succeed no matter what the cost.The subtitle to My Promised Land is 'The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel'. Shavit begins his story with the arrival in Jaffa of 30 passengers from London, England, among whom is is his great-grandfather, Herbert Bentwich. It is Bentwich who believes that Jews must settle in their ancient homeland. Shavit follows the route his great-grandfather took upon arrival in Jaffa, and he continues throughout the book to visit all the areas in which early settlers were faced with challenge after challenge in learning how to live productively in places that were essentially undeveloped. He tells how these settlers learned to work the land. If technology did not exist to support their activity, they invented it themselves. The dedication of those people was awe inspiring. They had to be creative, practical, and find sources of income to support these new ideas in agriculture which led to more development in other areas of setting up a life style. Those early years were full of back breaking labor, but no matter what the challenge someone always came through with answers. As a result the orange industry grew in Jaffa which distributed the fruit throughout Europe.There are many success stories throughout Israel's history many of which I was unaware. What stands out most about the story of the Jews who came to settle the Israeli state is those who survived the Holocaust. Before Shavit details that, he writes about Masada. For me, that is one of the most heart breaking, and yet inspiring, events in history. I was familiar with the Masada story, but I did not know about the events in the 20th century that led to the revisiting of Masada as a historical shrine. I found Shavit's retelling of the Masada story to be riveting. There are times when Shavit makes very clear his opinions on certain events in Israel's history, particularly those decisions with which he does not agree. He holds strong opinions about Israel's development of nuclear weapons as well as the continuing struggle over Israel's Occupation of disputed Palestinian territory. I do not agree with some of the conclusions Shavit draws on those two subjects in particular. The Israeli people have been persecuted for thousands of years, and there was a well thought out plan to annihilate the entire Jewish population from the face of the earth. In view of that history, I believe Israel has every right to do what it needs to do to protect itself. There was no voice of reason dominant enough to stop the murder of over 6 million people. There were no effective "peaceniks" speaking out nor taking the measures necessary to stop the murder of so many innocent people. For me, that's a lesson learned. If Israel doesn't stick up for its own, no one else is going to do it for them. I think it's easy to sit back and take a moralistic attitude; it's much more difficult to live each day knowing the Arab world does not follow that same lofty position.With that said, I still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Israel along with the dedication of the men and women who brought a dream of statehood to fruition. Shavit does an excellent job of presenting all sides of the issues Israel faced in the past and what they will have to face in the future if they want to remain a viable global entity. I wish I could give this book a rating higher than 5 Stars. It's worth at least a 10.
    • 3/5
      This book is very useful in understanding some of the dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Being a collection of various peoples' experiences, it helps a person like me - who has never even been to the Land - to understand some of what is happening there, and to realize that simply choosing sides is both simplistic and detrimental to lasting solutions to the problems that region raises. Yet, precisely because it is this - first-person accounts told through the pen of an author with his own views and prejudices (about which he tries to be very open and up-front) it leaves me wondering what stories not told might offer even more insights into the past and future of that Land. In particular, I would have appreciated more from the point of view of those who believe the Hebrew Scriptures are an important if not essential key to understanding the right of a Jewish state to exist. Surely this is not limited to the "ultra-Orthodox" community. It seems to me that this is an even more fundamental issue than the right to return for the Palestinians or the right to settle for Jews. I believe that in many ways, the struggles that the Israelis - both Jew and Palestinian - are involved in represent the struggle of humanity itself, and that the world's future and the Land's future are inextricably linked together, and I appreciate the insights shared in this book. One suggestion I would have - include a map with the various regions and cities that figure into the various accounts.
    • 4/5
      I was given an advance reader's edition of "My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel" by Ari Shavit through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.When I first found out that I was receiving this book to review, I was very apprehensive. I am not interested in history and am not well versed in the current events of modern day. I just do not and can not bring myself to find these topics interesting. However, I am passionate about literature and decided to at least give this a try.Let me just get to it: I got through the introduction and Chapter One "At First Sight, 1897" before I really knew that I could not possibly read a four hundred plus page book about such a topic. While I will commend Shavit for his passion and writing style, I just could not continue. Shavit's style is what got me past the introduction though. Without the writing being as good as it was, I would not have even set foot into chapter one. I will be rating this book four stars because of the part that I read. The writing style, content, and Shavit's obvious love for his topic of text, make this a really great book... but only for people who are really into things like this. Do not read this if you are like me or are just thinking about trying something different. You will not enjoy this. Try something else. This book is great but only for a targeted audience.
    • 4/5
      Having lived in Israel I enjoyed reading this view of the land of Israel. It was fun and engaging and brought me back to my time there.
