Israel
A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
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Narrated by:
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Noa Tishby
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Written by:
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Noa Tishby
About this listen
AUDIO EXCLUSIVE: INCLUDES THE SONG “ELATION STATION” BY INFECTED MUSHROOM!
A “fascinating and very moving” (Aaron Sorkin, award-winning screenwriter of The West Wing and The Social Network) chronological timeline spanning from Biblical times to today that explores one of the most interesting countries in the world—Israel.
Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts?
Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But “this is not your Bubbie’s history book” (Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher). Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her “passion, humor, and deep intimacy” (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor) to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel’s creation to the disputes dividing the country today. Tackling popular misconceptions with an abundance of facts, Tishby provides critical context around headline-generating controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured country of Israel.
©2021 Noa Tishby. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.You may also enjoy...
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Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status...and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader.
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Eye opening
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Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused its imagination, and, lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel's people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions.
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recommended
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The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
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Setting the record straight
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The Genius of Israel
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Why do Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lowest rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse? Why is Israel’s population young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking? How can it be that Israel, according to a United Nations ranking, is the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why do Israelis tend to look to the future with hope, optimism, and purpose while the rest of the West struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline?
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Israel-The Land Of the Innovative and Resilient.
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Start-Up Nation
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?
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A MUST for Entrepreneurs
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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Informative and accessible, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew has a unique structure: Acho asks questions and Tishby answers them with deeply personal, historical, and political responses. This book will enable anyone to explain—and identify—what Jewish hatred looks like. It is a much-needed lexicon for this fraught moment in Jewish history.
-
-
Brave and Beautiful
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Written by: Emmanuel Acho, and others
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Son of Hamas
- A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
- Written by: Mosab Hassan Yousef, Ron Brackin - contributor
- Narrated by: Mosab Hassan Yousef
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status...and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader.
-
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Eye opening
- By matthew on 2024-05-20
Written by: Mosab Hassan Yousef, and others
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Israel
- A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
- Written by: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused its imagination, and, lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel's people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions.
-
-
recommended
- By jacob on 2019-07-22
Written by: Daniel Gordis
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The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
- A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917--2017
- Written by: Rashid Khalidi
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Rashid Khalidi - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members - mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age.
-
-
Setting the record straight
- By Chillyfinger on 2023-10-26
Written by: Rashid Khalidi
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The Genius of Israel
- The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World
- Written by: Dan Senor, Saul Singer
- Narrated by: Dan Senor
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Why do Israelis have among the world’s highest life expectancies and lowest rates of “deaths of despair” from suicide and substance abuse? Why is Israel’s population young and growing while all other wealthy democracies are aging and shrinking? How can it be that Israel, according to a United Nations ranking, is the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why do Israelis tend to look to the future with hope, optimism, and purpose while the rest of the West struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline?
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Israel-The Land Of the Innovative and Resilient.
- By Jake L.S. on 2024-01-06
Written by: Dan Senor, and others
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Start-Up Nation
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?
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A MUST for Entrepreneurs
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Unveiled
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I feel depressed listening to her story.
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How to Fight Anti-Semitism
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- Narrated by: Bari Weiss
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On October 27, 2018, 11 Jews were gunned down as they prayed at their synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most Americans, the massacre at Tree of Life, the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah, came as a total shock. But anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred, commonplace across the Middle East and on the rise for years in Europe. So that terrible morning in Pittsburgh raised a question Americans can no longer avoid: Could it happen here? This audiobook is Weiss' answer.
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Absolutely fantastic book
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A Jewish State
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- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered one of the most important texts of early Zionism, A Jewish State envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the 20th century. Theodor Herzl argued that the best way to avoid antisemitism in Europe was to create this independent Jewish state.
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A difficult but enlightening listen
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Here All Along
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After a decade as a political speechwriter - serving as head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama, a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, and chief speechwriter for Hillary Clinton on her 2008 presidential campaign - Sarah Hurwitz decided to apply her skills as a communicator to writing a book...about Judaism. And no one is more surprised than she is. Sarah Hurwitz is on a mission to close this gap by sharing the profound insights she discovered on everything from Jewish holidays, ethics, and prayer to Jewish conceptions of God, death, and social justice.
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Wonderful
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Jews Don’t Count
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Jews Don’t Count is a book for people who consider themselves on the right side of history. People fighting the good fight against homophobia, disablism, transphobia and, particularly, racism. People, possibly, like you. It is the comedian and writer David Baddiel’s contention that one type of racism has been left out of this fight. In his unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes, Baddiel argues that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism.
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A Concise Description of the Antisemitism of "Jews Don't Matter"
- By Tevel Drinkwater on 2024-10-13
Written by: David Baddiel
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The War on the West
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- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
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- Unabridged
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In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
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One of the best audiobooks I've ever purchased
- By Mark on 2022-05-13
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On Settler Colonialism
- Ideology, Violence, and Justice
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- Narrated by: Adam Barr
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Since Hamas's attack on Israel last October 7, the term "settler colonialism" has become central to public debate in the United States. A concept new to most Americans, but already established and influential in academic circles, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the United States, Israel and Palestine, and a host of political issues. This short book is the first to examine settler colonialism critically for a general audience.
