Modern Israel

Democracy, free thought and expression, religious tolerance, individual liberty, political self-determination of peoples, sexual and racial equality - these values have firmly entered the mainstream in the decades since they were enshrined in the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. But if these ideals no longer seem radical today, their origin was very radical indeed - far more so than most historians have been willing to recognize.

David Ben-Gurion cast a great shadow during his lifetime, and his legacy continues to be sharply debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira strives to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of the new Jewish nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period after 1948, during the first years of statehood.

Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 by a United Nations mandate, the Middle East has been a flashpoint of conflict between the world's only Jewish state and the Palestinians, who lost their land because of the UN partition. This ready-reference volume explores the culture, geography, economy, and government of the state of Israel.

This is the story of how Zionism, supported by Americanism, created a modern miracle—told through the little-known stories of eight individuals who collectively changed history.

Wie wurde aus dem gelobten Land der Israeliten ein moderner Staat, der Geschichte, Religion, Politik und Wirtschaft des Nahen Ostens bis heute prägt? Wer Israel wirklich verstehen will, stößt auf weit mehr als auf Schlagzeilen und aktuelle Konflikte. „Geschichte Israels" eröffnet als fundiertes Hörbuch eine faktenreiche und klar verständliche Zeitreise von den frühen religiösen Ursprüngen über Vertreibung, Diaspora, Staatsgründung und Kriege bis hin zur modernen Industrienation mit Hightech, Start-up-Kultur und globaler Bedeutung.