Impossible takes longer : 75 years after its creation, has Israel fulfilled its founders' dreams? / Daniel Gordis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordis, Daniel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Israel--History.

Israel.

Israel--Civilization.

Jews--Civilization.

Jews.

Arab-Israeli conflict.

Palestinian Arabs--Politics and government.

Palestinian Arabs.

Civilization.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxxvii, 345 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2023]

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface: A Jewish national liberation movement

Part I "I broke the bars of your yoke". Zionism transforms a nation

"We hereby declare" : first, existence

"We shall still see goodness" : healing Jewish heartbreak

"Grounded in our national culture" : restoring a nation

Part II "Must the sword devour forever?". Conflict and the Jewish state

"Lest the sword fall from our hands" : Jews defend themselves

"The day of vengeance will come" : wars with neighboring states

"Liberation" or "Nakba" : Palestinians, land, legitimacy

Part III "As envisioned by the prophets". The complicated care of Israel's democracy

"I'm for Jewish democracy" : ethnic democracy and its discontents

"Do what is just and right" : the "other in Israeli society

"A life of honest toil" : from food rationing to tech powerhouse

Part IV "The Jewish state" or "The state of the Jews"?. Jewish statehood, Jewish flourishing

"Trust in the rock of Israel" : Judaism in the state of the Jews

"From the four corners of the earth" : Israel and the diaspora

"The world shall fill with bounty" : Israel and humankind

Conclusion: "Half dust, half heaven".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-327) and index.

ISBN:

9780063239449

0063239442

OCLC:

1373992481