My Promised Land

'Spellbinding ... Mr Shavit is that rare person who can listen as intensely as he can think' * The Economist * '[Shavit's] accomplishment is so unlikely, so total - a history of Israel and Zionism written by an unapologetic and impassioned lover of his country who nonetheless fully registers the disasters inflicted on Palestinians - that it makes you believe anything is possible, even, God help us, peace in the Middle East ... His book is not just enthralling, but morally dignified ... by some light years, the best thing to have been written on the subject.' -- Simon Schama * Financial Times * '[An] immensely powerful book ... Shavit resists the binary simplicities that afflict so much discussion of Israel-Palestine. His book will provide ammunition both to those who despise Israel and those who revere it, telling of its darkest deeds as well as its shining triumphs. Propagandists for both sides, who resemble each other so closely, could cherry-pick favourite facts to buttress their view - but both will end up disappointed ... Shavit might be the first such voice from deep inside the Zionist mainstream to speak so directly of the events the Palestinians regard as the nakba, the catastrophe.' -- Jonathan Freedland * The Guardian * 'This honest, searing analysis of Israel's position in the Middle East is an engrossing book. There is humanity and geopolitics in every chapter.' -- David Miliband 'I can think of no better time for a good book about Israel - the real Israel, not the fantasy, do-no-wrong Israel peddled by its most besotted supporters or the do-no-right colonial monster portrayed by its most savage critics. Ari Shavit, the popular Haaretz columnist, has come out with just such a book ... The uniqueness of Shavit's book is that when you're done with it you can understand, respect or love Israel - but not in a dogmatic or unthinking way, and not a fake or contrived Israel. Shavit celebrates the Zionist man-made miracle - from its start-ups to its gay bars - while remaining affectionate, critical, realistic and morally anchored ... It's why his book is a real contribution to changing the conversation about Israel and building a healthier relationship with it. Before their next 90-minute phone call, both Barack and Bibi should read it.' -- Thomas Friedman * New York Times * '[A] gale of conversation, of feeling, of foreboding, of ratiocination ... takes a wide-angle and often personal view of Israel's past and present, and frequently reads like a love story and a thriller at once. That it ultimately becomes a book of lamentation, a moral cri de coeur and a ghost story tightens its hold on your imagination.' -- Dwight Garner * The New York Times * 'Ari Shavit's My Promised Land is without question one of the most important books about Israel and Zionism that I have ever read. Both movingly inspiring and at times heartbreakingly painful, My Promised Land tells the story of the Jewish state as it has never been told before, capturing both the triumph and the torment of Israel's experience and soul. This is the book that has the capacity to reinvent and reshape the long-overdue conversation about how Israel's complex past ought to shape its still-uncertain future.' -- Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel and Koret Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College, Jerusalem 'Israel is not a proposition, it is a country. Its facticity is one of the great accomplishments of the Jews' history ... It is one of the achievements of Ari Shavit's important and powerful book to recover [that] feeling.' -- Leon Wieseltier * New York Times Book Review * 'Not since Amos Elon's The Israelis, Amos Oz's In the Land of Israel, and Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem has there been such a powerful and comprehensive book written about the Jewish State and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ari Shavit is one of Israel's leading columnists and writers, and the story he tells describes with great empathy the Palestinian tragedy and the century-lon

Ari Shavit is a leading Israeli columnist and writer. Born in Rehovot, Israel, Shavit served as a paratrooper in the IDF and studied philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the early 1990s he was Chairperson of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and in 1995 he joined Haaretz, where he serves on the editorial board. He is married, has a daughter and two sons, and lives in Kfar Shmaryahu.