Product Description
The co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1994 offers a compelling vision of the future for the Middle East, in which he sees a reconstructed region free of past conflicts, allowing a social and economic revival, and provides a cogent analysis showing how this peace can be achieved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Well thought out dissertation
This book was written by Prime Minister Shimon Peres and published shortly after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord. With this sign or peace and hope, Mr. Peres wrote on what it would take to make the Middle East a new economic center. Where all lived in prospertity and peace.

His vision, which at this time has not progressed very far, is based on that of the European Communities. And the work involved at the end of WWII which brought them to the 1990's. Where the European "Economic " Community is today. But Mr. Peres explains that if all the countires of the middle east would work toward a common goal of peace and economic unity, that they could be a thriving, propserous community of the world within twenty years.

This book shows me that Israel was ready in 1993 to do what was required to make the whole Middle Eastern region prosperious for all the peoples, regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds. And that if reason would prevail, they were willing to help make this happen.

This book belongs in every major library. And should be read by any student of politics.

A vision that failed
Shimon Peres vision of a new Middle East did not come into being. The Oslo agreement for which he won the Nobel Prize turned out to be a terrible mistake. In this book he outlines his vision of a New Middle East one in which there is Peace, Prosperity , Cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Peres is to be credited for his love of peace, his strong desire to bring about a better world for all peoples of the Middle East. He is to be credited for trying to change a bitter reality in which Israel's Arab neighbors refuse to come to terms with its existence.
But his vision, and his boldness did not prove enough. The new Middle East he sketchily outlines pushed him and other Israelis to make concessions to the Arabs which only embittered the conflict. The Middle East nearly fifteeen years after Oslo was signed is now as violent a place as ever. More so. It is not simply the Israelis who are being attacked, but the whole region seems to be embroiled in a Shiite- Sunni conflict.
In Israel people say that Peres latter years devoted to a failing peace process 'shamed' his early years as a pioneer in promoting Israeli security.

The visionary as fool
How did the realistic visionary Shimon Peres turn into a self- deluded fool? How did one who for years had fought against Palestinian terror and knew the leaders of that terror well, suddenly come to believe that the terrorists would totally change their character and intention? How did Peres who lived all his adult life in the Middle East come to believe that the peoples of the Middle East, rooted in religious and social economic customs of centuries,would overnight change their character and become Northern Europeans?
The answers to this may have to do with the ambitious Peres understanding of just how tired the Israeli public is of war, and how much they long for peace?
The fact is however that the vision Peres set out in this book has twelve years later proven a fantasy and an illusion. The Arabs are still by and large mired in backwardness( Even their oil boon does not stop them but only leads them to more and more purchases of weapons). The campaign of terror including suicide- terror they launched in the wake of the failure of Oslo has taken by this time over a thousand Israeli lives.
The 'new Middle East' looks very much like the Old Middle East, only even worse in terms of fanaticism and Israel- hatred.
Peres should have retired long ago. But he is unbelievably still in the Israeli cabinet today, about to be again chosen leader of Israel's second major party, and even more eager than before to trust those Palestinians now accumulating more weapons in Gaza than they have ever had before.

Well thought out dissertation
This book was written by Prime Minister Shimon Peres and published shortly after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord. With this sign or peace and hope, Mr. Peres wrote on what it would take to make the Middle East a new economic center. Where all lived in prospertity and peace.

His vision, which at this time has not progressed very far, is based on that of the European Communities. And the work involved at the end of WWII which brought them to the 1990's. Where the European "Economic " Community is today. But Mr. Peres explains that if all the countires of the middle east would work toward a common goal of peace and economic unity, that they could be a thriving, propserous community of the world within twenty years.

This book shows me that Israel was ready in 1993 to do what was required to make the whole Middle Eastern region prosperious for all the peoples, regardless of ethnic or religious backgrounds. And that if reason would prevail, they were willing to help make this happen.

This book belongs in every major library. And should be read by any student of politics.

Sad End to a Pathetic Fantasy
I am writing this review shortly after the month of March 2002 in which over 130 Israelis were murdered as a result of the Palestinian suicide bomber attack.In all, over 400 have been killed since the terrorist onslaught began in September 2000,which means more Israelis have been killed since the Oslo "peace agreement" was signed than in the Six-Day War.Peres, like many Israelis of his generation received a Marxist education which said man's overriding impulse is economic.This book is based on that mistaken premise.Peres thought that since, in the West, globalized economics and communications would lead to a weakening of nationalism, religion and other "parochial" concerns and lead to a world in which consumerism is the leading concern, the Middle East would soon follow suit and both the Jews and Arabs would abandon their former identities. The atrocities of September 11, 2001 have brought many people to doubt this view of the world when it was discovered that the vast majority of the suicide terrorists who commandeered the aircraft came from middle class backgrounds in Saudi Arabia or Egypt.Obviously, enjoying the money they had or acquiring more was not their top priority. They were avid users of the internet which Peres thought would be one of the main engines for globalization.The terrorists and other extremists apparently used it, not for looking at "girlie" and rock video websites but for the propagation of hate.Peres thought that the Oslo accords, based on his same materialist premises, would bring peace to Israel, but as I have pointed out, the body count listed above has proven that to be a false hope.After several years of building some sort of economic infrastructure in the Palestinian-controlled areas, Arafat's war against Israel has brought devastation to his people, yet who, according to public opinion polls, overwhelmingly support his actions.It must be pointed out that Hitler brought great economic development to Germany (for example, building the great Autobahn network), but in the end, the Germans' support for his megalomaniacal bid for glory brought untold devastation to their nation.Thus, we see that irrational impulses in people ofter override their short-term economic interests.It is sad to see how a man who contributed so much to Israel over so many years and was one of Israel's best Prime Ministers in his first term from 1984-1986 fell into such a pit of delusion. ... Read more

