"A personal, spirited, and concise chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most fascinating countries in the world--Israel"--

This volume does more than catalogue the awful crimes of a terrorist, and Israel's search for a way to end his bloody reign - it authoritatively recounts the history of one of the central conflicts of our time, the Palestinian-Israeli struggle.

"The definitive biography of Golda Meir: the iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake-serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of Israel and one of the most notable women of our time"--

This 1996 edition of Yitzhak Rabin's memoirs, compiled after his death, has been expanded to include important addresses he delivered, additional photographs, and an analysis of the events that led up to his assassination

"Israeli statesman and former UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, presents a compelling vision of Israel's future as a major player on the global stage.In the Lion's Den is a book about the life events that encouraged Danny Danon to pursue his chosen career path and take his distinct and direct approach during his time as Knesset Member and later on in his political career. It is a book that tells the story of his journey to the United Nations and the key events that occurred during the five years he served as Israel's 17th Permanent Representative to the UN.In the Lion's Den draws on the unique perspective of a man who has spent his entire career in his nation's public service. Danon shares his experiences on the front lines of Israel's global presence--the successes as well as the disappointments. Danon makes a compelling case for an Israel that must be proud of its identity and faith; forge relationships with diverse peoples; make autonomous domestic decisions; and determine its own foreign policy.In this book, Danon lays out a roadmap for Israel's future on the regional and global stage and outlines the path Israel must follow in order to continue to make a positive contribution to global prosperity and peace and ensure its safety in a fraught region. As the Jewish state enters the next phase of its existence, Danon's inspiring vision will help Israel fulfill the noble vision of its founders."---amazon

The author traces his friendship with the philosopher and critic, Walter Benjamin, from their youth in Berlin to Benjamin's death in 1940 and includes selections from their letters

Twice Israel’s prime minister, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, bold leader in a war-torn region, Shimon Peres was one of the great statesmen of the modern world. Peres was also a fascinating, complex man–a brilliant intellectual who was entirely at home in the corridors of power; an individual revered by the world and yet highly controversial in his own country; at once a hero and a figure of tragedy. Now, in this definitive biography, Michael Bar-Zohar takes the full measure of a towering, enigmatic leader. Drawing on his decades-long association with Peres, as well as the full cooperation of the leader’s family, friends, supporters, and political rivals, Bar-Zohar has crafted a vibrant, daring, richly textured portrait of a man whose life and career span the entire history of Israel. Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to the Holy Land at the age of twelve, already a fiercely idealistic Zionist. Peres joined a kibbutz and, while still in his teens, became the leader of a major youth movement. When the struggle for Israeli independence broke out, future prime minister David Ben-Gurion tapped him to join his inner circle.As director general of the Defense Ministry under Ben-Gurion, Peres spearheaded a far-reaching campaign to turn Israel into a major military power. He jump-started Israel’s aircraft industry, forged a secret alliance with France, and successfully pursued his dream of making Israel a nuclear power. And yet Peres’s real triumph came not as a man of war but as a peacemaker.Elected prime minister in 1984, Peres brought new hope by pulling Israeli troops out of the quagmire in Lebanon, defusing tensions with Jordan, and, at the risk of his own political future, making serious overtures to the Palestinians. Peres and his longtime rival Yitzhak Rabin together secured the top-secret Oslo Accords of 1993, which won them and Yasser Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize–only to see the hope of peace shattered in a resurgence of regional violence.In a half-century of leadership, Peres has worked beside–or fought against–such giants as Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon, and, tragically, Rabin, who was slain at the rally that marked his reconciliation with Peres. In this stunning, courageously frank, and scrupulously factual biography, Michael Bar-Zohar gives an eminent man his due.

In Like Dreamers, acclaimed journalist Yossi Klein Halevi interweaves the stories of a group of 1967 paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem, tracing the history of Israel and the divergent ideologies shaping it from the Six-Day War to the present.

In 1966, Lesley Hazleton went to Israel for a two-week vacation - she discovered the seductive city of Jerusalem and stayed for thirteen years. During this time Hazleton, a British Jew, became a seasoned journalist, experienced the Six Days War, and made her first pilgrimage through the Old City to the Western Wall. She left Israel in 1979, but it was like ending a passionate love affair: Hazleton could not break the intense emotional times that bound her to Jerusalem, and she returned year after year. Jerusalem, Jerusalem is set during Hazleton's "farewell" visit in 1984, and it chronicles her own personal struggle to come to terms with what this troubled country means to her. Veering between the past and present, this poignant memoir traces the political and environmental changes that have transformed Israel since the Six Days War, and addresses the ever-growing conflict between religious and secular Jews. Lesley Hazleton explores the divisions of souls - Israel's and her own - as she paints an intimate, honest, and compelling portrait of a city living on the brink of war and peace.

