Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End

by Daniel Gordis

Book Overview

Is Israel worth saving, and if so, how do we secure its future?

The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else and whether they ought to persevere. Daniel Gordis is confident his fellow Jews can renew their faith in the cause, and in Saving Israel, he outlines how.2009...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470643900
• ISBN13: 9780470643907
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Lyrical beauty and heat-seeking clarity on the future of Israel

I have never felt compelled to write a review before. This shabbat I sat down to read this book. What a blessing it was that I had the opportunity to read it (I read it in two sittings). It was gripping. Gordis captured the need for the those in Israel (religious and non) to realize, and wrestle with, their Israeli Jewishness and see it as core to Israel's survival. It is no less important for American Jewry to understand this as well for the survival of Israel and the Jewish People. His chapters on the issues surrounding the Israeli Arabs were also sensitive and rightly difficult but also important for Israeli and American Jews to confront. As is typical of all of Daniel Gordis' works, it contains the lyrical beauty that is so unique to his writing. At the same time, he taps into the life condition of an Israeli that provides a vivid, touching perspective. Most importantly, he confronts the key issues of Israel today with heat-seeking clarity. I plan to buy many copies to give to my friends and associates, Jewish and non. I highly recommend you buy and read this book.

Compelling and very insightful!

Very well written and incredibly insightful, Gordis makes a very compelling case for Israel as an ethnic democracy in need of a stronger sense of purpose. It is not a "mini America", but a homeland for the Jewish people. Unlike any other ethnic group, Israel has been consistently singled out as a convenient scapecoat for all the world's ills and held to a higher standard than any other country. At long last the Jewish people have a homeland, and it must be kept secure, guided by its own moral compass and the realities of Middle East politics and fanaticism. I trust his book will have wide positive impact, both within Israel and the world of principled diplomacy.

The most important book on Israel this year

Daniel Gordis, an American immigrant to Israel who has come to feel the pulse of the nation and its critics through his life in the country and among the Diaspora presents a seminal and impassioned defense of the country calling for a renewal of hope in its meaning. Over the years other books such as The Case for Israel and Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars have attempted to fill this role. Others have examined military solutions to Israel's situation, such as Defending Israel: A Strategic Plan for Peace and Security and the need for national renewal (Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy. But Gordis goes one step further, blending analysis of the country's intellectual enemies, such as Tony Judt and Avraham Burg, and its internal and external threats. But the diagnosis that is most important is the explanation for national renewal in Israel and among Jews in the mission of Israel. The problem is that Israeli's are forgetting the dream of Zionism, not realizing that the danger to Israel is not 'merely' the loss of the West Bank, which many Israelis rarely visit anyway, but the loss of the country entirely. The threat is not just Iran but is psychological and emotion, both internal and external. Gordis' starting point is the Six Day War and the seeming might of Israel at the time. Gordis traces the decline of that might, although Israel's military remained powerful, the threat of the Civil Rights turned Terrorism movement of the Palestinians and especially Hamas and its allies such as Hizbullah have undermined Israel little by little. Gordis tackles the important question of how Israel can be both a Jewish and a Democratic state, acknowledging that "understandably trouble's Israel's Arabs." Gordis correctly notes the fallacy in arguing that a country cannot have ethnic and national-religious overtones. He could have gone further and noted other celebrated countries that do, such as Malaysia and Japan and how many European countries even enshrine and give special rights to national churches. Gordis concludes that "there is no alternative" and that Israel is not the U.S, it is not a secular polyglot nation, it is a Jewish state. There are several small flaws. The name of Burg's work which has now been published in English (The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From its Ashes) is written in Hebrew translation rather than its English name, there are two chapters on Israeli Arabs which are oddly non-consecutive and the author over-estimates the possibility that there might have been Civil War over Disengagement from Gaza. But these are tiny compared to the overall weight and importance of the text. Anyone interested in modern Israel and the future of Israel and the Jewish people should read this important work. Seth Frantzman

A profound book.

Saving Israel by Daniel Gordis is a profound book which should be read by anyone who is concerned about the future of Israel. The main thrust of his argument is that in order to survive and function as a 'Homeland for the Jewish people' Israel must strengthen its own sense of purpose as a Jewish State. In the face of constant criticism from the world community, many of whom question the country's right to exist, it is vital that Israelis and the Jewish Diaspora understand that their country cannot be exactly like any other; it is a unique country with unique accomplishments and problems. It cannot simply be a "mini America". Daniel Gordis offers a cogent analysis of the stalemate of the peace process and takes issue with the widely held view of many Jews today that somehow the 'default' Jewish position is a passive, non-military one. He argues that "When peace is not achievable, when enemies still seek to destroy the Jewish state and thereby to destroy the Jewish people, there is, sadly, no choice but to wage war". He doesn't advocate war as a strategy, but if the alternative is national suicide, it is both correct and inevitable. This will no doubt grate with the growing conventional western wisdom that all wars are essentially bad things (which sadly equates both the aggressor and the victim on the same subjective scale without acknowledging that there is an objective 'right and wrong') but given the inability of the UN to act to protect the legitimate interests of Israel and its population and the downright hostility of various nations to the State of Israel it is clear that an existential threat still exists to its existence. If this is the case it is only common sense to acknowledge the problem and prepare to deal with it. If unpopularity is the price to pay, so be it. Gordis advocates that the future of the country lies in a concerted effort to restore the primacy of Jewish content as a mainstay of the culture of the country and to restore faith in Israel's existence. He thinks and writes with great clarity about the problems that Israel faces today and offers a strong, coherent and insightful call to action.

required reading

My first thought as I was swept through page after page of this intense and chilling book was that it should be required reading for every Jew, every Israeli, every person who cares even the slightest about Middle Eastern politics. This book should be part of the compulsory curriculum for Jewish high school seniors both in America and in Israel. And it wouldn't hurt if a few key members of the State Department and Obama's foreign policy team read it as well. This book needs to be translated into Hebrew at the first possible moment because Israelis, more than anyone, need to confront the cold, hard truths that Daniel Gordis so eloquently lays out. Without apology, the author speaks of the reality that exists in Israel today in a way that few dare. The fact that he lives in Israel, is an insider, makes his premise all the more compelling. The suspicion that peace may be unattainable for many years to come, and the soul searching that is required of this lonely little democracy in order to confront that lack of peace, is much of what the book is about. The questions of what we are passing along to future generations, and the ability of these generations to be able to articulate why Israel deserves to exist, were the most thought-provoking chapters in the book. I think we are going to need to read and re-read this book over and over again in the coming years.