
The Promise of Israel
Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness Is Actually Its Greatest Strength
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.59
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
P. J. Ochlan
-
By:
-
Daniel Gordis
About this listen
Why Israel's greatest weakness is its greatest strength, and what its supporters and enemies can learn from its success
Israel's critics in the West insist that no country founded on a single religion or culture can stay democratic and prosperous - but they're wrong. In The Promise of Israel, Daniel Gordis points out that Israel has defied that conventional wisdom. It has provided its citizens infinitely greater liberty and prosperity than anyone expected, faring far better than any other young nation. Israel's "magic" is a unique blend of democracy and tradition, of unabashed particularism coupled to intellectual and cultural openness. Given Israel's success, it would make sense for many other countries, from Rwanda to Afghanistan and even Iran, to look at how they've done it. In fact, rather than seeking to destroy Israel, the Palestinians would serve their own best interests by trying to copy it.
- Takes many of the most compelling arguments against Israel and turns them completely on their heads, undoing liberals with a more liberal argument and the religious with a more devout argument
- Puts forth an idea that is as convincing as it is shocking - that Iran's clerics and the Taliban should want to be more like Israel
- Written by Daniel Gordis, the author of the National Jewish Book Award winner, Saving Israel
- Daniel Gordis has been called "one of Israel's most thoughtful observers" (Alan Dershowitz) and "a writer whose reflections are consistently as intellectually impressive as they are moving" (Cynthia Ozick)
Certain to generate controversy and debate, The Promise of Israel is one of the most interesting and original books about Israel in years.
©2012 Daniel Gordis (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Coming Together, Coming Apart
- A Memoir of Heartbreak and Promise in Israel
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Daniel Gordis, his wife, Elisheva, and their three young children abandoned a safe and comfortable home in Los Angeles to move halfway around the world and find a new life in Israel, the future looked bright. It was 1998, Ehud Barak had just been elected prime minister, and peace appeared to be only a few tough negotiations away. Two years later, hope had turned to terror, as the rattle of machine-gun fire perforated the night and the frightened, exhausted children clung desperately to their stuffed animals in fitful sleep.
-
-
Israel the Best and Most Difficult Life
- By Poseiden on 03-19-24
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Impossible Takes Longer
- 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams?
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1948, Israel’s founders sought a “national home for the Jewish people,” where Jewish life would be transformed. The state they ultimately made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering.
-
-
Leftist agenda all over the place
- By AlexS on 12-11-23
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Israel
- A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
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.
-
-
Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
- By Schaq on 04-01-17
By: Daniel Gordis
-
We Stand Divided
- The Rift Between American Jews and Israel
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding 70 years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does.
-
-
Jews Will Argue With Each Other
- By Benzion N. Chinn on 09-12-19
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Menachem Begin
- The Battle for Israel's Soul
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reviled as a fascist by his great rival Ben-Gurion, venerated by Israel’s underclass, the first Israeli to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a proud Jew but not a conventionally religious one, Menachem Begin was both complex and controversial. Born in Poland in 1913, Begin was a youthful admirer of the Revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky and soon became a leader within Jabotinsky’s Betar movement.
-
-
Great story lousy oration
- By Jacob Engelstein on 10-03-14
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
- By: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Narrated by: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.
-
-
Israel 101 - but for Jews
- By GoingGoingGone... on 06-13-18
-
Coming Together, Coming Apart
- A Memoir of Heartbreak and Promise in Israel
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Daniel Gordis, his wife, Elisheva, and their three young children abandoned a safe and comfortable home in Los Angeles to move halfway around the world and find a new life in Israel, the future looked bright. It was 1998, Ehud Barak had just been elected prime minister, and peace appeared to be only a few tough negotiations away. Two years later, hope had turned to terror, as the rattle of machine-gun fire perforated the night and the frightened, exhausted children clung desperately to their stuffed animals in fitful sleep.
-
-
Israel the Best and Most Difficult Life
- By Poseiden on 03-19-24
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Impossible Takes Longer
- 75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders’ Dreams?
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1948, Israel’s founders sought a “national home for the Jewish people,” where Jewish life would be transformed. The state they ultimately made, says Daniel Gordis, is a place of extraordinary success and maddening disappointment, a story of both unprecedented human triumph and great suffering.
-
-
Leftist agenda all over the place
- By AlexS on 12-11-23
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Israel
- A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
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.
-
-
Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
- By Schaq on 04-01-17
By: Daniel Gordis
-
We Stand Divided
- The Rift Between American Jews and Israel
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding 70 years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does.
-
-
Jews Will Argue With Each Other
- By Benzion N. Chinn on 09-12-19
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Menachem Begin
- The Battle for Israel's Soul
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reviled as a fascist by his great rival Ben-Gurion, venerated by Israel’s underclass, the first Israeli to win the Nobel Peace Prize, a proud Jew but not a conventionally religious one, Menachem Begin was both complex and controversial. Born in Poland in 1913, Begin was a youthful admirer of the Revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky and soon became a leader within Jabotinsky’s Betar movement.
-
-
Great story lousy oration
- By Jacob Engelstein on 10-03-14
By: Daniel Gordis
-
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
- By: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Narrated by: Yossi Klein Halevi
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.
-
-
Israel 101 - but for Jews
- By GoingGoingGone... on 06-13-18
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
The Right Side of History
- How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
- By: Ben Shapiro
- Narrated by: Ben Shapiro
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America has a God-shaped hole in its heart, argues New York Times best-selling author Ben Shapiro, and we shouldn't fill it with politics and hate.
