Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End,   ISBN:9780471789628

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I cannot recommend this book highly enough. In the strongest, most urgent of terms, READ THIS BOOK NOW!!! It is, far and away, the most persuasive proscriptive analysis for the trajectory of the State of Israel and the Jewish People moving forward into the future. I agree with the other reviewer below: 1) it must be translated into Hebrew at once and, 2) it should be required reading for Jews (and Gentiles) worldwide.

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What is different about this book?

First, it is written by the insider who used to be an outsider. Daniel Gordis moved with his family to Jerusalem from Los Angeles in 1998, has written many books and is therefore able to provide a unique perspective in his analysis of the situation in the Middle East.

Second, Daniel Gordis, being religious Jew by himself and believing in the Jewish values, is not only tolerant and accepting (to some extent) the secularization of the Israeli society, but he also stays compassionate and fair in respect to all people who became "collateral damage" in the conflict. That's an extraordinary ability in highly polarized world of Middle East conflict, where most people are blinded by their emotions.

Thirdly, and probably, most important, he asks the questions that should be asked, and provides practical answers to them.
What is the purpose of the state of Israel? Is it simply "Hebrew-speaking small America in Middle East" or is it something more?
What happened to the world perception of Israel?
Is the peace in Middle East possible at all? Should the peace in the region be our ultimate goal?
What could and should be done, to keep both Jewish character of the state and the democracy in Israeli society?

There is much more; for anybody who is interested in the understanding of the situation in the Middle East, history and currents of Israel, "Saving Israel" is a required reading.
I can guarantee that many people will disagree with Gordis' analysis and recommendations, but if more people would be open to the dialogue, this would be a perfect outcome of this book.

On a personal note, after living in Israel for almost nine years, I am ready to sign under every observation of the author.

Once again, I applaud Gordis for his ability to walk on "the razor edge", and his ability to speak both to the hearts and to the logic of the readers.

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Claims made in this book that US support for Israel is America's authentic national interest--is just not true.

Instead the balance view that is lacking in this book is the fact that US support for Israel has always been an expression of Jewish power in America. The wealthy Jewish community wields tremendous influence through its important role in the media and through massive donations to the election campaigns of politicians of both major political parties.

For this book to deny the Zionist grip had reached a high point in the neo-conservative administration of George W. Bush is why I give it a one star rating! It manifested above all in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. A war for Israel--the concern for Israel's interests was an essential factor in the White House decision to attack Iraq!!!

America's pro-Israel policy has been costly to the United States - in wasted billions of dollars, in lost international credibility and standing, and in lives squandered for the interests of a foreign state.

A grim balance sheet for the USA to continue support for the Zionist entity. The cold war is over. Peace is patriotic for supporters of Israel. Instead the author thinks it is unpatriotic. SICK!

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In this pivotal contribution to the discussion about Israel's struggle for survival and that country's nature, Daniel Gordis takes the bull by the horns and grapples both with the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing Israel today as well as how Israel can win what seems to be an unwinnable struggle to survive in these frightening and sombre days.

Israel, Gordis argues needs to rediscover it's Jewish roots and values while reconnecting faith with nationhood.
The last decade has made it painfully clear that 'Palestinian nationalism' has no interest in working towards statehood and a better life for the Palestinian people but is solely aimed at the destruction of Israel.This glaring fact destroys the illusion that territorial compromise can bring the conflict to an end.
The issue is not Palestinian statehood but Israeli statehood.
Gordis points out that the so-called "Intifada" of 2000-2005 was not at all a "popular uprising" that the international media had fooled the world into believing but was rather a terror war launched by and orchestrated and directed by terror chief Yasser Arafat and the PLO leadership.in defiance of Israel's right to exist.
These realities can be further explored in such excellent works as Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars, Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression,The Rape of Palestine and the Struggle for Jerusalem and Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror.

