The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land (Updated in 2008) [Paperback]

Israel is smaller than New Jersey, with 0.11% of the world's population, yet captures a lion's share of headlines. It looks like one country on CNN, a very different one on al-Jazeera. The BBC has their version,The New York Timestheirs. But how does Israel look to Israelis?

Israel is smaller than New Jersey, with 0.11% of the world's population, yet captures a lion's share of headlines. It looks like one country on CNN, a very different one on al-Jazeera. The BBC has their version,The New York Timestheirs. But how does Israel look to Israelis? The answers are varied, and they have been brought together here in one of the most original books about Israel in decades. From battlefields to bedrooms to boardrooms, discover the colliding worlds in which an astounding mix of 7.2 million devoutly traditional and radically modern people live. You'll meet “Arab Jews” who fled Islamic countries, dreadlock-wearing Ethiopian immigrants who sing reggae in Hebrew, Christians in Nazareth who publish an Arabic-styleCosmo, young Israeli Muslims who know more about Judaism than most Jews of the Diaspora, ultra-Orthodox Jews on “Modesty Patrols,” and more. Interweaving hundreds of personal stories with intriguing new research,The Israelisis lively, irreverent, and always fascinating. A wonderful book: well researched, balanced, and a joy to read. It brings you a picture of Israel that only a superb journalist such as the author can expose. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. -- Amir D. Aczel, author ofFermat's Last Theorem A panorama of Israeli diversity -- Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Orthodox and secular, Russians and Ethiopians, Arabs and Christians.... Thanks, Ms. Rosenthal! --Los Angeles Times Rosenthal captures an entire country, one full of flux and drama, in as vivid and nuanced a way as possible. --Publishers Weekly Intimate and vibrant. The only book I have ever seen that revl3;