Product Description
Twice Israel’s prime minister, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, bold leader in a war-torn region, Shimon Peres is one of the great statesmen of the modern world. Peres is also a fascinating, complex man–a brilliant intellectual who is 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. Still powerful in his eighties, Peres stands as a true hero, a visionary who embodies the history of his nation. In this stunning, courageously frank, and scrupulously factual biography, Michael Bar-Zohar gives an eminent man his due. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

"The Biography"
I was concerned when I saw the subtitle "The Biography" as though it were the definitive word on Shimon Peres.Peres--the Israeli "Mr Security", "the Energizer Peacemaker" who has picked himself up and returned to the arena so many times, and is now serving ably as President at the age of 84.How could you capture the wisdom and hope, the failings and mistakes of one of Israel's larger-than-life leaders?Amazingly, Michael Ben-Zohar with access to Peres, his friends and enemies, has made this a most readable page-turner and has captured a broad swath of Israeli history.Peres was present at the creation of the Jewish state, and has witnessed countless wars and many efforts at peace, sometimes when he was the architect.Yes, this is "The Biography" well worth reading, whether you are reliving this history or reading about it for the first time.Extraordinarily well done!

Peres and Bar-Zohar Commendations
Political leaders biographies written by friends are usually dull proproganda that omit many unfavorable facts. So I purchased SHIMON PERES with a lot of skepticism and trepidation. But the author Bar-Zohar has avoided this common mistake and in doing sohas proven the value and rewards for the reader.Peres agreeing not to involve himself in the work until completion combined with Bar-Zohar's well-documented, tireless research resulted in a work worth reading.Sometimes Iwinced as I read aboutPeres'
journey or groaned when I read about his actions and decisions.With dogged determinationthroughout his life, it is not a surprise that Peres would eventually become Israel's President. Entering Peres world did not endear this reader to him but increased myrespect for a man who is committed to the survival and strength of Israel. I applaud Peres for challenging Bar-Zohar to document his life and mostly Bar-Zohar for ferreting out the facts that informed and created Peres' life. This book is a timeless, honest contribution to political history that anyone--from a gardener to a president-- should read and addtotheir library.

The Most Hated Politician In Israel
People outside Israel are constantly amazed at how a man
with such a reputation as Shimon Peres has been defeated in
every secret-ballot election he has run in.The answer is
simple: whereas outside Israel, Peres has benefitted from the
well-oiled public relations campaign he has cultivated for
years by playing up to various writers, artists and, most
importantly, international financial barons, Israelis had to endure the
most horrific period of mass bloodshed, leading to THOUSANDS
of dead and wounded which Peres' inflicted on the country by
way of his disastrous Olso Agreements
with Arafat.
It was the murdered Yitzhak Rabin who described his perenniel
rival and sometimes partner, Shimon Peres, the best:
"the inveterate underminer" (quoted from Rabin's autobiography).
Peres is the quintessential politician who has no charisma
or ideas of his own (although he has tried to build and
image of himself as an "intellectual", statements he makes when
he has not been prepped by handlers show him to be woefully
ignorant), but who works hard, harder than any
of his rivals, and through endless intrigues,
makes sure to place people loyal to him in positions of
power and influence, so that when the time comes and he decides
to make his move for power, those who oppose him are strongarmed
(or worse) out of his way.
Peres played a major role in building Israel's defense establishment
and defense industries, and in addition served an outstanding
term as Prime Minister in the years 1984-1986, but this wasn't enough for his immense ego.
He wanted international recognition as a "statesman", and in
a world largely hostile to the idea of a "Jewish State", he
came to realize that true international approbriation comes NOT to Israelis
like Ben-Gurion, Eshkol or Golda Meir, who built up Israel, but rather
to those who begin to dismantle it. It truly galled him that his
Likud opposite number Menachem Begin won the so-called Nobel "Peace" Prize
for destroying Jewish communities in the Sinai and giving up Israel's only supply of oil to Sadat who had no intention of honoring his "Peace" agreement with Israel, so he decided to outdo Begin by bringing mass-murderer Yasser Arafat and his terrorist gangs to Israel, giving them money, weapons, and territory from which to attack Israel. Peres denounced
those who did not fall into his trap as "murderers of peace", "fascists", and the such. Peres managed to convince, bribe or threaten enough Knesset members to support this madness and got the Israeli government to carry out this suicidal policy. Sure enough, Arafat launched his long-awaited terrorist war in September 2000 and it has claimed, as I pointed out above,THOUSANDS of Israeli dead and wounded. Yet, in spite of this, there is not a single word of regret of remorse from Peres and he still sits near the pinnnacle of power.
Peres has lost, to the best of my knowledge, every single secret-ballot election (either to the Prime Ministership, Presidencyor the leadership of the Labor Party) he ever ran in where he was opposed by a serious candidate. However, in open votes, he fairs better because those who openly oppose him, often fall victim to police investigations, criminal proceedings (whether they are actually guilty of
anything is irrelevant), slander in the media or worse.
If you really are interested in finding out about Peres' influence on Israeli politics,
I strongly urge you to read Rabin's autobiography. That will give a much
clearer view of this man.