-
-
As an atheist
- By Benjamin on 03-27-19
By: Ben Shapiro
-
The Point of It All
- A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors
- By: Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Krauthammer - editor
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Daniel Krauthammer
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Created and compiled by Charles Krauthammer before his death, The Point of It All is an intimate collection of the influential columnist’s most important works. Spanning the personal, political, and philosophical - including never-before-published speeches and a major new essay about the effect of today’s populist movements on the future of global democracy - this is the most profound work yet by the legendary writer and thinker.
-
-
Brilliant
- By robert on 12-11-18
By: Charles Krauthammer, and others
-
Islam and the Future of Tolerance
- A Dialogue
- By: Maajid Nawaz, Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz
- Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this short book, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz invite you to join an urgently needed conversation: Is Islam a religion of peace or war? Is it amenable to reform? Why do so many Muslims seem drawn to extremism? What do words like Islamism, jihadism, and fundamentalism mean in today's world? Remarkable for the breadth and depth of its analysis, this dialogue between a famous atheist and a former radical is all the more startling for its decorum. Harris and Nawaz have produced something genuinely new: they engage one of the most polarizing issues of our time - fearlessly and fully - and actually make progress.
-
-
Must read for an honest debate on the topics
- By Andre Wallace Simonsen on 12-17-15
By: Maajid Nawaz, and others
-
The Hidden Enemy
- Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islam, and the Fight for Our Future
- By: Michael Youssef
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s going on in our world? Why are suicide bombers attacking our cities? Why are shooters invading our workplaces and malls? Why are students attacking speakers at their colleges? Why are there two versions of the truth on the Internet and in the media? Michael Youssef, popular teacher and Middle Eastern expert, explains in detail what’s troubling today’s world. Aggressive secularism is stripping our nation of the vestiges of truth, as many Christians are browbeaten into silence.
-
-
Just great truth and interesting facts
- By HannyDaddy on 06-13-18
By: Michael Youssef
-
Control
- Exposing the Truth About Guns
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Glenn Beck
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When our founding fathers secured the Constitutional “right of the people to keep and bear arms”, they also added the admonition that this right shall not be infringed. It is the only time this phrase appears in the Bill of Rights. So why aren’t more people listening? History has proven that guns are essential to self-defense and liberty - but tragedy is a powerful force and has led many to believe that guns are the enemy, that the Second Amendment is outdated, and that more restrictions or outright bans on firearms will somehow solve everything. They are wrong.
-
-
Scary
- By Sher from Provo on 06-17-13
By: Glenn Beck
-
If You Can Keep It
- The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Narrated by: Eric Metaxas
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If You Can Keep It is at once a thrilling review of America's uniqueness, and a sobering reminder that America's greatness cannot continue unless we truly understand what our founding fathers meant for us to be. The book includes a stirring call-to-action for every American to understand the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is America. It also paints a vivid picture of the tremendous fragility of that experiment and explains why that fragility has been dangerously forgotten.
-
-
Exceptional book
- By Trish Legarth on 07-26-16
By: Eric Metaxas
-
Liberal Fascism
- The Secret History of the American Left
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Fascists", "Brownshirts", "jackbooted stormtroopers" - such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?
-
-
Great book
- By Mark on 05-10-08
By: Jonah Goldberg
-
Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Swann's Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust's seven-volume magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. After elaborate reminiscences about his childhood with relatives in rural Combray and in urban Paris, Proust's narrator recalls a story regarding Charles Swann, a major figure in his Combray childhood....
-
-
Not the newer, far better translation
- By Samuel Murray on 05-02-11
By: Marcel Proust
-
Islam Without Extremes
- A Muslim Case for Liberty
- By: Mustafa Akyol
- Narrated by: Bill Hensel
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A provocative manifesto for an interpretation of Islam that synthesizes liberal ideas and respect for the Islamic tradition. Persuasive and inspiring, Islam Without Extremes offers a desperately needed intellectual basis for the reconcilability of Islam and religious, political, economic, and social freedoms.
-
-
Insightful
- By Dragon Flyer on 01-22-15
By: Mustafa Akyol
-
A Battle for the Soul of Islam
- An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save His Faith
- By: M. Zuhdi Jasser
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the unsettling social shifts in the wake of 9/11 was the global attention paid to Islam. Here in the United States, we became divided, often sadly along partisan lines, between those who believed every Muslim was a potential threat and those who believed no Muslim could do wrong. For conservative Wisconsin native and former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, these radical times meant facing a new reality as a devout Muslim and a patriot - a certain betrayal within his faith.
-
-
A courageous and clear champion of American Liberty
- By Craigan on 04-07-16
By: M. Zuhdi Jasser
-
Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
-
-
Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
What listeners say about The Promise of Israel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joshua
- 05-16-13
Horrible Reader
I don't think it's too much to ask for a speaker who can pronounce the names of people and places correctly, as well as Hebrew words. The book is filled with mispronunciations that become incredibly distractions. Other than that, the idea of the book is pretty decent. Gordis does a good job at making a case for nationalism and the nation-state in the modern world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bobbie
- 07-29-15
Book of Tolerance
If Israel is tolerant as the author says, then God will put them asunder. The United States of America has been under questionable leadership and has promoted tolerance. Now as a copy of Sodom and Gomorrah, our great country allows homosexuality and abortion and all sorts of changes that serve to corrupt the country more.
The Bible tells us in the end times satan's minions will practice to delude as many as possible. While quoting many Scriptures, the author used them to support a doctrine of tolerance, while at the same time seeming to support Israel. What Israel? The Israel of God almighty of the Bible? I think not! Read carefully.
We must be alert to the subtleties that sound good but are not necessarily biblical.
If you want to read a book about what God says, read the Bible. It's the inerrant Word of God!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!