Noa Tishby

A flippant and defensive oversimplification of an incredibly complicated relationship. I really valued the history and the perspective in many ways, on the other hand, the "other people are worse," defense excuse doesn't justify the inhumane things that are happening in Israel and Palestine is inadequate at best. The TWO mentions of Arab political representation as a significant third party in Israel is unconvincing, akin to stating that the Green Party is impactful in the U.S. The narrative show more overlooks the displacement of Palestinians by Israeli settlements, disregarding the current inhabitants' rights and focusing exclusively on the Jewish connection to the land. My vast oversimplification: If horrific tragedy struck you and your family, that doesn't give you the right to go back to your ancestor's home (even if your neighbors say it's cool) and annex the people living there EVEN if you gave them a lot of money and a condo in the back. (Also, not saying Israel ought to up and leave at this point either, just that the original plan was poorly thought out.) Lastly, I wholeheartedly disagree with the anti-zionist definition that she provides, overlooking the possibility of supporting the Jewish community while critiquing the Israeli occupation. The world isn't black and white, it is psychedelic, glow-in-the-dark with glitter colorful, and topics such as this should be handled with a nuanced objectively reflective of the insanely complicated situation at hand. I look forward to reading Noam Chomsky's Gaza in Crisis and On Palestine to gain more perspective. show less

Brilliantly fascinating book that explains the complicated tiny country of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle-East. Tishby describes its complex history, its very diverse and opinionated people, the challenges it has and continues to face, its mistakes, and its disproportionate amount of successes compared to other countries.

Jews had lived in what is now called Israel 2,000 years ago. Between WWI and WWII, Jews slowly realized that to survive they needed a country, a refugee of their show more own. This is when the concept of Zionism starts. For too long Jews from Russia (and Poland) were severely discriminated against, suffered ongoing pogroms, and forced conscription into the military. Jews living in Europe had a significantly less painful time until German resentment after losing WWI allowed hitler to rave and rant that the Jews were to blame! Jewish life went downhill from there.

Jews loved the countries they were born in, worked in; they cared for their neighbors and friends. Their lives were productive and fulfilling. They weren't in a hurry to leave. But those who saw the writing on the wall, and wisely left BEFORE WWII were the lucky ones. 6M of those that stayed behind were killed, and those that did survive suffered unfathomable and immeasureable pain and loss.

Weaved into her portrayal of Israel is her family's personal and historic connection to Israel. Her grandparents were among those who fled Europe and became the pioneers and founders of Kibbutzim, working hard to create a country based on community, acceptance, family, and education. Noa's and her family's life stories are amazing and compelling.

Love this book. Taught me much I didn't know i.e. about UNRWA's exclusive committment to keeping Palestinians poor and angry at and mis-educated about Israel, and about the agenda behind the BDS movement, and how millennials BELIEVE in so much misinformation about Israel.

Must read for everyone!! show less

I almost did not listen to this because the cover blurbs come from Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro - short of including Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity I cannot think of any media people whose opinion I less want to be in accord with. But I picked it up anyway, and started listening a couple days before fighting recommenced in the West Bank, and I can already see that this book immediately altered the way I perceive the news coming out of Israel.

This is spectacularly informative and show more very entertaining. This is truly necessary reading for anyone (read NOT JUST JEWS) who wants to understand Israel's history and present. Tishby is incredibly good at boiling 5000 years of history down to their essence (because the history is essential to understanding the present) and in focusing on the settlement of Israel and the establishment of the Jewish state. I felt like I had an inadequate but halfway decent understanding of all of this from reading, visits to Israel, and talking to Israeli friends, students, and colleagues (the program I run is associated with an Israeli university, and I work with a number of Israeli academics, though they are a collection of physicists, computer scientists and entrepreneurs rather than historians). I was wrong. There is so much super relevant information I was unaware of and my enlightenment helps me understand things I previously simply did not get. It also helps guide me in doing more reading. This book is a great gateway, its not the end of the inquiry.

I took away a half star because although Tishby is somewhat even-handed in her consideration of the many moving parts here this is not unbiased. She gives the current Israeli government, Hamas, the Haredi and BDS the drubbing they all deserve. That said, she glosses over some very legitimate concerns with respect to Arabs within Israel and the West Bank who are not Israeli citizens. She also sticks to the line that being anti-Zionist is intrinsically anti-semetic, and there are some good arguments on the other side of that coin she ignores. That said, this is Tishby's book, and it is her lens. This book is unabashedly Zionist, but not hidebound -- she sees and acknowledges a good deal of the injustice and spreads the blame among many players. That is fine and good. This is also not a simple screed, supporting a position, its a proper history lesson and logical analysis, and that is something the world, and especially the US, gets too little of when hearing and reading about Israel. show less

Aimed squarely at the younger progressive crowd, who grew up inundated in anti-Israeli messaging on social media and on campus, Tishby tries to speak in their language in order to present a counter narrative that dispels the misinformation.
Obviously not intended to be comprehensive or scholarly, she generally does an excellent job of laying out the facts, and offering arguments to refute the unfair criticism and sheer ignorance that Israelis living abroad such as herself are subjected to on show more a daily basis.

It's certainly possible to nitpick with some of her arguments, but rejecting the whole book as illegitimate because of her pro-Israel bias is exactly the sort of prejudice that prompted her to write it in the first place.

Overall, one of the best introductions to the subject I've encountered so far, especially for people too young to remember the Oslo peace process in the 1990's, the resulting waves of terrorist attacks, or even Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, for whom Israeli has always been led by right-wing governments with no attempts at solutions in sight. show less