Author Michael Bar-Zohar does include criticism of Peres in the book,
but Bar-Zohar is a member of the veteran "MAPAI" (i.e. secular, formerly
Marxist/Socialist Ashkenazi) establishment and so he really is not
going to be objective, since his group wholeheartedly embraced
Peres' policy of importing terrorists to Israel and "de-Zionizing"
of the Jewish state.Thus, one should not expect all the truth, as I
have outlined it above, to come out of this book.

A remarkable man-a remarkable book
This book is a page turner which is no small feat for a biography. I learned so much about the man, Peres, and about his country. Between this book and Bar-Zohar's book on Ben Gurion, one gets a comprehensive and extremely readable history of the founding and history of Israel.
To say that Peres is a complex but fascinating man is an understatement. One minute you are cheering for him and the next scratching your head about his crazy ideas like the founding of a Jewish colony in French Guyana.
Early in his life Peres thought he would be content to be a farmer on a kibbutz. Fortunately for Israel, Ben Gurion recognized Peres unique visionary abilities and challenged him in multiple ways-to find weapons for Israel, first in France, then Germany; to build cities where none had been before, to build a nuclear reactor, and to build Israel's defense system from the ground up. Bar Zohar repeatedly refers to Peres as Mr. Security and documents how almost all of Peres choices and decisions have been motivated from that perspective. In contrast to his genious, Peres tendency to sabatoge himself politically makes one wonder what he could have done if he had been a master politician in addition to being a great stateman. In the end, one has to admire what this one man has done and will continue to do to for his homeland, Israel. The value of his contributions can not be overestimated.
This is a great book, one of the best that I have ever read. Bat Zohar is a meticulous historian and a great story teller. This book, Shimon Peres, is required reading for anyone interested in Israel, her leaders, and the history of the most important democracy in the Middle East.

Bar-Zohar Scores with Peres
This revealing, no holds barred biographic work is a tell all of one of the great statesmen of our time. Bar-Zohar presents it all and gets inside this very private persons life history. Reads like a novel but with documented facts and references.
Should be in every reader's library! ... Read more

Product Description
Based on his subject's private papers as well as his own eyewitness experience covering Israeli politics over two decades, the author has created a biography of Shimon Peres. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Met some expectations and fell short for others
I saw this book in a used book store for a dollar and decided might as well.I had been looking for some pre-revisionist histories of Israel and leading Israeli figures and assumed this would be perfect for that.In a lot of ways this book met my expectations, but in other ways it came up, surprisingly, short.

The book, as a pre-revisionist, history was just what I expected.It's very pro-Israel and tends to put a lot of blame on the Arabs and other nations for all the conflicts and the lack of successful peace negotiations.This was exactly what I wanted.I wanted the Israeli perspective, and I was interested primarily in the time before the organized peace movements really started to become a force.As far as that goes, the book was exactly what I wanted.

The other reason why I bought this particular work is because it was biography of Peres.A maninstrumental in the forming and guiding of the Israeli state.He is also one of the Israeli political figures I admire the most, so I was uniquely interested in his story.Now I realize this book was short and I certainly did not expect a detailed account of his life and political career, but with that said I found this book to be severely lacking in some key areas as a biography, hence the three stars.I was interested in how the pre-state violence affected Peres' perspective as regards Arab relations.The book offered nothing on this, and as for the Yom Kippur war this book covered this period in about six pages.I was quite astounded at the shallowness of the authors coverage of this period.A period so profound and life altering for Israelis and their state.These two examples could be further expounded upon, but I will just say these problems were endemic of this work.

As I said before I didn't expect the definitive biography of this man form such a short work, but I also didn't expect the book to skim over such large swaths of important areas either.If you are like me and are looking for a pre-revisionist, pro-labour history to get a quick perspective then give this book a go, but this book is really only relevant within those very narrow confines. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. on May 1, 1996. The length of the article is 1411 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres headed the development of Israel's nuclear weapons program and policy. Peres supported the use of nuclear weapons to achieve Israel's objectives in the late 1960s, but changed his position after the 1978 peace accord with Egypt.