    • 3/5
      The is a well-written engaging book that is very troubling. It is troubling not only because the author intends it to be so but also because of its seemingly intentional gaps. The author portrays an account of the history of Israel that mixes fiction and non-fiction. He is the omniscient narrator who is present when his great-grandfather arrives at the land that becomes Israel and portrays what he believes is seen and felt by the persons in his book. During the course of the book, he tends to downplay or ignore the deaths of the Jews or Israelis at the hands of the Arabs or Palestinians. He portrays the displacement of the Arabs in the Galilee in 1948 but virtually ignores the deaths of the Jews throughout Israel during the War of Independence. He ignores the continual Jewish presence in Jerusalem from ancient times until 1948 and minimizes any ties to the land that was settled by the Jews. Given that premise, it is difficult to evaluate the other aspects of the book. But it is clear from the lack of the portrayal of the infitadas that the perspective continues throughout. The author clearly is tied to his country but given his perspective, it is difficult to understand why he stays there. His only excuse, is seemingly, that it is the only nation where Jews can thrive as Jews. He almost has the perspective of Groucho Marx who stated that he would not want to belong to any club who would have him as a member. The author seems apologetic for his own existence. This is a very readable book and has some value.
    • 5/5
      Ari Shavit is an Israeli journalist whose ancestors were among the founders of the Zionist enterprise that eventually brought about the creation of the State of Israel. He describes his early childhood, in the 1960's, as prosperous, exuberant, orderly, yet overshadowed by an existential fear that some terrible catastrophe of mythic proportions waited to sweep his beloved homeland away. As he grew older, watched history unfold during the Six Day War and those that followed, and became a soldier himself, he came to understand that the source of this fear was the realization that his Israel, founded as a haven for a people long oppressed and cast out, existed only by occupying, dispossessing and oppressing another people. My Promised Land is Shavit's personalized history of the State of Israel, based on interviews with hundreds of Israelis--Jews and Arabs, men and women, descendants of early immigrants, Holocaust survivors, displaced Palestinians, prosperous business leaders, authors, orange growers, fighter pilots. It is also a rational, frank and honest look at how that country came into being, what it cost and continues to cost both Israelis and Palestinians, and what it means to the larger world in the 21st century. It reads like a generational saga destined to become a sweeping mini-series of the caliber of John Adams or Shogun. Not once is the narrative flow blocked by a chunk of dry facts, and yet this book is loaded with facts. My ARC is dog-eared and page-pointed as though I expected to be comprehensively tested on its contents. The things I learned...they could fill a book. They do fill a book, a very fine book that is important, beautiful and profound. Shavit's love of his native land is not blind, but rather extremely insightful, accepting and forgiving her sins, but never trying to conceal them. He is eloquent in describing the seemingly insoluble problem, the tragedy of a clash between one very powerful, very convincing claim over this land, and another no less powerful, no less convincing claim. "I am haunted by the notion that we hold them by the balls and they hold us by the throat. We squeeze and they squeeze back. We are trapped by them and they are trapped by us. And every few years the conflict takes on a new form, ever more gruesome...The tragedy ends one chapter and begins another, but the tragedy never ends."All history should be written this well. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      From the pen of a Jewish Israeli author and journalist, this work follows the beginnings of the Zionist movement into Israel as Jews fled growing antisemitism in Europe and returned to the shores of the middle east seeking refuge and opportunity. It is a surprisingly objective historical account of that exodus and outlines the Israel-Palestine conflict as seen in numerous interviews with persons of influence on both sides. Ultimately it takes the side of Zionists, but not before giving credit and blame where it is due. This is an excellent account of the current tensions in the region and should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the impasse that has developed among these peoples. This was an Early Reviewer copy sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written and compelling work of non-fiction.
    • 4/5
      ARC provided by NetGalleyAri Shavit draws not only on his family's own story, but interviews and other historical documents to tell the story of the Zionist movement and the creation of modern day Israel. Ari provides the reader with a deeply moving and and deeply personal story about Israel, ranging from Ari's great-grandfather landing in Israel in 1887 to today's world with a booming club scene and foreign policies with Iran. Ari creates a tale that will give the reader greater insight into the world of Israel. I recommend this book to history and foreign policy fans. 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      Ari Shavit is a prominent reporter for Haaretz. Shavit is politically left, and an advocate of Israeli peace with Arabs, particularly the end of the occupation of Palestinian lands and the reigning-in of Israeli settlements. This is to say that Shavit is not without his biases. Still, Shavit's panoramic history of Israel, My Promised Land, is a remarkably balanced and powerful vision of Israel's history and future.Shavit takes the reader through the history of Israel by honing in on one or two events per decade per chapter. Shavit begins with the journey to Palestine, 1897, of his great-grandfather, an English Jew and gentleman who was sympathetic to the need for a Jewish state. Thus Shavit's story is inexorably entwined with Israel. Shavit moves forward at a steady clip, jumping from decade to decade, capturing the remarkable development of the Jewish settlements and, eventually, the Israeli state. His chapter on the establishment of the first kibbutz is particularly well done.The pace of the book begins to drag a bit as Shavit catches up to recent decades, particularly the beginning of the settlement movement in the 1970s. This is somewhat paradoxical, since these developments are the most relevant to our understanding of recent Middle Eastern history. Still, readers will find here insight that will add nuance to the snippets they here on the evening news. An interview with one of Shavit's Palestinian friends is particularly interesting.A remarkably well written, heroically scoped memoir/history recommended to readers who are willing to be open-minded and balanced in their approach to Israel and the Middle East.
