Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Reviews

• 
  Bonnie G.

  I almost did not listen to this because the cover blurbs come from Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro - short of including Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity I cannot think of two 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 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 (so this is a 4 1/2 rounded to a Goodreads 4) 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, get too little of when hearing and reading about Israel.
• 
  Erika Dreifus

  I wish that everyone would read this book.
• 
  Elyse Walters

  FABULOUS!!!!
  
  Noa has a refreshing funny bone….
  bathed in intelligence…
  with family stories,
  Israeli history, political and cultural storytelling flair….
  
  She’s unapologetically occasionally crass.
  Her unconventional purposeful theatrical causal writing style is ‘very’ entertaining
  
  A few of the topics ….
  Family, war, snow storms, refugees, nationhood, French military, Burning Man, racism, antisemitism, Kibbutzim, Jewish liberation, political circles, migration, etc. etc. — and most >
  her passionate activism.
  
  *Awesome* audiobook read by Noa Tishby!!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  James

  The first time I went to Israel as part of a Christian tour group, I came home with three regrets. I regretted first that I had not spent more time brushing up on my Old Testament history. I knew we were going to be walking where Jesus walked, but I didn’t think about walking where Abraham, and Joshua, and Saul, and David walked.
  
  Second, I regretted not knowing more about the Inter-testamental times— the 400 years of history between the Old and New Testament. I vaguely knew about the Maccabees, and the Hasmoneans, but it was all very fuzzy. Hence, Masada was awesome, but confusing.
  
  The third regret was not knowing squat about the non-religious history of Israel, both pre-1948 and, more importantly, the political realities that shape it today.
  
  I’m going back to Israel in 2022, so I’ve been working at rectifying these three regrets. I’ve read through the OT a couple of times. I’ve read about the Crusades, the Templars, and a wonderful book called Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I’m still looking for a digestible history of the Hasmoneans and the Maccabean revolt.
  
  And thanks to Noa Tishby’s amazing book, I can mark the third regret “resolved.” She writes in a witty, engaging way that is thoroughly accessible to a Western pop-culture junkie like me, but her Israeli bonafides are legit (served her two years in the IDF, spent her summers at a kibbutz in the Galilee, etc).
  
  What is most surprising to me as a conservative evangelical is that I’m supposed to really dislike her. She is unapologetically liberal. She is Hollywood west coast elite (an actress and executive producer for some well known HBO projects. For crying out loud, Bill Maher has a blurb on the front cover!!
  
  But for all of her wokeness, there is also a surprising amount of liberal soul searching. For example, on writing about the West Bank wall:
  
  “... in short, no one is happy. But suicide bombings in the cities stopped. And this is what is so frustrating about being a liberal in that neighborhood. We hate that this is happening to Palestinian families, but what are our options? What are we supposed to do? The violence had to stop (187).
  
  Or take this gem, from a thoroughly secular Israeli considering the role of religion in the peace process:
  
  “The answer may have been right in front of our eyes all along. Religion is a part of the problem in the region, but there may be a divine point of view that could be used to unlock the stalemate. I didn’t make this up, of course— as a secular Jew, how could I?”(164)
  
  “...Next time we have a peace talk, let’s consider bringing a rabbi and an imam to the table to help us find a way out, and not as the beginning of a joke” (166)
  
  She is even cautiously optimistic about the Trump peace plan, and she passes on the opportunity to throw shade on the former President in any way:
  
  “Jared Kushner designed the plan with strong economic incentives for the Palestinians. It’s not a bad idea. But the fact that the Palestinians have not been involved in that plan is a terrible one. The Trump administration did invite the Palestinians to come to the table over and over again, but they declined repeatedly...” (135).
  
  Did I mention BILL MAHER has a pull quote on the cover???
  
  In short, while there will undoubtedly be a few things that could be offensive to Christians in this book (her praise of Israel being a secular state, her casual dropping of a f-bomb here and there); there are a surprising number of things even the most red-hat wearing, MAGA loving, anti-liberal elite will agree with.
  