A biography of the Israeli prime minister and world leader, emphasizing her early childhood and youth in Russia and America.

"In 1977, after serving as a leading activist for the democratic dissident movement in the Soviet Union, Natan Sharansky was arrested. He spent nine years as a political prisoner convicted of treason against the state. In fact Sharanksy was fighting for individual freedom in the face of overt tyranny, a struggle that would come to define the rest of his life. Written with frankness, affection, and humor, the book offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human struggle: to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong."--back cover

Biography of the Russian dissident whose campaigns in the Soviet Union on behalf of his fellow Jews resulted in his arrest and imprisonment in 1978. Reconstructing Shcharansky's nine-year ordeal against the Soviet system, the story illuminates his faith and determination as well as the unflagging efforts of his family and friends to secure his release and bring the plight of Russian Jews to world attention.

A first-person account by the Israeli agent who captured Hitler's chief executioner.

"Over more than five decades, legendary architect Moshe Safdie has built some of the world's most influential and memorable structures-from the 1967 modular housing scheme in Montreal known as "Habitat" and the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas and the Marina Bay Sands development and extraordinary Jewel Changi airport interior garden and waterfall in Singapore. For Safdie, the way a space functions is fundamental; he is deeply committed to architecture as a social force for good, believing that any challenge, including extreme population density and environmental distress, can be addressed with solutions that enhance community and uplift the human spirit. Safdie always refers to the "silent client" an architect must ultimately serve: the people who live, work in, or experience a building. If Walls Could Speak takes readers behind the veil of an essential yet mysterious profession to explain through Safdie's own experiences how an architect thinks and works-"from the spark of imagination through the design process, the model-making, the politics, the engineering, the materials." Relating memorable stories about what has inspired him-from childhoods in Israel and Montreal to the projects and personalities worldwide that have captured his imagination-Safdie reveals the complex interplay that underpins every project and his vision for the role architecture can and should play in society at large. Illustrated throughout with drawings, sketches, photographs, and documents from his firm's voluminous archives that illuminate his stories, If Walls Could Speak ends with a chapter outlining seven projects Safdie would pursue around the world if resources and will were no issue and the choices were his to make. A book like no other, If Walls Could Speak will forever change the way you look at and appreciate any built structure"--

At the age of 27, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan joined the world s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for daily page" of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about 600 years and the basis for all codes of Jewish law. A runner, a reader and a romantic, Kurshan adapted to its pace, attuned her ear to its poetry, and discovered her passions in its pages. She brought the Talmud with her wherever she went, studying in airplanes, supermarket lines, and over a plate of pasta at home, careful not to drip tomato sauce upon discussions about the sprinkling of blood on the Temple altar. By the time she completed the Talmud after seven and a half years, Kurshan was remarried with three young children. With each pregnancy, her Talmud sat perched atop her growing belly. This memoir is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments both for those already familiar with the text and for those who have never encountered it. For people of the book both Jewish and non-Jewish If All the Seas Were Ink is a celebration of learning through literature how to fall in love once again.

Presents a candid account of the prime minister's rise to power, focusing on his consolidation of Zionist fringe politics to gain a long-lasting foothold in Israeli government and examining his enduring influence on the region. --

Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983, principal figure of the Israeli right, co-author of the historic peace between Israel and Egypt, and arguably one of the principal figures in the history of the Jewish People in the 20th century, is carefully portrayed in this extraordinary biography by Harry Hurwitz, a trusted friend and compatriot. Begin the man, the elected leader of Israel, and by force of personality, character and ideas, one of the Israeli Prime Ministers who became a leader of the Jewish People, is what Hurwitz excels at revealing. Here is the story of Begin's life told with the insights of a journalist who was also a close friend of more than forty years. The struggle of Begin's life, his early attachment to the Zionist prophet Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, his life in Poland, his suffering during the Holocaust, and his leadership of the Irgun Zvai Leumi's revolt against British rule in Eretz Yisrael, is the well-told prelude to his thirty years as a leader of the opposition to Israel's Labor government. Especially rich in detailing the years of Begin's Premiership, the reader will be enthralled by the careful review of these six momentous years, and enriched by the opportunity to read many of Begin's most important speeches and statements. Hurwitz believes that Begin is best understood when he speaks for himself, and he skillfully weaves together a well paced biography with the public utterances of his subject. This biographical portrait succeeds in giving the reader a vivid sense of what motivated Menachem Begin to seek peace with Egypt, to demand much of the 'peace process' and to deal firmly with the enemies of Israel and the Jewish People. Though not a study of ideas, every reader will come away with an understanding of Begin's view of the world, the strategic needs of the State of Israel, the importance of democratic values in Israeli life, and his commitment to the security and continuity of the Jewish People. In the end the author's admiration for his subject is a case well made.