Citation Details
Title: Peres: peacemaker, nuclear pioneer. (Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres)
Author: Avner Cohen
Publication: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 1996
Publisher: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Volume: v52Issue: n3Page: p16(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This is a story of momentous events and mighty nations, of the birth of great religions and of foreign conquests, of longing and renewal. In its entirety the story told here spans all of recorded history. It is a story of momentous events and mighty nations, of the birth of great religions and of foreign conquests, of longing and renewal. The scholars who have produced this work have woven an engrossing, continuous narrative out of the historical materials, presenting a rich array of peoples and cultures, from the ancient Hebrews and their neighbours down to the time of Jesus and the Roman wars and then on through the Arab and Crusader conquests, the Mameluk domination, the long period of Turkish rule, British mandate, and the rebirth of Israel. An integral part of the story is the magnificent selection of photographs illustrating the land, its sites, its ruins, and its treasures. This expanded millennium edition of A History of Israel and the Holy Land takes the story into the twenty-first century with a new and comprehensive survey of the State of Israel from its establishment to the present day.The new material includes a review of political, economic, and social developments in Israel and summaries of the country's wars and the peace process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An amazing magic trick
This book is pretty much an official Zionist version of the history of the area as one will find. It has a forward by one of the high ranking members of the zionist brigrade - Shimon Peres.

Several things surprised me about the book :

1) How much of the history of this land seems to be taken from the Old Testament! Where is the verification of any of these supposed facts? What about critical analysis of the Old Testament? Perhaps the authors had axes to grind. This leads onto point 2)

2) How little verifiable data there is on the land from these times. Despite this one still can realise point 3)

3) The mulitcultural nature of the Holy Land throughout time.

The book also seems to imply that in the Roman era the Jews were only thrown out of Jerusalem and not the entire Holy Land. Before reading the book, I had had the impression that the Jews had been the only people, almost without exclusion, living in the Holy Land from antiquity to year O. How wrong I was!

Of note for Muslims are the evidences given that early in the Islamic era Muslims would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which is interesting given the discussion over Bekka (Mecca is not mentioned as the place of pilgrimage in the Quran, Bekka is)

The book does an amazing magic trick at the end where it makes the Arabs disappear and replaces them with 'Israelis'. This leads to the happy ending where everyone lives happily ever after. ... Read more

Product Description

One of the greatest recent moments in the annals of peace during a century deeply marred by war and its atrocities was the handshake between longtime enemies Yitzak Rabin and Yassir Arafat in Washington, D.C., in 1993. Signifying a new era for the Middle East, the handshake was the public culmination of painstaking negotiations carried out by Shimon Peres, then Foreign Minister of Israel, and Palestinian representatives in Oslo, Norway. For their efforts, Rabin, Peres, and Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

May, 1998, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Israel. For the Future of Israel reveals the character of a leader who participated in the birth of his country and whose thoughts remain ever on the future--on the basis and prospects for peace. In five conversations with novelist and former Newsweek correspondent Robert Littell, Peres reflects on his youth in shtetl and kibbutz, the impact of the Holocaust on world affairs, what it means to be a Jew, and the ongoing struggle to end terrorism and forge peace between Israel and its neighbors. Completed in late 1996 and 1997, the interviews reflect the changed state of Israel since the assassination of Yitzak Rabin (after which Peres was named Prime Minister and Defense Minister) and the subsequent election of a Likud-led government in Israel and its renegotiation of aspects of the Oslo agreements.

Peres speaks candidly of his negotiations with Arafat and of his close, complementary relationship with Rabin. Ranging widely over the last fifty years, he ponders the effect of the occupation of the territories on the character of his country. He gives his views on public figures he has known (among them Ben Gurion, Mitterand, Reagan, Netanyahu, Yeltsin, and Clinton), the qualities of good leadership, and the dangers of fundamentalism and religious parties. He describes his approach to negotiations, one that sharply contrasts with those who believe that the terms of peace must be dictated: "To achieve peace, you cannot impose your position or any position--you have to urge parties to come to a position."He conveys his belief that the future of peace for Israel lies in replacing the unifying force of war with the unifying strength of a constitution and ethics.

This book is Peres' testament to the highest qualities of Israel and a thorough presentation of his deeply considered views on what must be done to preserve the country's spiritual and political aspirations.