  And for anyone who wants more of a history of Israel than what they get from Sunday School, this book should be high on your list.
• 
  Jeffrey Yuhasz

  Where is the Noa Tishby fan club? I need to join immediately. Like being told the history of a nation by your best friend, Noa Tishby brings the epic story of a land, it's people, it's politics, and it's problems to life with both a matured sense of humor and a millennial's voice. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the country of Israel, a must read for anyone on a university campus, and, it's a book EVERY Jew must read!
• 
  Ruth

  This book was really needed and if I could give it 7 stars I would.
  
  I have been reading about Israel, Judaism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a while now trying to make sense of all the conflicting information (and I grew up in Israel and served in the IDF so if it wasn’t clear to me, trust me, all you keyboard justise warriors, it is not clear to you either no matter how many instagram posts or superficial articles you have read).
  
  Often what I got from the books I read was (somewhat aggressive) account from one side or the other. But, in this book, what I finally got what I needed - a clear timeline of events, who owned the land of Israel when (historically), who was given which parts to own (diplomatically), a historical account of all the agreements, wars and so, so much more.
  
  If this sounds dry let me assure you there is nothing dry or boring about this book. I listened to it on Audible narrated by the author and it was a great experience - funny, clear, informative and beyond interesting.
  
  Before arguing to one side or another read (or even better listen to) this book. The age of misinformation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must end here - lets have an informed conversation and move towards a better future together.
• 
  Mindy Taylor

  5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  
  Please please read this book! Israel is the most misunderstood country on earth IMO. There are so many conflicting opinions about Israel, but many of them are based on half truths or the biased main stream media. Before you take a stance on the conflict in Israel, do some due diligence and educate yourself on both sides of the issues.
  
  In order to understand the present state of Israel you must understand the past. Noa Tishby does an EXCELLENT job at summing up 5000 years of history. And doing so entertainingly and engagingly! I found the history parts interesting and I’d love to go back and reread it.
  
  I don’t pretend to understand the Middle East but I’d love to know more, and this book is a great place to start.
  
  Also, Tishby narrates the audible version of this book and does such a fantastic job! I would highly recommend listening to the audio version!
• 
  Ivan

  When it comes to Israel, we’d all be well-served by escaping the social media hot-takes and reading historically informed books like this one.
• 
  Stacey

  Noa Tishby is unapologetically pro-Israeli. Her book reads like she is sitting in a bar explaining her love of all things Israel.
• 
  Dave

  Noa Tishby’s book, Israel A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, is a top-notch, easy-to-read, well-researched, painstakingly-detailed guide to the history of modern Israel and does an excellent job of rebutting the bigoted lies of the BDS movement. Tishby and her publisher should have copies available on every college campus in the United States. It is a surprisingly well-written book, considering how plain the cover is and that Tishby is an known foremost as an actress and singer.
  
  She begins the story of Israel as you must with the undeniable fact that Israel is the ancestral home of the Jewish people and the only people who can date their inhabitance back over 2,500 years. There has only been one sovereign state on this land and only one indigenous people. Interestingly, she points out, that King Faisal originally welcomed Jewish independence and looked with “deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.” The Jews, of course, were not colonialist invaders like the British. And, zionism is nothing less than a movement of Jewish liberation, a movement to allow a people to self-govern in their ancestral homeland. “Not that complicated.”
  
  Significantly, she points out that “The Jews did not ‘take Palestine.'” The Ottomans had reduced the land to empty desert and stinking swampland. There was little there and the population had not grown in a hundred years from 1800 to 1900. The Jews were still a majority in Jerusalem and the Arab population did not increase until the 1920’s and 1930’s when Jews returning to their homeland made the desert bloom and started creating industries and jobs.
  