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Short, but perhaps too long, some interesting ideas
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My Promised Land
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- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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- Unabridged
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An authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East today. Not since Thomas L. Friedman's groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land.
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Great book and story to read.
- By Mohsen on 2022-05-12
Written by: Ari Shavit
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Infidel
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- Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This New York Times best-seller is the astonishing life story of award-winning humanitarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A deeply respected advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali also lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.
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enlightening and fascinating. couldn't put it do
- By Peter Francis on 2018-11-05
Written by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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On Palestine
- Written by: Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Operation Protective Edge, Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.
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Conversations with Chomsky are always clear and concise.
- By Dwayne on 2024-11-28
Written by: Noam Chomsky, and others
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Bibi
- My Story
- Written by: Benjamin Netanyahu
- Narrated by: David Marantz, Benjamin Netanyahu
- Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s New York Times bestselling autobiography, the prime minister of Israel tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing commitment to defending his country and securing its future. Through a host of vivid anecdotes, he narrates his own evolution from soldier to statesman, while providing a unique perspective on leadership, the fraught geopolitics of the Middle East, and his successful efforts to liberate Israel’s economy, which helped turn it into a global powerhouse of technological innovation.
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As an Iranian Canadian, i thoroughly enjoyed it
- By Hammer on 2023-01-14
Written by: Benjamin Netanyahu
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The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine
- From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace
- Written by: Michael Scott-Baumann
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The ongoing struggle between Israel and Palestine is one of the most bitter conflicts in history, with profound global consequences. In this book, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann succinctly describes its origins and charts its evolution from civil war to the present day. Each chapter offers a lucid explanation of the politics and ends with personal testimony from Palestinians and Israelis whose lives have been impacted by the dispute.
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Covers both sides, with a narrative bias against Israel.
- By thos beans on 2024-11-12
Written by: Michael Scott-Baumann
What listeners say about Israel
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rachel Leadbetter
- 2024-04-27
The tiny yet mighty country so many love to hate…
This book was everything and more than I anticipated. I wish the world had Israel by Noa Tishby as a mandatory reading. In the dawn of Pro-Palestinians gaslighting Israel calling Hamas “freedom fighters”, this book was encouraging and reestablished what I already knew, but never hear about in modern western media. I am more confident now in my stance to support the state of Israel and her right to exist. Israel is a democratic country which for the most part is non-religious/secular and so many good things have come out of this teeny tiny country which we utilize in our daily lives. It is a refugee state and not a colonial state, and its values align more so with the cause for social justice, but sadly the narrative being spun by so many has Israel looking like a big aggressive bully despite being the size of New Jersey. I adored this book and cannot recommend it enough. It was read by Noa and she did a great job through and through.
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- Lorne Nathan
- 2021-11-25
A Wonderful Overview
Ms. Tishby takes an incredibly complex and nuanced situation and presents it in a way that is easily accessible and thoroughly engaging. Of course she is giving an Israeli perspective, but through her clear reliance on factual history as well as personal stories and perspective, she presents an overview that most people would enjoy. Thank you so much for this book. I hope everyone, most importantly people with no personal connection to the region, reads it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- james macgregor
- 2021-05-26
A Nice Primer
I found this book easy to digest as it’s presented in a casual way. However I do have a couple of minor criticisms. First is the use of profanity. In my opinion totally unnecessary and detracts rather than adds. Second is the quality of the recording. There’s hiss throughout the reading. Though it’s not loud I find it disappointing in this day and age of digital audio. Overall I liked the book.
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- Y. Zheng
- 2022-11-08
Good read
I learned quite a bit about the country. It is as the title said - the most misunderstood country in the world. Neat to see it from the author's eyes. An enjoyable and educational listen.
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- Alla
- 2023-04-16
Informative and inspiring
Not without a bias or problems but most definitely an excellent and compelling listen! I would definitely recommend it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- H.G.x4
- 2021-09-03
Amazing History Lesson
Well written, well narrated, and well worth your time to read or listen to. This should be mandatory reading in schools and universities, so that, people can understand the truth about what has actually transpired in this region (specifically Israel), and not the fake narrative being fed to them by the one-sided UN and main stream media.
Well done Noa!!
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- Katalin Weitz
- 2021-04-13
A factual well researched unbiased book about Israel
Noa Tishby’s book is a must read! I like her passionate but clear-eyed view of Israel. She touches on all the contentious subjects without trying to whitewash anything.
I was so glad she narrated her own book, her sincerity and love is palpable, I found the book exciting and eye-opening, a pleasure to listen to; it feels like she is talking to you in person answering all the questions you may have.
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-06-09
Amazing and well researched
I loved this book. Noa gives so much historical background. She presents both sides of the Isreal/ Palestine conflict fairly. She is also an advocate for peace.
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- Joel Keshwah
- 2022-08-23
Well told history
Very informative book about a topic I did not know much about. well told history and personal story
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- Jessica L
- 2023-11-10
Well told
Overall I loved this book and Tishby’s reading of it. I think she tries to give solid context and information about an extremely misunderstood country. I wish there were citations included in the audiobook for further research/exploration into the topic.
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1 person found this helpful