Customer Reviews (5)

The Man Who Abandoned Zionism
Israel is too small for Shimon Peres.As a young man, he assiduously
read the works of Leon Trotsky, as he says in his memoirs.Trotksy's distorted Marxist view of reality has stayed with Peres his entire career.Trotsky was only interested in "world revolution", making everybody the same, and Trotsky would define what the "same" would be and use force to impose it. Thus Peres reveres the song of John Lennon "Imagine" in which talks about a world without nations or religions, and I presume Peres and Lennon would then force all of us to believe in what they believe in also, even if we don't want to.Peres retains the Marxist philosophy that man's primary motivation is economicswhich leads him to make his silly statement in his book "The New Middle East"-"in the modern world all people care about is money and internet"-although we see that the Muslim extremists and their supporters don't seem to think the way Peres does.In any event, there is no place for the Jews or Zionism in his scheme of things.When Peres and Rabin made their Nobel Prize speeches, they made them in English, although the custom for everyone else who shows pride in their country and culture is to make it in their native language, as did their "friend and partner" Arafat.Obviously Judaism, the Hebrew language and Zionism are embarrassments to him.Fortunately, the people of Israel have had their say by reducing the number of seats the party he has had a stranglehold over for almost the last 30 years from 44 down to 19.Thus, the reader interestedin seeing the way Israel is going in the future had better look elsewhere than this cliche-filled, "politically correct" book.

For the Future ofthe World
The fascinating thing about Shimon Peres is his sheer stamina. At 78 he still wants to be Prime Miniater!

He is criticised for being a dreamer but he is a diplomat politician statesman as well.

We need optimists and realists right now and he is both otherwise Sharon would not have him in his government.

Robert Littell is the perfect foil to Mr Peres and I would describe this book as a work of art.It is also jounalism at its highest and I cannot commend it too much

the modern HERZEL of this century
great book,intended for the future of our great great children

the modern HERZEL of this century
great book,intended for the future of our great great children

Is this for real?
I read this book and I think that the author lives in a dream land! Wake up! ... Read more

Product Description
This book tells of the life of an extraordinary world statesman whose involvement with Israel ranges from the formation of the state through to the historic Washington peace accord. A refugee from eastern Europe, Peres reached office whilst still in his twenties as the state of Israel was born. As defence minister after the 1973 war he rebuilt Israel's army and architected the Entebbe raid. As prime minister in the 1980s he saved the economy from near-collapse. Latterly he has been central to the peace negotiations in Oslo and elsewhere. In addition to peace revelations, the book contains other controversial material including an account of the Dimona atomic energy project. His memoir gives first-hand accounts of history in the making and the people who shaped it. ... Read more

Product Description
The Imaginary Voyage brings together Shimon Peres, Israel's Nobel Prize-winning statesman, and Theodor Herzl, the visionary founder of Zionism. Despite the decades that separate them, they are united with astounding literary and historical effect. Together they embark on a journey across the land they hold in common, comparing Herzl's century-old vision with today's reality. From the teeming streets of Tel Aviv, to the storied walls of Jerusalem; from Gueva Kibbutz to the Sea of Tiberius; from Masada to the Negev, their voyage illuminates all that has changed in this most remarkable land during the twentieth century, and all that has endured.

"Today, as yesterday and tomorrow, dreams are the well-spring of our national life. Israel is the only place in the world where the present constantly interacts with the past and the future, where reality can only be understood through the imaginary."-Shimon Peres

"Peres has closely read and keenly analyzed Herzl's writings, and he cites them to show how the Zionist leader both perceived and misperceived the Jewish state-to-be."-The Washington Post Book World

Shimon Peres was born in Poland and emigrated to Israel in 1934. He was prime minister from 1984 to 1986, and again from 1995 to 1996. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his part in crafting the Oslo peace accords. He is the author of For the Future of Israel, Battling for Peace, and The New Middle East. He lives in Tel Aviv.

Chapter 4: Generations

Everything about today's Israelis took Herzl by surprise, beginning with their name - "Israelis." Herzl was a visionary genius about some matters but extraordinarily cautious about others, and one was assigning a name to the future inhabitants of the Jewish state. In Old-New Land, he calls Israel the "New Society," a name everyone will agree is stunningly bland. I can just imagine today's customs officials examining a "New Society" passport and trying to figure out where on earth the bearer might be from.

David Ben-Gurion gave the new state being created the name "Israel" rather than "New Society." "Israel" reminded the world that this new country was not being formed ex nihilo; it symbolized the renaiAmazon.com Review
Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres combines history, memoir, and fiction in an "imaginary voyage" through 20th-century Israel with the 19th-century founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. "Only the narrow-minded and unimaginative will find this premise off-putting or surprising," Peres explains. "Everyone else has long known that in our country the impossible is a way of life." This make-believe tour includes a brief description of the Holocaust for a man who initially would have disbelieved it, plus vignettes of life in the Jewish nation-state ("I had no idea whether Herzl would appreciate the pleasure of today's Tel Aviv nightlife. I had a hard time picturing him dancing to some disc jockey's rock 'n' roll, or taking part in a rave on one of the converted docks at Jaffa"). Peres also uses Herzl as a tool for projecting some of his own views on contemporary Israeli politics: "[Herzl] sternly disapproved of the role religious parties play in governing Israel today.... I am concerned about the growing schism between the religious and the secular factions in Israel. The former, to be quite honest, have proven themselves far more vindictive than the latter. If we are not careful, this latent conflict could divide Israel and Israeli society, and encourage intolerance and discourage progress." The Imaginary Voyage is a quickly read tale full of charming idiosyncrasies and edgy political observations. --John J. Miller ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Comparing visions
Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize winner and a former prime minister of Israel, finds a way to examine how far Israel has come in a half-century by conducting an imaginary tour ofthe Holy Land for Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism. While the prose is hardly exotic, Peres does offer some keen and thought-provoking analysis. The book is recommended for readers with an interest in modern Israel.