    • 5/5
      It has taken me awhile for me to write this review of Ari Shavit's My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. I'm pretty sure that this review will be adequate at best. I am not sure that I'll be able to express how much I really enjoyed this book.

      Because I did.

      Immensely.

      Shavit takes the reader in a journey from Israel's humble beginnings in 1897 being ""discovered"" and recolonized after their diaspora from Babylon to the 2000's dot-com revolution. Shavit is unflinching in his telling of his country's history. He talks about of the good: the Jewish people's tenancity and willings to survive nearly everything that was thrown at them. He recounts the mental anguish and toll the holocaust took on them.

      Shavit discusses the bad as well. Such as their willingness to ignore the Arab prescence already living in Palestine and how they had to other facts or gloss them over in order to survive. He elaborates on how Israel has change with current climate. It has become more open. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the night club owner. Israel is slowly becoming more open about homosexuality. But it was also sad about the prevalent drug use among the young people. Just another way to survive.

      There were other aspects and chapters that were incredibly interesting. I like the chapter on the nuclear power plant the best. It was intriguing as how the Israelies saw it as a means of protection but recognized it as a very dangerous weapon. Learning about Israel as a whole made me realized how much I didn't even know and never knew about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I hate when great books make me feel ignorant but I appreciated it.

      Shavit's My Promised Land is the epitome of love. He is a left wing but was incredibly objective during his interviews. He got passionate but he listened and kept his anger in check. I believed his love and adoration for his country. He was inspired by Israel but aware of its shortcomings.
    • 4/5
      This is a beautifully written anecdotal history of the modern state of Israel. The book is a series of stories about various Jews through time, starting in 1897 with the journey of the author's great grandfather from England to Israel. It continues with stories of the early Aliyot, the War of Independence, the wars of the young state, the development of the Dimona project, and on to modern Israel.It's not intended to be a comprehensive history; in some ways it's more like a memoir, or a family history. The perspective is from the political Left, and I'm told this is a popular book within J Street in America, with which I sympathize. I thought the book ran a bit long, but it ends with some well-written and heartfelt musings on the problems facing Israel today and how different those problems are from those of the past.
    • 4/5
      6. My Promised Land by Ari Shavit (2013, 430 page library hardcover, read Jan 5 - 24)I was ready to toss this book after 50 pages...Shavit has some writing habits I don't like. He manipulates everything and he pronounces where it seems he should just to present the information. When he reports an interview of someone, he is likely to spend more time reporting what he said to them rather then what they said. With Israel the conversation is already manipulated enough. But, I was reading for a book club and I had encouraged us to read this particular books. So, I persevered.And I feel I was rewarded. Despite all of the above, Shavit's pronouncements appear valid and his sense of history and reality in terms of Israel are important and revealing. This is an important and valuable book and I felt, on closing, very happy to that I didn't quit and kept on reading.Shavit is direct and honest about the 1948 Israel independence war and the why. This is newly uncluttered information for me. He discussed the 1936 Arab revolt and the Jewish response, a collective sense of Jewish militarization that has never subsided. I wasn't aware of how organized and strategic and thorough the Arab removal was in 1948, how its resulting ethnic cleansing was justified on grounds of defense. I actually thought most Arabs were scared off. I didn't realize they were systematically evacuated under fire (there is no paper trail of any Israeli strategy directing this). Nascent Israel did not feel it could repel Arab armies if it was infiltrated with Arabs of mixed persuasions. So Arab villages, many ancient, were completely cleared in more or less unprovoked attacks. This means so much to the present situation. This, plus the settlements, and the inability to undo any of it, is fundamental to the lack of peace around Israel.Shavit taught me many other things too. He covers the role Ben Gurion played in the national psyche, a Western European style secular Zionism that gave Israel a communal cooperation over 25 years. And he covers the post-1973 lack of focus as this identity began to dissolve. As Israel has become less Western-European-secular-Zionist, by which I mean a larger part of the Jewish population is made up of those from outside Europe (around 50%), or from Soviet Union's collapse in 1989 (1 million people), and as it became more religious, especially ultra-orthodox, the cultural unity, one that was essentially enforced up till 1973, has been lost. What led to the success in 1948 and 1967 (the six day war) started to become reduced after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Shavit chronicles this and Israel's history since with a penetrating insight and threatening sense of the future. He considers himself liberal and at one-time was very active in the Israeli peace movement. His disenchantment is a large part of this book. He looks at why the peace movement was never realistic or in tune with Israel's reality. As an about face, I find myself recommending this to anyone interested in Israel.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting history of Israel that I have never before read or been aware of. The information is very important to understanding the country of today. I feel there is some use of semantics and facts that I may question, but that is always the case in history. Unfortunately, I found this book not very optimistic or hopeful regarding the future of Israel.