  Tishby then turns to the story of 1948, one where the United Nations partitioned Palestine (the name the Romans gave to the Jewish province) into two entities, one Jewish, one Arab, after the Brits had already chopped off 78% of the mandate and created Transjordan, a gift to their Hashemite allies. The Arabs turned down any deal as they have done repeatedly through the 2000’s and the armies of Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt invaded, calling on Arab residents to vacate “until the fighting had finished and every Jew killed.” It was a war of annihilation and genocide where the Arabs wanted a “final solution” to the Middle East. Egypt took the Gaza strip and Jordan the heartland of Judea and Samaria, renaming it the West Bank, a term never before in use, both illegally occupying the land.
  
  Today, the lie being spread -the slander- is that the Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from the land. Not true. As Tishby points out, those who stayed are full citizens of Israel, comprising twenty percent of the citizens, and being judges, doctors, and politicians. Those who left to allow a clear line of fire for their Arab armies left of their own volition- like many who fled war zones across the world. Then, the Arab countries used these people as political pawns, not giving them citizenship and settling them in camps for generations. At the same time, 850,000 Jews were forcibly expelled from Iraq, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, with nothing but the clothes on their backs after having dwelt in those lands from before the time of the Romans. They were resettled in Israel. “The Arab refugee problem was caused by a war of aggression, launched by the Arab states against Israel in 1948 and 1948. Let there be no mistake. If there had been no war against Israel, with its consequent harvest of bloodshed, misery, panic, and flight, there would be no problem of Arab refugees today,” Tishby explains. To add to the confusion, the UN labels as “refugees” as it has no done in any other conflict in the world subsequent generations and those who have Jordanian citizenship and even billionaires like the Hadids. The creation of an unending refugee problem has always been a political tool of aggression.
  
  The next point Tishby makes that is the world needs to understand that the conflict has always been between 22 Arab countries and Israel, not the Palestinians and Israel and any peace deal must encompass the entire Middle East.
  
  As to the borders after the Six-day War, it was land captured in a defensive war from countries who had no legal right to the land to begin with. Despite over and over offering up peace deals, Arafat and his allies have refused over and over again to sign an end to terror. No deal has ever been acceptable to them that does not include the annihilation of every Jew in the land. Without a peace deal in place, there will be endless war as evidenced by the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2006, following which Hamas, who are bent on establishing an Islamic Caliphate free from infidels lie the Jews, took over and used the next fifteen years to make war from terror tunnels, thousands of rockets, and grenade balloons. As Tishby points out, it is the Hamas terrorists who hold Gaza under siege and are preventing peace. The fools on college campuses who scream about breaking the blockade forget that the boats coming in are filled to the brink with weapons of war.
  
  Next, Tishby addresses the BDS movement on U.S. college campuses and tells the truth about this insidious movement- that it isn’t interested in peaceful coexistence, but a Jew-free Middle East. When they say they want freedom from the river to the sea, they mean without exception the annihilation of millions of Israelis. They, however, camouflage their evil with a series of lies such as that Arabs do not have equal rights in Israel and the slanderous Apartheid label- complete and total lies- spun to deceive. Their lies about murder, apartheid, and genocide are simply incompatible with any version of the truth and are turning gullible minds. BDS demonizes Israel and Jews with language of brutality and ethnic cleansing without telling the truth about a complicated history and ignoring the terror in the streets of Israel by suicide bombers and thousands of rockets fired from Gaza. Tishby writes, “The goal for every liberal should be peace, and to achieve that peace even more normalization and collaboration is required not less. BDS goes as far as boycotting peace itself.” She also points out that supporters of Hamas and BDS are often interchangeable and the organizations and individuals funding Hamas terror and BDS on campuses are often identical, although the money trail is quite complicated. While free speech is important, BDS intentionally lies and hides its pernicious terror agenda.
  
  Finally, Tishby explores why there is an obsession against Israel – it is because Israel is an easy punching bag, and the obsession deflects attention and energy away from the discussion of human rights in the world’s actual murderous regimes. And, people hate Israel because of anti-semitism and are simply uncomfortable with Jewish self-determination.
  