Two Visionaries, Different Eras
Peres takes Herzl on an imaginary tour through Israel, a century after Herzl's first visit to Palestine.The author makes astute observations about Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the spectacular changes these and othercities in Israel have undergone throughout the years.

Peres evaluatesthe predictions made by Herzl in his utopian novel, Old-New Land, in lightof present-day realities.Of course, some of them were totally off-base,but others are amazingly prescient.And, in discussing the character ofthe Jewish state and how it ought to deal with its neighbors, Peres quotesextensively from Herzl's writings and the works of other Zionist thinkers(e.g., Ahad Ha'am).

Despite the mediocre editing job, there is plentyof keen insight on issues ranging from cultural/religious/ethnic diversityto the water problem in the Middle East that make this book a good read. ... Read more

Product Description
Look at the faces. Listen to the words. These are the people who helped form the state of Israel. Shalom Masswari speaks nonchalantly of self-induced starvation, undertaken to make himself small enough to be smuggled out of prison in a suitcase. Zelieg Goen stands beside the bicycle he used to traffic a basket of Molotov cocktails across Arab war zone. Eliahu Shavit crouches above the Jerusalem sewer holes he once crawled through as a saboteur, planting bombs. Munio Brandwein gazes at the olive trees he planted where three friends lost their lives.

In Testament, American photographer and journalist Aaron Levin heralds the men and women behind the founding of Israel on its 50th anniversary. Transcribed from Hebrew, the essays that accompany each portrait in Testament tell of the extraordinary events that transformed everyday lives. Along with soldiers, civilians, and kibbutzniks who contributed to the independence movement, there are photos and first-person recollections of such prominent Israelis as former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Nobel Peace Prizewinner Shimon Peres, and the recently deceased former president of Israel and ambassador to the United Nations Chaim Herzog.

Introduction by Shimon Peres. American photojournalist Aaron Levin heralds the men and women behind the founding of Israel on its fiftieth anniversary.Amazon.com Review
Israel's story is etched in the faces of the men and women whoas soldiers, farmers, nurses, teachers, and settlers wrested Palestinefrom Great Britain to create the state of Israel and have defended itever since. Their tale is primarily one of war--with the British, toemancipate the state; with the land, to reap a harvest from the barrendesert; with their neighbors, many of whom also consider the areatheir home. On the occasion of Israel's 50th anniversary, photographerAaron Levin photographed Israelis at locations that were important tothem during the struggle for independence and for peace. Theblack-and-white portraits complement snapshots of the subjects takendecades earlier at the same spot: Shlomo Hillel sits in an undergroundammunition factory he helped build beneath a bakery in Rehovot; AhuvaDunayevsky poses with a cat on the balcony from which she signaledincoming supply planes during the siege of Jerusalem; the late ChaimHerzog, a president of Israel, stands along the path he designed tosmuggle supplies into the capitol; Leah Rabin sits in her office,framed by a photo of her slain husband. Each of these people shares amemory to accompany his or her portrait, but their faces, lined withexperience, express much more than any words can convey. As ShimonPeres writes in the introduction to Testament: "AaronLevin's photographs put a face on history, preserving forever thepersonalities who in manners great and small founded the state ofIsrael. The portraits speak for themselves." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

very informative book about Israel
Apparently there are some extraordinarily ignorant people who think that the State of Israel is a racist, horrible, etc. country that has no reason to exist. However, there are some decent and good people who think otherwise. This book proves that point. It shows the hardships and travails that the Jewish people had to overcome in order to become the peace-loving nation that it is. In general, it is a excellent book to have on your bookshelf.

Highly recommended reading for students of Israeli history
Testament: At The Creation Of The State Of Israel looks back along 50 years of history to the founding of the modern state of Israel as told by those who were there and eyewitness participants. An informative introduction by Simon Peers is followed by photographic portraits, informative profiles, and anecdotal reminiscences of Simon Peers, Yitzhak Shamir, Chaim Herzog, Yetzhak Navon, Teddy Kollek, Ephraim Katzir, Leah Rabin, Rachel Rabin-Jacob, Haim Cohn, Amos Ben-Gurion, Rivka Eliav, A.B. Yehoshua, Haim Gouri, Amox Oz, Haim Hefer, Shoshana Damari, Yizhar Smilansky, Yafi Dayan, Yoram Kantuk, and "Brin" Adan. Testament is highly recommended reading for students of Israeli history and a fitting memorial to the sacrifices and accomplishments that resulted in the creation of a nation dedicated as a place of homecoming birthright for Jews everywhere in the world.