    • 4/5
      A deft interweaving of personal and public history -- a book about Israel after which reading I could say "oh, now I get it"
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, I learned a lot about the establishment of Israel that I wasn't aware of. The author takes us back to shortly after WWI and the early settlements. Second, the author recounts several stories about individuals who emigrated to Israel, bringing a very human perspective to the history of the country. Third, I think he is honest in his writing. Finally, I think he has explained the current issues facing Israel very well. I recommend this book highly.
    • 4/5
      Anytime you read anything on Israel, it’s important to know the perspective of the author. The introduction is helpfully candid as the author gives a short bio and lets us know he writes for the leading liberal paper, but has sparred with the right & left as he’s grasped the complexity of the Israel situation. I felt he did a good job representing a wide variety of perspectives fairly, without veiling whom he agreed with. (I would comment that the focus is undeniably secular, there’s no mention of the Christian minorities, either Arab or Jewish, and his treatment of the Orthodox Jews doesn’t convince me he understands them at all.) The writing was fantastic and the story quite gripping. I thought it covered a lot of ground and made me understand, as it is well sub-titled, the triumph & tragedy of Israel. After reading it, I feel like I understand the existential crisis that made Jewish people, as a globally oppressed minority, to try to find a safe haven. I respect the amazing work and things they did to form and hold a country in the place they did. But I grieve for the awful things they did to get there. In order to survive, I was able to see how and why the oppressed became the oppressor, however reluctantly, after they realized there was no peaceful way to create their state. Ari Shavit tells all these things candidly and powerfully. I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about the history of the modern state of Israel.
    • 5/5
      This book is an attempt to explain Israel. If I were asked how long it would take to accomplish such a gargantuan task, my guess would have been several encyclopedic tomes, and then some. Ari Shavit did it in less than 500 beautifully written pages.My Promised LandShavit uses his family’s history as the framework for telling the story of Israel. His great-grandfather, a Victorian English Jew, travels to Palestine in 1897 and, after a short tour of the land, decides to make it his home. Through the experiences of this early 20th century Zionistic immigrant, Shavit begins to weave the magnificent yet tragic story of the Jewish settlement of Palestine. Magnificent because of the unparalleled success of Zionism in bringing back a people who were nation-less for two millennia to their forefathers’ land, to build a thriving and prosperous country. Tragic because the land these pioneers settled was not empty. In their eagerness to fulfill their mission, they neglected to take into proper account the existence of the native Arab population. Half a century before the establishment of the State of Israel, they story of Shavit’s great-grandfather encapsulates the seeds of the struggle for this tiny piece of land.With admirable candour and acute perspicacity Shavit goes on to examine the multifaceted story that is Israel, the forces that shaped it into being and the forces that will determine its future. He speaks of how the story of Masada – where besieged Jews committed suicide en masse rather than succumb to Roman forces – became the defining story for early Zionists. He recounts, with vivid detail, the story of Lydda, an Arab town whose population was forced into exile during the 1948 War of Independence (known to Palestinians as the Nakba, the Catastrophe). He interviews right-wing settlers and left-wing “peaceniks” to try and understand the post-1967 struggle between a Greater Israel and the efforts to bring an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. He examines the demographic changes that are transforming Israeli society: the huge influx of ex-Soviet Jews in the 1990s, the minority of Arab-Israelis and the fast-growing Ultra Orthodox community. He analyses the policy of nuclear opacity that allowed Israel to build a doomsday capability and yet avoided leveraging its existence even in the most dire of circumstances. And he describes the threats that Israel faces in the 21st century, among them a regional nuclear arms race, the so-called “Arab Spring”, the complex relationship with world Jewry and the troubling lack of sense of identity in the young generation.While I don’t necessarily agree with all of Shavit’s conclusions, I am awed by his phenomenal accomplishment. He succeeded to convey the complexity of Israel, past and present, in a coherent and comprehensive way, while trying to outline a vision for the future. Even as an Israeli, familiar with the story and the details, I found this to be a fascinating read.I also found myself wondering if non-Israelis would find Shavit’s book as comprehensible and evocative as I did. I will recommend it to some friends abroad and see what they say.