  All in all, a top-notch book that explains a complicated history in plain, easy-to understand language.
• 
  kglibrarian (Karin Greenberg)

  There are so many things I want to say about this remarkable book but the one that’s most likely to get people to read it is: THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL BOOK!!! With recent events causing horrible divisions among many who support the same ideals (peace, human rights, and justice), it’s understandable that readers gravitate toward information that will back up their beliefs.
  As a librarian I teach students to read laterally when doing research, which means if you want to get to the truth faster, you need to read articles and books from every angle, perspective, and medium. Instead of scrolling vertically on the same website, they should have many different tabs open so that they get facts from various sources and can backup their claims with evidence. The same goes for reading nonfiction books.
  Noa Tishby is a liberal woman who grew up in Israel and is not afraid to criticize their government. She is also a responsible researcher and goes to the primary sources when making claims about history or current political events. Her insights about Israel, the Middle East, and the world’s reactions to conflicts are intelligent, thought-provoking, and balanced.
  Written in a conversational tone and sprinkled with humor, personal anecdotes, and fascinating facts, Tishby’s book is the only history book I’ve read that I can call a page-turner. Not only did I enjoy every page, but I look forward to rereading it to process even further the wealth of information here.
  And if that’s not enough to convince you to read it, there are maps!!! And an appendix that sums everything up. And a glossary! This book is truly a gem.
• 
  Grant

  If you want an example of state propaganda/polemics then look no further than Noa's thin ahistorical look into Israel. It's basically one long version of George Costanza's "It's not a lie, if you believe it".
  
  Tishby spends her time ignoring the actual critiques of Israel and it's treatment of people not aligned with their zionism and attempts to justify murder, genocide, apartheid, forced removal of Arabs and starving people with thin arguments which twist definitions of words to delegitimize the other people of the land. Noa never really even mentions the fact that the US uses Israel to keep in line their oil interests in the area.
  
  If you want actual history of Israel then avoid this book, read Chomsky instead. Having been to Israel and having family who live there, I can attest to the brainwashing the Israeli people go through to dehumanise non-jewish people in the area and those who aren't sympathetic to their cause. It's similar to Southern Americans who get taught mistruths in history to justify terrible behaviour.
• 
  Zibby Owens

  The author talks about what she has learned during her decade-long career involved in pro-Israel activism, where anti-Semitic attacks originate from in America, and why it's important for everyone to educate themselves on the history of the hotly contested region. By not supporting Israel, especially progressives and liberals, we can destabilize the security of the United States. This book explains to people why we should care. This book will educate anyone - the Jewish community or non-Jewish community, who wants to know WHY Israel is so important. She pointed out that this is not an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's an Israeli-Arab world conflict.
  
  Part of the strategy is education and trying to dispel all the misperceptions out there. But this book is not about Jewishness. It's about American values. You don't have to be Jewish to support Israel. You have to understand the region and understand what the forces are, and see who supports your values, not who has a better meme.
  
  To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
  
  https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/noa...
• 
  Cav

  Israel was a well-written book. I enjoyed this one. An extremely contentious topic; the nation of Israel and a Jewish state in the Middle East is sure to garner polarizing opinions on both sides.
  
  Author
  Noa Tohar Tishby (Hebrew: נועה טוהר תשבי‎) is an Israeli actress, writer, producer and activist. She is a self-described Zionist.
  
  Noa Tishby:
  
  
  
  Tishby writes with an easy and engaging style here, making Israel a very readable book. I am very picky about this in any book I read, and my ratings are always heavily weighted to reflect this.
  The audiobook version I have is also read by the author, which is always a nice touch. Well done, again.
  
  The writing here begins with the author's backstory, in a bit more detail than necessary, IMO. Tishby became an actress and musician in her teenage years, and then moved from Israel to LA to pursue her acting career.
  
