My Promised Land

More about the book

*Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and Natan Book Award* *A New York Times Notable Book of the Year and an Economist Book of the Year* A groundbreaking and acclaimed examination of the birth and future of Israel by one of today’s most influential commentators on the Middle East. Facing enormous internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. My Promised Land tells the story of Israel as it has never been told before, and asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? And can it survive? By recounting revealing stories of significant events and ordinary lives, Shavit illuminates the past and present of a beleaguered but vibrant land — we meet the youth group leader who recognised the potential of Masada as a powerful symbol for Zionism; the young farmer who bought an orange grove from his Arab neighbour in the 1920s, and helped to create a booming economy in Palestine; the engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel’s nuclear program; and the religious Zionists who started the settler movement. This is a landmark portrait and a level-headed assessment of the state of mind of perhaps the most pivotal country in the world right now.