Every time Israel withdraws from land this has the polar opposite result to the peace Israel intends to bring about by doing so. Israel's Arab enemies see this as a sign of weakness and respond with further aggression.
The 2000 comprehensive peace offer by Ehud Barak to the Palestinians, of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem, resulted in the 2000-2005 Palestinian terror war, and the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, accompanied by the forced removal of Gaza's 20 000 Jewish residents' led to the election of the Islamonazi Hamas movement by the Palestinians, the pounding of Israel by tens of thousands of Kassam rockets and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, finally forcing Israel to retaliate in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and the 2008-2009 war against Hamas.

While Israel has become the scapegoat of the world, and the victim of such bottomless and venomous hatred across the world, this has been compounded by the abandonment of Israel by Israel of many diaspora Jews. A recent survey revealed that a full 50% of American Jews under the age of 35 said that Israel's destruction (and the accompanying annihilation of Israel's Jews) would NOT be a personal tragedy.
Add to this the overwhelming support of American Jews for Barack Obama, whose attitude to the Jewish state verges on open hostility and whose ruthless pressure of Israel to act against her own survival, together with a determination to ingratiate the USA with the Islamic world, including it's most radical elements including Iran and Syria.
The denial of Israel's right to exist, not only by Islamic extremists, but also by a myriad of left wing opinion makers such as Tony Judt and Noam Chomsky, puts the existence of Israel in very real danger. This is because delegitimization and demonization paves the way for physical annihilation, as we saw with the Holocaust.
This is already leading the world (including the Obama administration) to refuse to take action to prevent Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons, especially in the face of Iran's bloodthirsty President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's determination to "'wipe Israel off the map"

Many diaspora Jews, (and even some Israelis) are comfortable with the idea of Jews and defenceless victims, rather than as a strong nation, always ready to fight for survival whenever the need may be.
Gordis puts forward the premise that for Israel to survive Israel's people need to rebuild their will to survive. Secular Jews must rebuild some kind of connection to their faith and traditions, and religious Jews to the Nation of Israel as a whole.
Jewish and Zionist values must be imbibed and Jews need to realize that warfare in defence of survival of the Jewish people is not in contradiction to Jewish values but rather a necessity according to Judaism, given the fact the fact that the alternative would mean national suicide and a second Holocaust.

Israel is the embodiment of Jewish survival, Jewish recovery, Jewish being and the Jewish future. Jews in Israel and the diaspora need to embrace this and rediscover a sense of people-hood for Israel and world Jewry to survive. Israel cannot simply be the recreation of a mini-America, but must be governed according to Jewish norms and values.

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Gordis offers an insightful analysis of the current existential malaise that envelops many Israelis, and argues that the Jewish people as a whole (not just those who live in Israel) desperately needs to regain a sense of purpose for why Israel exists and must continue to exist in the future. Sadly, he points out, most young Jews today, in America and the rest of the Diaspora, cannot even articulate a clear vision for the importance of Israel to their lives and those of the rest of our people. This has to change if Israel is to survive for the long term, he believes.

Gordis laments the Jewish illiteracy of most of us in the Diaspora and in Israel, and our lack of understanding of the true meaning and importance of Zionism. He argues that the Western liberal ethos of most American and European Jews--and the resulting tendency toward pacifism--springs from a misreading of traditional Jewish texts and an undue comfort with Jewish victimhood. He takes the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel to task for its corruption, arrogance, and pitiful behavior that ironically has turned an entire generation of Israelis away from Judaism and Jewish observance. And he provides some practical prescriptions for regaining our lost sense of purpose and steeling our resolve to triumph over those who would destroy us, even if it takes generations as seems likely from today's vantage point.

To be fair, the book is not without flaws. It is definitely redundant in parts, and several of the same arguments and examples are repeated in different chapters; a good editor should have caught most of these. And his writing is at times very wordy. But these are relatively minor blemishes on an otherwise interesting and worthwhile book on a very timely and important subject.