  On to the subject matter of the book proper; she soon digs in and lays out what could be considered a thesis for the book:
  

  "This may be a tough fact to swallow, but it is a fact nonetheless, so just take a deep breath and down a shot of tequila, if you must. Ready? Here goes. Over the course of recorded history, the land of Israel was a lot of things, but it was never a sovereign Palestine. There was never a state called Palestine, not there, not anywhere else on the planet. This doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a Palestine, but as of now, there just hasn’t been. There has only ever been one sovereign state on that particular land, and the only indigenous people to ever actually rule that sovereign state are the Jews.
  (To recap: before the modern-day establishment of the State of Israel, the land passed from the Kingdom of Israel to the Persians, the Greeks, the House of Hasmoneans [Hello, Hanukkah!], the Romans, the Byzantines, the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the Brits.)
  You would simply be factually incorrect to say that the land was ever an exclusively Palestinian state. In fact, no other nation that has controlled this land, excluding the Turks, the Jews, and the Brits (and possibly the Romans and the Greeks—depending on how you define things), is even around! All of them are gone—or ancient history!
  This point is particularly important in the recent debate, since so many people like to say stuff like “Israel has to give that land back!” To them I would like to say: “Give it back to whom, exactly? The Mamluks?”

  
  Tishby pulls no punches in her writing here; for better or worse. She mentions the somewhat paradoxical and hypocritical nature of many leftists who advocate for Palestine and Hamas:
  

  "So, yes, Gaza is indeed under siege. It is under siege by a terrorist Islamist organization that in its charter speaks of Jewish trees and aspirations for martyrdom, and whose religious doctrine is the earthly manifestation of rape culture and the legalization of violence against women, infidels, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. The people of Gaza do live in an open-air prison, and they deserve better. However, next time you meet a well-wishing activist who’s sailing on a boat to break a blockade put on Gaza by its two bordering nations, try to explain that their anger should be pointed in the exact opposite direction. From college campuses to political rallies, there are hundreds of do-gooders protesting against Israel, but where are the protests against Hamas, a group that is the real-life embodiment of exactly what they are protesting?
  Free Gaza indeed, I say, but free Gaza from its actual oppressor, not the perceived one. Free Gaza from Hamas..."

  
  Tishby writes that Israel is a secular, democratic state, in a region surrounded by oppressive religious theocracies that uphold staunchly anti-liberal values, societies, and laws. Indeed, a point often overlooked by many sympathetic to the Palestinian cause is that the Sharia law for which
  most Palestinian Arabs advocate for runs counter to almost every fundamental principle western progressives hold dear...
  She also mentions this old maxim, that many lefties in the west also ignore:
  “If the Arabs put down their weapons there will be no more war. If Israel puts down her weapons, there will be no more Israel.”
  
  Tishby takes a shot across the bow at these types many times here. Another quote:
  

  Activists from Baghdad to Berkeley to Brandeis are crying for sanctions and boycotts, effectively trying to stop Israel from helping the world and her neighbors advance in technology, healthcare, and agriculture, to stop Israelis from hiring Palestinians in Rawabi, and from helping traumatized Yazidi women.
  How is this helping anyone? Wouldn’t you be pissed?
  When you weigh the entire region and look at Israel’s unique freedoms (of religion, speech, gender, LGBTQ+ rights, etc.) and add to those what Israel gives the world and can also give to the entire the Middle East in tech, arts, sciences, and humanitarian aid and knowledge, it is really hard to understand why it sometimes feels like everyone wants to drag us down..."

  
  Some more of what is covered in here by Tishby includes:
  • Zionism
  • Wars between Israel and its Arabic neighbours
  •
  Kibbutz; its Marxist underpinnings
  • Jewish settlements
  • Hamas
  • The Gaza strip
  • The West Bank
  • Islamic terrorism
  • Sharia law
  • BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement)
  • Israel's humanitarian efforts; including medical treatment of Muslim Arabs
  • The disproportionate cultural, economic, and technological output of Israel
  • Antisemitism
  
  ******************
  
  Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth was a well-written, researched, and presented book. Tishby did a good job in conveying this hot-button topic to the reader in a straightforward and accessible format.
  Of course, if you are someone who holds staunchly anti-Israeli opinions, this one will likely not resonate with you.
  If I were to find fault with the writing here, I would note that Tishby mentions historical antisemitism many times throughout, but never provides the necessary historical context for this widespread sentiment. See
  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's
  Two Hundred Years Together for more on this.
  5 stars.
• 
  Rama Rao