A horrendous book!
I found this book to be an extremely dishonest portrayal of Israeli history.Let's stop making heroes out of these Zionist colonizers.The reader would do far better to read an honest work like "The Holocaust Industry" by Norman Finkelstein.As a Jew I'm offended by the whole rotten history of Zionist ideology.Our great religion calls for "tikkun olam"--the healing of the world! This great compassionate and humanistic teaching is inherently contradictory with Zionism, which is pure and utter racism.Zionism is is also simply just a replay of European colonialism in a thinly veiled disguise.How can we practice "tikkun olam" while we savagely repress the legitimate rights of the Palestinians to their national aspirations and their land?Let's stop making heroes out of generals and thugs.The Zionists and the extremist Islamic groups like Hamas are their own best company.

This is The Testament
This book quite vividly portays israel in its birth.It is told in the eyes of the Israeli people , it surely can be a testament to all ,about the sacrifice and passion that concieved the Creation ... Read more

Product Description
Certain to fascinate anyone intrigued about the future of the Middle East, these revealing memoirs of Shimon Peres, former Israeli Minister of Defense and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, tell of his relationships with Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and others whom he encountered during his amazing career. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Better To Read What Rabin Said About Peres...
It was the murdered Yitzhak Rabin who described his perenniel
rival and sometimes partner, Shimon Peres, the best:
"the inveterate underminer" (quoted from Rabin's autobiography).
Peres is the quientessential politician who has no charisma
or ideas of his own, but who works hard, harder than any
of his rivals,and through endless intrigues,
makes sure to place people loyal to him in positions of
power and influence, so that when the time comes and he decides
to make his move for power, those who oppose him are strongarmed
(or worse) out of his way.
Peres played a major role in building Israel's defense establishment
and defense industries, and in addition served an outstanding
term as Prime Minister in the years 1984-1986, but this wasn't enough for his immense ego.
He wanted international recognition as a "statesman", and in
a world largely hostile to the idea of a "Jewish State", he
came to realize that true international approbriation comes NOT to Israelis
like Ben-Gurion, Eshkol or Golda Meir, who built up Israel, but rather
to those who begin to dismantle it.It truly galled him that his
Likud opposite number Menachem Begin won the so-called Nobel "Peace" Prize
for destroying Jewish communities in the Sinai and giving up Israel's only supply of oil to Sadat who had no intention of honoring his "Peace" agreement with Israel, so he decided to outdo Begin by bringing mass-murderer Yasser Arafat and his terrorist gangs to Israel, giving them money, weapons, and territory from which to attack Israel. Peres denounced
those who did not fall into his trap as "murderers of peace", "fascists", and the such.Peres managed to convince, bribe or threaten enough Knesset members to support this madness and got the Israeli government to carry out this suicidal policy. Sure enough, Arafat launched his long-awaited terrorist war in September 2000 and it has claimed THOUSANDS of Israeli dead and wounded. Yet, in spite of this, there is not a single word of regret of remorse from Peres and he still sits near the pinnnacle of power.
Peres has lost, to the best of my knowledge, every single secret-ballot election (either to the Knesset or the leadership of the Labor Party) he ever ran in where he was opposed by a serious candidate.However, in open votes, he fairs better because those who openly oppose him, often fall victim to police investigations, criminal proceedings (whether they are actually guilty of
anything is irrelevant), slander in the media or worse.
If you really are interested in finding out about Peres' influence on Israeli politics,
I strongly urge you to read Rabin's autobiography. That will give a much
clearer view of this man.

Battling for Credibility
Is Israel's perennial loser perhaps a winner after all? It is said that people take comfort from the setbacks of others and after his failure to win any election making him PM it would be easy to write off Shimon Peres.

His autobiography "Battling for Peace" shows how a very ambitious politician uses reverses to strengthen his political backbone.

Peres describes his early childhood in Poland, his emigration to Palestine and his political progress which started even while he was on a Kibbutz.

Peres has been at the core of world politics for half a century and has met all other leaders of significance and his pen portraits especially of Mitterand Nixon and Clinton are most entertaining.

The Olso process is reported in detail and this book is a must for anybody who wishes to acquaint temselves with the twisting currents of events in the Middle East.

The book is obviously only an interim Report as it predates Rabins assassination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ben-Gurion, Eshkol, Berl Katzelnelson, Ernst Bergmann, Natan Alterman, , Yonathan Netanyahu
These portraits are of seven people , each of whom contributed in his own way to the building of modern Israel. Ben- Gurion, the great leader who declared the state and did more than any other person to bring it into being, Eshkol, the Labor leader who hesitated but led Israel to its Six- Day War victory, Bergmann who contributed to Israel's scientific and military prowess, Alterman the great poet - defender of the State, and Yoni Netanyahu, hero of Entebbe, a courageous soldier who gave his life in a dramatic military rescue operation.
A wonderful collection of portraits, clearly and ably written. ... Read more

