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Books > Humanities > History > European history > From 1900
Drawing on a broad cultural and historical canvas, and weaving in
the author's personal and professional experience, The Israeli Mind
presents a compelling, if disturbing, portrait of the Israeli
national character. Emerging from the depth of Jewish history and
the drama of the Zionist rebellion against it, lsraelis are
struggling to forge an identity. They are grand and grandiose,
visionary and delusional, generous and self-centered. Deeply caring
because of the history of Jewish victimization, they also
demonstrate a shocking indifference to the sufferings of others.
Saying no is their first, second and third line of defense, even as
they are totally capable of complete and sudden capitulation. They
are willing to sacrifice themselves for the collective but also to
sacrifice that very collective for a higher, and likely
unattainable ideal. Dr. Alon Gratch draws a vivid, provocative
portrait of the conflicts embedded in the Israeli mind.
Annihilation anxiety, narcissism, a failure to fully process the
Holocaust, hyper-masculinity, post-traumatic stress, and an often
unexamined narrative of self-sacrifice, all clash with the nation's
aspiration for normalcy or even greatness. Failure to resolve these
conflicts, Gratch argues, will threaten Israel's very existence and
the stability of the Western world.
A TRUE CELEBRATION OF HEROISM AND BRAVERY From America's preeminent military historian, Stephen E. Ambrose, comes a brilliant telling of World War II in Europe, from D-Day, June 6, 1944, to the end, eleven months later, on May 7, 1945. The author himself drew this authoritative narrative account from his five acclaimed books about that conflict, to yield what has been called "the best single-volume history of the war that most of us will ever read."
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