  Israel’s resilience
  
  Over many centuries, the Jewish population have overcome incredible sacrifice to do inspirational things such as creating a nation of their own. They thrive against all odds. For them, survival isn't optional, it's a necessity. Israelis routinely carry on with their day-to-day lives not just when things are calm and peaceful but when rockets are launched at them, during conflicts and wars and unofficial waves of gruesome terrorism that precede wars. They not only survive, but they thrive.
  
  This is not a history book per se. But it is more of author’s story book, about her mother and grandparents. The author argues that over the course of recorded history, the land of Israel belonged Jews, Romans, and others but it was never a sovereign Palestine. Jewish people have built a state of their own on a piece of desert that was nearly uninhabitable, but they turned into a flourishing community of agriculture and booming economic growth, a foundation for the state Israel today.
  
  The author observes two potential problems in how the conflict with Israel is viewed by the larger Islamic world. The international community started paying for the protection of Arabs to a tune of $1.2 billion a year, and the United Nations help to perpetuate the problem. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provide crucial assistance such as food, education, and healthcare to 5.7 million Palestinian refugees. Children under UNRWA are taught antisemitic propaganda and encouraged for violence and martyrdom. For Palestinians, the best way to keep the war with Israel alive is to maintain a perpetual "refugee problem" under UN legitimacy, which maintains an international concept of "right of return. This has become a conflict of Israel with Islam that is mobilizing opinion against Jews across the globe and the continuation of attacks by terrorist proxies of Iran. Every time a peace process starts, the Islamic radicals resist the attempts. When Israelis send soldiers into Gaza or the West Bank to deal with terrorists, Palestinians are killed, and the cycle of violence continues, which is exactly what Iran, and its proxies are after.
  
  The second problem, the author points out is the "boycott Israel" movements that have become legitimate. Activists are crying for sanctions and boycotts, effectively stopping Israel from helping the world and Arab neighbors advance in technology, science, healthcare, and agriculture. When you weigh the entire region and look at Israel's unique freedoms (of religion, speech, gender, LGBTQ+ rights, etc.) it is hard to understand why it feels like everyone wants to drag Israel down. The reality is that once Golda Meir, the first prime minister of Israel said that "If the Arabs put down their weapons there will be no more war. If Israel puts down her weapons, there will be no more Israel.” This is precisely what much of Palestinians and the Islamic world is after.
  
• 
  Raymond Xu

  Too much zionist bias - calling Palestine not a actually state because they weren't very developed, and saying Israel deserves the land because they are good, developed people etc
• 
  Ibraheem

  This came as highly recommended and it did not disappoint.
  
  As the recent events sadly indicate the world is becoming less and less peaceful. The reality of Israel and the Arab world is complicated as AF and there is no way to get even semblence of a complete picture (even from one side) from reading one book. But as books go, this is one of the better one. This is an essential read for anyone trying to understand the contemporary Israeli perspective.
  
  I do not like singing praises because I really cannot do it well. So I will tell you where this book lacks. Noa Tishby comes from a politically influenital family connected intimately to the establishment of the State of Israel. So this is not a book from the perspective of Mizrahi, Israeli Arab, Haredi, Settlers or Druze. All these people are significant part of Israeli society and without reading their perspective, I do not think the story can be complete. However this probably gives a general idea and I learned a lot.
  
  Here is to reading more books.
  