Product Description
In this groundbreaking new guide to building peace, international ambassador Uri Savir exposes the deadly ironies and anachronisms in contemporary efforts to solve global conflicts, and presents a radical new model for modernizing our efforts to build real and lasting peace, from the ground up. Peace First draws on Savir's own deep, first-hand experiences from the Oslo Peace Process, as well as his peace-building efforts between enemies and former enemies in the African nations of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, the European regions of Northern Ireland and the Former Yugoslavia, and in Asia -- Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Finally an international relations book offering practical recommendations!
Setting it apart from most books in its category, Peace First offers practical recommendations on how to build a viable culture of peace and the importance of doing so much before war becomes a threat. Savir's presentation of a new approach to international relations - glocalization, which empowers local governments to bring the peace process to the people the way national government just cannot - leaves you with the feeling that there is hope for a more peaceful future. Equally important, Savir's thorough yet concise examination of peace provides a solid foundation for his arguments while examples from his experience in peacemaking in the Middle East make the book a must-read.

Pragmatic optimism
Written in an engaging and accessible style, this book should be read by policy makers, politicians, corporate executives, non-profit workers, and anyone who believes that a more peaceful world is both possible and necessary. Despite my approach as a layman in the world of peace and conflict studies and international relations, I found this book incredibly compelling--as much for Savir's earnestness as for his practical peacemaking model. Savir is a true peacemaker and diplomat, and Peace First perfectly captures his unwavering dedication to cultural understanding and compassion. I highly recommend this book to anyone needing a dose of pragmatic optimism in troubling times. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a story of momentous events and mighty nations, of the birth of great religions and of foreign conquests, of longing and renewal. In its entirety the story told here spans all of recorded history. It is a story of momentous events and mighty nations, of the birth of great religions and of foreign conquests, of longing and renewal. The scholars who have produced this work have woven an engrossing, continuous narrative out of the historical materials, presenting a rich array of peoples and cultures, from the ancient Hebrews and their neighbours down to the time of Jesus and the Roman wars and then on through the Arab and Crusader conquests, the Mameluk domination, the long period of Turkish rule, British mandate, and the rebirth of Israel. An integral part of the story is the magnificent selection of photographs illustrating the land, its sites, its ruins, and its treasures. This expanded millennium edition of A History of Israel and the Holy Land takes the story into the twenty-first century with a new and comprehensive survey of the State of Israel from its establishment to the present day.The new material includes a review of political, economic, and social developments in Israel and summaries of the country's wars and the peace process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An amazing magic trick
This book is pretty much an official Zionist version of the history of the area as one will find. It has a forward by one of the high ranking members of the zionist brigrade - Shimon Peres.

Several things surprised me about the book :

1) How much of the history of this land seems to be taken from the Old Testament! Where is the verification of any of these supposed facts? What about critical analysis of the Old Testament? Perhaps the authors had axes to grind. This leads onto point 2)

2) How little verifiable data there is on the land from these times. Despite this one still can realise point 3)

3) The mulitcultural nature of the Holy Land throughout time.

The book also seems to imply that in the Roman era the Jews were only thrown out of Jerusalem and not the entire Holy Land. Before reading the book, I had had the impression that the Jews had been the only people, almost without exclusion, living in the Holy Land from antiquity to year O. How wrong I was!

Of note for Muslims are the evidences given that early in the Islamic era Muslims would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which is interesting given the discussion over Bekka (Mecca is not mentioned as the place of pilgrimage in the Quran, Bekka is)

The book does an amazing magic trick at the end where it makes the Arabs disappear and replaces them with 'Israelis'. This leads to the happy ending where everyone lives happily ever after. ... Read more

Product Description
By the beloved director of the Jerusalem International Book Fair, this moving memoir follows the author's life from his Lithuanian childhood to the death camps in Dachau, and his years after the liberation, helping to build the State of Israel.Persuaded by a legion of adoring international book editors and publishers around the world to write his account of the Holocaust, Zev Birger describes in this riveting, ultimately uplifting story how his idyllic childhood in a Zionist family in Kovno, Lithuania, was destroyed-first by the Soviet invasion in 1940, then by the German occupation-and hissubsequent deportation to the ghetto. In powerful, simple prose, he portrays his family's efforts to survive there, which ended in their discovery by the SS in a cellar hideaway as gunfire sounded from the approaching front. His family was separated and deported to the Dachau concentration camp, where Birger was forced into heavy labor in an underground arms factory. The only survivor in his family, he was brought to an American-run army hospital after the liberation, where he was so emaciated he was given up for dead. He rallied against all odds and went on to help Jews establish themselves in Israel, where he played an active role in the construction of the Israeli state, especially in building the book publishing and film production industries within the country, and bringing them recognition throughout the world. Originally published in Germany in 1997 by Luchterhand jointly with eight other German publishers, this is the first English-language edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An inspiring man, a powerful story.
It's a short book, but Zev Birger's valuable memoir will not fail to move or impress.As a believer in humanity (despite tremendous suffering) and a champion of culture, he is a gift to the world. ... Read more