  PS: I realized this is probably the most contemporary book I read.
  PPS: So it's not just the Brits who call their kids monkey!
  PPPS: After a good night's sleep, I figured out what has really been bothering me. How is it that the Arab world became so against the Zionists that in 1948 after the State of Israel was created they all decided to attack her? The Zionist pioneers didn't start by forcibly taking people's home or land. They came to Israel, found an underdeveloped country abandoned by it's landowners, bought abandoned lands and by their hard work made something of it. So there was no reason for animosity at the begining. What happend in fifty years?
• 
  AD

  A Simple Book About A Complicated Country
  Noa Tishby's attempt at demystifying one of the most complicated countries in the planet is okayish, not that great. The conversational tone laced with tongue-in-cheek humor works. The personal experiences of Noa and her family that are woven into the chapters are interesting.
  
  Since this book has a pro-Israel leaning, the author seems to have overlooked certain important issues like military aggression and war crimes among others. That said, she has appositely touched upon Jewish extremism in the region rather than glossing it over.
  
  From a historical and geopolitical perspective, this book has barely scratched the surface, yet the author deserves credit for condensing it into a concise and engaging format. For those of you who want to gain a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is not the right book since this is more ‘hasbara’ than an even-handed account.
• 
  Milly Cohen

  Íjoles, está buenísimo, super interesante, completo y complejo, lleno de datos increíbles, bien narrado y muy simpática ella (lo escucho en audio).
  Hay algo, no sé qué, que me atora solamente, y es totalmente estigmatizador, lo acepto.
  Ella es actriz, es hermosa, es joven, ¿cómo es que sabe tanto? ¿Alguien lo escribe por ella o lo hace ella sola?
  Muy mal de mi parte pero no sé por qué necesito que diga que la escritora es historiadora, profesora, doctora, no sé...
  
  Pero bueno, fuera de ese comentario (quizá estúpido) de mi parte, el libro es genial, interesante, emotivo, una buena exposición objetiva, sin bias, de lo que es Israel, aunque quién lo odie, igual le buscará los errores, las mentiras se las van a inventar, a como dé lugar.
  
  Un orgullo escucharla y saberse judío. Lo disfruté inmensamente.
  
• 
  Michelle Isherwood

  Excellent book on the history and current affairs in Israel. Noa Tishby made a dense subject accessible and interesting. She was able to intersperse her family's history with the country to add a personal perspective to the topic.
• 
  Gina

  Enlightening!!
• 
  Mikayla Laufer Stokes

  I deeply enjoyed the perspective of a millennial author and the voice Tishby gives to the nuances and complexities of Israel. An excellent and engaging tool for educating our youth about Israel!
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  Debbie Perry

  Incredibly informative! I listened to it and then bought the hard copy so I could reference. As a liberal Jew I do not feel supported but my fellow liberals or the right. This gave so many facts and explained why it is very difficult to separate anti semetism from anti Israel. I really hope more of my non Jewish friends (particularly those who think they they know where they stand on the conflict) read this book
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  Sophia Kruger

  Absolutely incredible. Recommend reading no matter knowledge level, background, religion, political views. Also, Noa Tishby is funny. You’ll be entertained.
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  Andrew Figueiredo

  I wish I had this wonderful book back in undergrad. This is a timely, funny-yet-serious book about Israel and its neighbors. Tishby dispels many myths, explaining the political, economic, and social history of Israel with her family's story woven in. She doesn't shy away from tough conversations like anti-Mizrahi racism or the role of the Haredim in Israeli society, which other authors sometimes gloss over. Her perspective is decidedly center-left, which makes her sympathetic to the Palestinian plight and cognizant that Israel has made mistakes before. I appreciated this level of nuance and it made me enjoy the book even more. It's essential to recognize the tragedy of so many peoples with a claim to a tiny parcel of land, something
  Yossi Klein Halevi has impressed on me. There are more difficult arguments Tishby could've done more to address, but I'm very happy to own a copy of this book and will definitely be citing it online.
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  Jennifer

  [Audiobook] I was excited for the opportunity to learn, but I was disappointed. I think the book was trying to be accessible and engaging, but I found it went too far toward flippant and sarcastic. I lived in Qatar for 5 years, so I’ve had one side of the story and I came here looking for the other. Some readers, myself included, might not understand the nuances or appreciate the humour on this serious topic. Sorry for being a buzzkill haha.